Learn about the French imperative form of the verb, which we use for giving orders
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Greg: Hello everyone, this is Greg: and welcome back to FrenchPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Season 1, Lesson 17 - How Many in a French Janitor's Dozen? |
| Mailys: Bonjour tout le monde. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will learn about the imperative form used for giving orders. |
| Greg: Jacques buys flowers for Mireille and then offers them to her. |
| Mailys: He is using formal French at the florist’s, but informal French with Mireille. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Employée Bonjour Monsieur! Qu’est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Comment est-ce que je peux vous aider? |
| Jacques Donnez-moi une demi-douzaine de roses rouges, s’il-vous-plaît. |
| Employée Très bien. Attendez un instant… Voilà. Ça fait 14 euros. |
| Jacques Merci. Voici 15 euros. Gardez la monnaie! |
| Employée Merci bien, monsieur. Bonne journée! |
| (…) |
| Mireille Jacques, par ici! |
| Jacques Mireille! Vite, ferme les yeux! |
| Mireille D’accord. Ils sont fermés! |
| Jacques Garde-les fermés et donne-moi ta main! Tiens, mon amour! |
| Mireille Oh! Des roses rouges! Tu es si romantique!... |
| Mireille (speaking to herself) Pourquoi est-ce qu’il me donne seulement une demi-douzaine de roses? |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Employée Bonjour Monsieur! Qu’est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Comment est-ce que je peux vous aider? |
| Jacques Donnez-moi une demi-douzaine de roses rouges, s’il-vous-plaît. |
| Employée Très bien. Attendez un instant… Voilà. Ça fait 14 euros. |
| Jacques Merci. Voici 15 euros. Gardez la monnaie! |
| Employée Merci bien, monsieur. Bonne journée! |
| (…) |
| Mireille Jacques, par ici! |
| Jacques Mireille! Vite, ferme les yeux! |
| Mireille D’accord. Ils sont fermés! |
| Jacques Garde-les fermés et donne-moi ta main! Tiens, mon amour! |
| Mireille Oh! Des roses rouges! Tu es si romantique!... |
| Mireille (speaking to herself) Pourquoi est-ce qu’il me donne seulement une demi-douzaine de roses? |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Employée Bonjour Monsieur! Qu’est-ce que je peux faire pour vous? Comment est-ce que je peux vous aider? |
| Greg: Hello Sir! What can I do for you? How may I help you? |
| Jacques Donnez-moi une demi-douzaine de roses rouges, s’il-vous-plaît. |
| Greg: Please give me half a dozen red roses. |
| Employée Très bien. Attendez un instant… Voilà. Ça fait 14 euros. |
| Greg: Very well. Wait a moment … Here. That'll be 14 euros. |
| Jacques Merci. Voici 15 euros. Gardez la monnaie! |
| Greg: Thanks. Here are 15 euros. Keep the change! |
| Employée Merci bien, monsieur. Bonne journée! |
| Greg: Thank you, Sir. Have a nice day! |
| (…) |
| Greg(…) |
| Mireille Jacques, par ici! |
| Greg: Jacques, I’m over here! |
| Jacques Mireille! Vite, ferme les yeux! |
| Greg: Mireille! Quick, close your eyes! |
| Mireille D’accord. Ils sont fermés! |
| Greg: Ok. They’re closed! |
| Jacques Garde-les fermés et donne-moi ta main! Tiens, mon amour! |
| Greg: Keep them closed and give me your hand! Here you go, my love! |
| Mireille Oh! Des roses rouges! Tu es si romantique!... |
| Greg: Oh! Red roses! You are so romantic!... |
| Mireille (speaking to herself) Pourquoi est-ce qu’il me donne seulement une demi-douzaine de roses? |
| Greg: (speaking to herself) Why is he only giving me half a dozen roses? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Greg: Okay, so Jacques gave Mireille some roses as a symbol of his love, and so we thought we could talk about France's most famous gardens. |
| Mailys: Many French gardens are well-known throughout the world. For instance, Monet's Gardens, which have inspired many of Monet's own paintings. |
| Greg: And Le Jardin des Tuileries, right in the middle of Paris, has been there for centuries and hosts a few popular museums. |
| Mailys: But perhaps the most famous French garden of all is the Gardens of Versailles, located just outside of Paris. |
| Greg: It was founded in 1632 by King Louis the 13th. These gardens adjoin the Château de Versailles, and now cover 800 hectares of land. They’re both a world-class tourist destination and one of the most visited sites in France, with millions of visitors annually. |
| Mailys: Yes, Les Jardins de Versailles have more than 50 fountains and several bronze and marble statues, and the gardens are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. |
| Greg: Listeners, make sure you take a look when you’re in France! Now let’s go on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Greg: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Mailys: pouvoir [natural native speed] |
| Greg: can, to be able to |
| Mailys: pouvoir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: pouvoir [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: donner [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to give |
| Mailys: donner [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: donner [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: douzaine [natural native speed] |
| Greg: dozen |
| Mailys: douzaine [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: douzaine [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: rouge [natural native speed] |
| Greg: red |
| Mailys: rouge [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: rouge [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: garder [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to keep |
| Mailys: garder [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: garder [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: monnaie [natural native speed] |
| Greg: change, coins |
| Mailys: monnaie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: monnaie [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: vite [natural native speed] |
| Greg: fast |
| Mailys: vite [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: vite [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: œil [natural native speed] |
| Greg: eye |
| Mailys: œil [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: œil [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: fermer [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to close |
| Mailys: fermer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: fermer [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: tiens! [natural native speed] |
| Greg: here you go (informal) |
| Mailys: tiens! [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: tiens! [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Greg: Let’s take a closer look at some of the vocab and phrases from this lesson. Let's start with a very common verb, pouvoir, which means “to be able to”, or “can”. It's an irregular verb. Here is the conjugation and some sample sentences. |
| Mailys |
| je peux |
| tu peux |
| il peut |
| nous pouvons |
| vous pouvez |
| ils peuvent |
| Mailys: Here are some sentences. Pouvez-vous me donner une douzaine de roses? |
| Greg: Can you give me a dozen roses? |
| Mailys: Je ne comprends rien; peux-tu m'aider? |
| Greg: I can't understand anything, can you help me? |
| Mailys: Il ne peut pas travailler demain. |
| Greg: He can't work tomorrow. |
| Greg: Next we have ‘Donner’, which means “to give”. Normally, ‘donner’ requires both a direct and an indirect object. The direct object – the thing you are giving – is introduced without a preposition and comes first... |
| Mailys: ...while the indirect object – the person or thing you are giving it to – is introduced by the preposition ‘à.’ |
| Greg: Here are a few examples. |
| Mailys: Elle donne de la monnaie à son garçon. |
| Greg: She is giving change to her son. |
| Mailys: Quand j'achète une baguette, le boulanger me donne toujours un croissant gratuit. |
| Greg: When I buy a baguette, the baker always gives me a free croissant. |
| Mailys: La fille donne la main à sa mère. |
| Greg: The girl gives her hand to her mom. |
| Greg: Lastly, ‘Fermé’ is an adjective meaning “closed”. It comes from the verb “fermer”, ‘to close’. |
| Mailys: Both forms sound the same, but are spelled differently - the ‘-er’ ending is the infinitive form of the verb, and the ‘-é’ ending is the adjective or past participle. |
| Greg: The ‘er/é’ pair is very common - for example, ‘réserver’ and ’réservé’, ‘recommender’ and ’recommandé’, ‘préférer’ and ’préféré’, and so on. |
| Mailys: Here are some sentences. Je préfère ce gâteau; c'est mon gâteau préféré. |
| Greg: I prefer this cake; it's my favorite cake. |
| Mailys: Ce magasin ferme tôt; il est déjà fermé. |
| Greg: This store closes early; it's already closed. Okay, time to move on to the grammar! |
Lesson focus |
| Mailys: The focus of this lesson is the imperative form. |
| Greg: That's the verb form used when giving an order. Just like in English, no subject is expressed in the imperative. |
| Mailys: In French, verbs have 3 imperative forms. Let's look at the imperative of ‘aimer’, for instance. |
| Mailys |
| aime |
| aimons |
| aimez |
| Greg: The first one, ‘aime’, is used when the person being asked to do something is referred to as ‘tu’. |
| Mailys: It's also used when someone is talking to themselves. |
| Greg: It's spelled the same as the ‘tu’ form, but without the final ‘s’. |
| Mailys: Here are some other examples, using different verbs. Ferme la porte! |
| Greg: Close the door! |
| Mailys: Parle plus fort, s'il-te-plaît. |
| Greg: Speak louder, please. |
| Mailys: The second one is used when the person being ordered is ‘nous’; the English equivalent is usually "let's". |
| Greg: The form is always the same as the ‘nous’ form. |
| Mailys: For example... Allons au parc! |
| Greg: Let's go to the park! |
| Mailys: Écoutons ses conseils. |
| Greg: Let's listen to his advice. |
| Greg: The third form, ‘aimez’, is used when the person being ordered is referred to as ‘vous’. It's always the same form as the ‘vous’ form. |
| Mailys: Attendez un instant. |
| Greg: Wait a moment. |
| Mailys: Gardez la monnaie! |
| Greg: Keep the change. |
| Greg: In the negative, simply add ‘ne...pas’ on either side of the verb. For example... |
| Mailys: Ne parle pas! |
| Greg: Don't speak! |
| Mailys: N'achetez pas d'essence aujourd'hui. |
| Greg: Don't buy gas today. |
| Greg: We learned in lesson 8 that object pronouns go before the verb. However, this doesn't apply to the imperative, where the object comes after the verb. |
| Mailys: One way to explain it would be to say that without a subject, the pronoun cannot stand alone before the verb. |
| Greg: The strong form of the pronoun is used instead. Similar to what is done with questions using inversion, a hyphen is used to indicate that the pronoun is not in its usual place. Reflexive verbs also work this way. |
| Mailys: Regarde-moi. |
| Greg: Look at me. |
| Mailys: Ferme les yeux et garde-les fermés! |
| Greg: Close your eyes and keep them closed! |
| Mailys: Lave-toi! |
| Greg: Wash up! |
| Mailys: Lavez-vous les mains! |
| Greg: Wash your hands! |
| Mailys: Levons-nous à 7 heures. |
| Greg: Let's get up at 7 am. |
| Greg: In the negative, the pronoun does move up before the verb, as ‘ne’ supports the pronoun. |
| Mailys: Let’s hear some examples. Ne l'écoute pas! |
| Greg: Don't listen to him! |
| Mailys: Ne l'achetez pas! |
| Greg: Don't buy it! |
| Mailys: Ne me regardez pas! |
| Greg: Don't look at me! |
| Greg: And that’s going to do it for this lesson! Join us for lesson 18 to find out what Mireille and Jacques get up to! |
| Mailys: À bientôt! |
| Greg: See you soon! |
19 Comments
HideHi everyone!
What expression do you use the most? Say it in French!
Bonjour Michael,
People always have unique ways of pronouncing names! Though I would say that "Manay" is a much more common way of pronouncing Manet.
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101.com
At 5:31 of the recording when she is explaining about the gardens, she mentions the painter Manet. I always thought it was pronounced 'Manay', but she sounds the final 't'. Is this how the name is pronounced?
Thank you.
Michael
Bonjour Michael,
Il faut écrire "bouche", autrement ta phrase est bien !
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod
Ferme la boche
Bonjour Aishat,
Attention à tes accents, "au lit" !
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Ferme la porte !
Aller àu lit, tout de suite !
Bonjour Andrew,
Moi aussi, lol ! 😆
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
J'utilise le phrase «J'ai trés faim» plus souvent.
Bonjour Crystal,
I can't seem to locate the error you're talking about. Could you please be more precise? There's no mistake under "Fermer" in the vocabulary section.
Bonne journée,
Marion
Team FrenchPod101
Vocabulary: sous Fermer: Je pense que il y a un error: ".... donc tu ferais mieux de partir ". pourquoi le translation n'est pas " ...you (informal) had better go...". Not "....we'd better go..."