Learn about a form of the past tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Greg: Hello everyone, I’m Greg. A Promising Future in France. |
| Mailys: Bonjour tout le monde. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will learn about the ‘passé composé’, a form of past tense in French. |
| Greg: Jacques just got a new job and he’s going to Mireille’s place to tell her about it. |
| Mailys: They are using informal French as always. |
| Greg: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jacques: Génial ! Je suis gérant de magasin ! J'ai hâte de raconter cette histoire à Mireille ! Elle va être contente et ses parents aussi, j'imagine. Gérant, c'est mieux que concierge, ça... Je vais nous acheter un gros gâteau pour fêter ça ! |
| Mireille: Qui est là ? |
| Jacques: C'est moi, Jacques, laisse-moi entrer, vite ! Bzzzzzzz |
| Jacques: Salut, mon amour ! |
| Mireille: Salut, mon lapin ! Dis donc, tu as l'air heureux, toi ! Qu'est-ce que tu apportes dans cette grosse boîte ? |
| Jacques: J'ai acheté un gâteau parce que nous allons fêter ! |
| Mireille: ... et qu'est-ce que nous allons fêter exactement ? |
| Jacques: J'ai trouvé un nouvel emploi ! Je suis maintenant gérant d'un grand magasin au centreville ! |
| Mireille: Tu es gérant !!? Félicitations !!! J'appelle maman ! |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jacques: Génial ! Je suis gérant de magasin ! J'ai hâte de raconter cette histoire à Mireille ! Elle va être contente et ses parents aussi, j'imagine. Gérant, c'est mieux que concierge, ça... Je vais nous acheter un gros gâteau pour fêter ça ! |
| Mireille: Qui est là ? |
| Jacques: C'est moi, Jacques, laisse-moi entrer, vite ! Bzzzzzzz |
| Jacques: Salut, mon amour ! |
| Mireille: Salut, mon lapin ! Dis donc, tu as l'air heureux, toi ! Qu'est-ce que tu apportes dans cette grosse boîte ? |
| Jacques: J'ai acheté un gâteau parce que nous allons fêter ! |
| Mireille: ... et qu'est-ce que nous allons fêter exactement ? |
| Jacques: J'ai trouvé un nouvel emploi ! Je suis maintenant gérant d'un grand magasin au centreville ! |
| Mireille: Tu es gérant !!? Félicitations !!! J'appelle maman ! |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jacques: Génial ! Je suis gérant de magasin ! J'ai hâte de raconter cette histoire à Mireille ! Elle va être contente et ses parents aussi, j'imagine. Gérant, c'est mieux que concierge, ça... Je vais nous acheter un gros gâteau pour fêter ça ! |
| Jacques: Great! I'm a store manager! I'm looking forward to telling Mireille about this story! She will be happy, and so will her parents, I imagine. Manager's better than janitor... I will buy us a big cake to celebrate that! |
| Mireille: Qui est là ? |
| Mireille: Who's there? |
| Jacques: C'est moi, Jacques, laisse-moi entrer, vite ! Bzzzzzzz |
| Jacques: It's me, Jacques, let me in, quick! Bzzzzzzz |
| Jacques: Salut, mon amour ! |
| Jacques: Hello, my love! |
| Mireille: Salut, mon lapin ! Dis donc, tu as l'air heureux, toi ! Qu'est-ce que tu apportes dans cette grosse boîte ? |
| Mireille: Hello, my bunny! Say, you look happy! What are you bringing in this big box? |
| Jacques: J'ai acheté un gâteau parce que nous allons fêter ! |
| Jacques: I bought a cake because we are going to celebrate! |
| Mireille: ... et qu'est-ce que nous allons fêter exactement ? |
| Mireille: ...And what exactly are we going to celebrate? |
| Jacques: J'ai trouvé un nouvel emploi ! Je suis maintenant gérant d'un grand magasin au centreville ! |
| Jacques: I found a new job! I'm now the manager of a big store downtown! |
| Mireille: Tu es gérant !!? Félicitations !!! J'appelle maman ! |
| Mireille: You're a manager? Congratulations! I'm calling mom! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Greg: Mailys, in this dialogue, Jacques bought a cake to celebrate his new job. |
| Mailys: Well, you know, France is famous for its delicious desserts, especially its pastries, which is ‘ses pâtisseries’ in French. |
| Greg: What are some of the most well-known pastries and desserts, Mailys? |
| Mailys: Well, crêpes are the equivalent of pancakes, but they are thin and light. They are used both for desserts and as a meal. Croissants are a crescent-shaped pastry -- the name actually means “crescent”. And éclairs are long pastries filled with whipped cream and topped with a layer of chocolate. The name means “lightning”. |
| Greg: Oh and there's mille-feuilles, these rectangular shaped pastries made up of several layers of thin pastry, cream and chocolate and topped with a distinctive wavy pattern. |
| Mailys: Yum, that's right. And did you know the Christmas log also came from France? |
| Greg: Really? I didn't know that! It seems that no matter where you live, you can probably find French desserts nearby, so enjoy! Now let’s move 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: génial [natural native speed] |
| Greg: awesome, great, brilliant |
| Mailys: génial [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: génial [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: avoir hâte de [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to look forward to |
| Mailys: avoir hâte de [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: avoir hâte de [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: acheter [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to buy |
| Mailys: acheter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: acheter [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: gros [natural native speed] |
| Greg: big, large |
| Mailys: gros [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: gros [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: content [natural native speed] |
| Greg: glad |
| Mailys: content [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: content [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: fêter [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to celebrate |
| Mailys: fêter [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: fêter [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: lapin [natural native speed] |
| Greg: rabbit |
| Mailys: lapin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: lapin [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: gérant [natural native speed] |
| Greg: manager |
| Mailys: gérant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: gérant [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: félicitations [natural native speed] |
| Greg: congratulations |
| Mailys: félicitations [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: félicitations [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: appeler [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to call |
| Mailys: appeler [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: appeler [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Greg: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. First is ‘Avoir hâte’ which means “to look forward” or “to be eager”. |
| Mailys: It's made up of the verb ‘avoir’ meaning “to have”, and is followed by the noun ‘hâte’, “haste”. |
| Greg: The preposition ‘de’ is used to introduce a verb. For example- |
| Mailys: Le nouveau gérant a hâte de commencer! |
| Greg: The new manager is eager to start! |
| Mailys: Mireille a hâte d'annoncer la bonne nouvelle à sa mère. |
| Greg: Mireille is eager to announce the good news to her mother. |
| Greg: ‘Appeler’ meaning “to call”, and ‘acheter’, “to buy”, present some small spelling irregularities. For ‘appeler’, the ‘l’ doubles when it is the last sound of the word. |
| Mailys: So, ‘appelle’ has a double ‘l’, but ‘appelez’ has a single ‘l’. |
| Greg: For ‘acheter’, when the ‘t’ is the last sound, the preceding ‘e’ becomes ‘è’. |
| Mailys: So ‘achète’ ends in ‘-è-t-e’, but not ‘achetons’ or ‘achetez’. |
| Greg: Despite these small changes, they are still considered to be regular verbs. |
| Mailys: Look at the lesson notes to see the correct spelling, and listen to the conjugation to get the right pronunciation. |
| acheter |
| j'achète |
| tu achètes |
| il achète |
| nous achetons |
| vous achetez |
| ils achètent |
| Greg: And now let’s look at the verb appeler |
| j'appelle |
| tu appelles |
| il appelle |
| nous appelons |
| vous appelez |
| ils appellent |
| Greg: ‘Gros’ means “big” or “large”. |
| Mailys: Ils ont une grosse maison avec une grosse piscine. |
| Greg: They have a big house with a big pool. |
| Mailys: Depuis qu'il est avec Mireille, Jacques est plus gros. |
| Greg: “Since he's been with Mireille, Jacques is bigger.” Ok, now on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Mailys: The focus of this lesson is the ‘passé composé’, a past tense form of French. |
| Greg: To express the past tense, French uses two main verb tenses. |
| Mailys: The first one, called ‘passé composé’, expresses one-time events, or events marking change. |
| Greg: This would be the equivalent of “I bought-”, “I did-” or “I found something.” |
| Mailys: The second one, called ‘imparfait’, is used for ongoing or unfinished events. |
| Greg: This would means something like “I was doing-” or “I was looking for something”. In this lesson, we will introduce the first form of past tense, called ‘passé composé’. |
| Mailys: We have two examples of ‘passé composé’ in the dialogue - ‘j'ai acheté’ and ‘j'ai trouvé’. |
| Greg: The ‘passé composé’ is formed by using an auxiliary verb, which is usually ‘avoir’, meaning “to have”, and a past participle. |
| Mailys: The auxiliary verb is usually ‘avoir’, but a few verbs require ‘être’. |
| Greg: As for the past participle, it is formed by removing ‘-er’ from the end of the verb, and adding ‘-é’. |
| Mailys: It actually sounds the same as the infinitive and the ‘vous’ forms, so even native speakers have trouble spelling the past participle correctly. |
| Greg: Let's look at the ‘passé composé’ conjugation for the verb ‘aimer’, to like, or to love. |
| (Mailys: reads French, Greg: reads English) |
| j'ai aimé, I liked |
| tu as aimé, you liked (singular) |
| il a aimé, he/she/it liked |
| nous avons aimé, we liked |
| vous avez aimé, you liked (plural) |
| ils ont aimé, they liked |
| Greg: Now let’s hear some example sentences that use the passé composé. |
| Mailys: Elle a cherché un livre mais elle ne l'a pas trouvé. |
| Greg: She looked for a book but didn't find it. |
| Mailys: As-tu regardé cette série télé? |
| Greg: Did you watch this TV series? |
| Mailys: Ils ont fermé la porte à 21 heures. |
| Greg: They closed the door at 9 pm. |
| Greg: A small number of verbs require the auxiliary ‘être’, “to be”, instead of ‘avoir’. |
| Mailys: Out of the verbs we introduced in these 25 lessons, ‘devenir’, ‘venir’, ‘revenir’, ‘arriver’ and ‘aller’ need ‘être’. |
| Mailys: Il est arrivé à l'heure, comme toujours. |
| Greg: He arrived on time, as always. |
| Mailys: Es-tu allé au marché comme j'ai demandé? |
| Greg: Did you go to the store as I asked? |
| Greg: Reflexive verbs also need ‘être’, even when the verb otherwise needs ‘avoir’. |
| Mailys: J'ai lavé la table. |
| Greg: I washed the table. |
| Mailys: Je me suis lavé les mains. |
| Greg: I washed my hands. |
Outro |
| Greg: Well, that brings us to the end of this lesson, and this series. We hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you’ll join us for the next series. |
| Mailys: Yes, thank you all for listening! |
| Greg: Until next time everyone! |
| Mailys: Bye. |
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