Learn how to talk about something in the past
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| INTRODUCTION | |
| Eric: Hi everyone, I'm Eric. | |
| Yasmine: And I'm Yasmine. | |
| Eric: And welcome to Must-Know French Sentence Structures, Season 1, Lesson 14. Talking About the Past. | |
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use a sentence pattern for talking about something in the past. | |
| PATTERN | |
| Eric: For example, "I went to the post office this morning." | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. | |
| Yasmine: [slow] Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. | |
| Eric: The pattern for talking about something in the past has 3 elements. First, the pronoun, in this case "I." | |
| Yasmine: Je. | |
| Eric: Second, the verb conjugated in the first person singular, feminine and perfect tense. In this case, "I went." | |
| Yasmine: suis allée. | |
| Eric: Third, the complement, in this case "to the post office this morning." | |
| Yasmine: à la poste ce matin. | |
| Eric: Altogether, we have "I went to the post office this morning." | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. [slow] Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. [normal] Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. | |
| Eric: First you have a pronoun, then a verb conjugated in the perfect tense. The writing of the verb varies depending on if the speaker is a man or a woman. Finally you have the complement. | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. | |
| Eric: So remember, to talk about something that happened in the past, start with a pronoun, then a verb in the past tense, and then the thing you want to talk about. | |
| Eric: Here's another example meaning, "I went to the beach." First, the pronoun, in this case "I." | |
| Yasmine: Je. | |
| Eric: Second, the verb conjugated in the first person singular, feminine and perfect tense. In this case, "I went." | |
| Yasmine: suis allée. | |
| Eric: Third, the complement, in this case "to the beach." | |
| Yasmine: à la plage. | |
| Eric: Altogether we have... | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la plage. [slow] Je suis allée à la plage. [normal] Je suis allée à la plage. | |
| Eric: "I went to the beach." | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la plage. | |
| Eric: How do you say - "I went to the hairdresser's." To give you a hint, "to go to the hairdresser's" is... | |
| Yasmine: aller chez le coiffeur. [slow] aller chez le coiffeur. [normal] aller chez le coiffeur. | |
| Eric: "I went to the hairdresser's." | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée chez le coiffeur. [slow] Je suis allée chez le coiffeur. [normal] Je suis allée chez le coiffeur. | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée chez le coiffeur. | |
| REVIEW | |
| Eric: Let's review the sentences from this lesson. I’ll give you the English equivalent of the phrase, and you’re responsible for shouting it out loud in French. Here we go. | |
| Eric: "I went to the post office this morning." | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. | |
| Eric: "I went to the beach." | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la plage. | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la plage. | |
| Eric: "I went to the hairdresser's." | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée chez le coiffeur. | |
| [pause] | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée chez le coiffeur. | |
Outro |
|
|---|---|
| Eric: Okay. That's all for this lesson. You learned a pattern for talking about something in the past, as in... | |
| Yasmine: Je suis allée à la poste ce matin. | |
| Eric: meaning "I went to the post office this morning." | |
| Eric: You can find more vocab or phrases that go with this sentence pattern in the lesson notes. So please be sure to check them out on FrenchPod101.com. Thanks, everyone, see you next time! | |
| Yasmine: A la prochaine! |
26 Comments
HideWhat did you do last weekend?
Salut Valeria,
Thank you for your great suggestion. We understand completely your point. However, please note that quite some learners could be overwhelmed, especially in our Absolute Beginner series, when facing a series of lessons entirely in a language they have zero knowledge about. But we will definitely consider your feedback and when designing future content. 😉
Good luck with your French! If you have any more comments or questions, please let us know.
Kind regards,
Levente
Team FrenchPod101.com
😭 I thought I was found the course that I need it. I'm a Spanish speaker and I feel like in an English course and not in a French Course. I learnt English in English not in Spanish-English, I think that doesn't work. I would love that all your content was in French.
Salut Amy,
Thank you for posting. We are very glad to have you here! Établissement viticole, eh? Super endroit! 😅 We hope you are enjoying our lessons. If you ever have any questions, please let us know! 😉
Kind regards,
Levente
Team FrenchPod101.com
Salut @Steve,
Thank you so much for your great suggestion. We are always working on improving our materials, and your opinion is highly valuable!
If you have any questions, please let us know!
Kind regards,
Levente
Team FrenchPod101.com
Je suis allée au établissement viticole.
It would be nice if you had a "virtual keyboard" like Google Translate has, in order to input accents more easily.
Hi everyone,
Thank you for leaving the comment!
Should you have any questions, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Cristiane
Team FrenchPod101.com
J'ai termine mon travail.
Je suis allée à la cinema de semaine dernier.
Merci. J'ai appris de chose beaucoup😄😄👍. J'ai hâte la leçon de suivant