| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| Do you remember how the character said, |
| "We found a beautiful spot near the lake?" |
| On a trouvé un bel endroit près du lac. |
| On a trouvé un bel endroit près du lac. |
| This sentence follows the pattern here: |
| [Subject] + [avoir in present] + [past participle of main verb] |
| "[Subject] + have/has + [past participle]" |
| This pattern is used to describe actions that happened at a specific time in the past. |
| It's known as the passé composé, formed by combining a present-tense form of the verb avoir "to have" and a past participle of the main verb. |
| Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern. |
| On a trouvé un bel endroit près du lac. |
| On, the subject pronoun meaning "we," |
| followed by |
| a, the third-person singular present form of avoir, meaning "has," |
| next |
| trouvé, the past participle of the verb trouver, meaning "found." |
| So: On a trouvé means "we have found" or "we found." |
| Then, |
| un bel endroit près du lac means "a beautiful spot near the lake." |
| Altogether: On a trouvé un bel endroit près du lac. |
| "We found a beautiful spot near the lake." |
| Now let's look at another relevant example from the dialogue: |
| Ils ont joué au frisbee tout l'après-midi. |
| "They played frisbee all afternoon." |
| In this sentence: |
| Ils, the subject pronoun meaning "they," |
| followed by |
| ont, the third-person plural present form of avoir, meaning "have," |
| next |
| joué, the past participle of the verb jouer, meaning "played." |
| Thus, Ils ont joué means "they played." |
| Finally, it ends with au frisbee tout l'après-midi, meaning "frisbee all afternoon." |
| This example also clearly follows our key pattern, demonstrating how le passé composé can describe a completed action within a defined period of time ("all afternoon"). |
| Now you can use this structure to talk about things you did in the past in French! |
| —-[same slide] |
| In everyday French, speakers often use 'on' instead of 'nous' to mean "we." When this happens, the verb is conjugated in the third-person singular. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| J'ai visité le musée hier. |
| "I visited the museum yesterday." |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| Let's break it down: |
| J', meaning "I," the subject pronoun, |
| followed by |
| ai, the first-person singular present form of avoir "have", |
| next |
| visité, past participle of visiter, meaning "visited." |
| Altogether: J'ai visité means "I visited." |
| le musée hier means "the museum yesterday." |
| J'ai visité le musée hier. |
| Here's another example: |
| Nous avons préparé le dîner ensemble. |
| "We prepared dinner together." |
| Nous avons préparé le dîner ensemble. |
| "We prepared dinner together." |
| Let's try one more: |
| J'ai téléphoné à Paul hier matin. |
| "I called Paul yesterday morning." |
| J'ai téléphoné à Paul hier matin. |
| "I called Paul yesterday morning." |
| Another one: |
| Elle a regardé un film hier soir. |
| "She watched a movie last night." |
| Elle a regardé un film hier soir. |
| "She watched a movie last night." |
| One last example: |
| Ils ont étudié le français pendant deux heures. |
| "They studied French for two hours." |
| Ils ont étudié le français pendant deux heures. |
| "They studied French for two hours." |
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