Learn about French infinitive verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Greg: Hello everyone, I’m Greg. Leave a French Message and I’ll Get Back to You. |
| Mailys: Bonjour à tous. This is Mailys. In this lesson, we will learn about infinitive verbs. |
| Greg: Jacques is calling Mireille, hoping to organize another date, but all he gets is the answering machine. |
| Mailys: Mireille’s answering machine message is in formal French, but Jacques is using informal French to leave a message. |
| Greg: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lundi, 16 h 30 |
| Répondeur: Bonjour, c'est Mireille, mais je ne suis pas à la maison en ce moment, alors laissez un message après le bip, s'il-vous-plaît... Biiiiip ! |
| Jacques: Salut Mireille, c'est Jacques ! Je pense à toi depuis le pique-nique. Es-tu au travail ? Il est 16 h 30 maintenant. Appelle-moi ! |
| Mardi, 19 h 15 |
| Répondeur: Bonjour, c'est Mireille, mais je ne suis pas à la maison en ce moment, alors laissez un message après le bip, s'il-vous-plaît... Biiiiip ! |
| Jacques: Allô ! C'est moi, Jacques. Où es-tu ? J'aimerais bien te parler. Il est 7 heures et quart. Rappelle-moi ! Bye ! |
| Jeudi, 20 h 45 |
| Répondeur: Bonjour! Je ne suis pas à la maison parce que je suis très, très occupée. Laissez un message. Biiiiip ! |
| Jacques: Bonsoir Mireille. C'est encore moi, Jacques. Il est neuf heures moins quart. Tu sembles être très occupée. Je suis désolé de te laisser beaucoup de messages comme ça. Si tu es libre, appelle-moi à la maison ou au travail. J'espère te parler bientôt. Salut. |
| Greg: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Lundi, 16 h 30 |
| Répondeur: Bonjour, c'est Mireille, mais je ne suis pas à la maison en ce moment, alors laissez un message après le bip, s'il-vous-plaît... Biiiiip ! |
| Jacques: Salut Mireille, c'est Jacques ! Je pense à toi depuis le pique-nique. Es-tu au travail ? Il est 16 h 30 maintenant. Appelle-moi ! |
| Mardi, 19 h 15 |
| Répondeur: Bonjour, c'est Mireille, mais je ne suis pas à la maison en ce moment, alors laissez un message après le bip, s'il-vous-plaît... Biiiiip ! |
| Jacques: Allô ! C'est moi, Jacques. Où es-tu ? J'aimerais bien te parler. Il est 7 heures et quart. Rappelle-moi ! Bye ! |
| Jeudi, 20 h 45 |
| Répondeur: Bonjour! Je ne suis pas à la maison parce que je suis très, très occupée. Laissez un message. Biiiiip ! |
| Jacques: Bonsoir Mireille. C'est encore moi, Jacques. Il est neuf heures moins quart. Tu sembles être très occupée. Je suis désolé de te laisser beaucoup de messages comme ça. Si tu es libre, appelle-moi à la maison ou au travail. J'espère te parler bientôt. Salut. |
| Greg: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Lundi, 16 h 30 |
| Monday at four-thirty p.m. |
| Répondeur: Bonjour, c'est Mireille, mais je ne suis pas à la maison en ce moment, alors laissez un message après le bip, s'il-vous-plaît... Biiiiip ! |
| Machine: Hello, it's Mireille, but I'm not home right now, so please leave a message after the beep... Beeeeep! |
| Jacques: Salut Mireille, c'est Jacques ! Je pense à toi depuis le pique-nique. Es-tu au travail ? Il est 16 h 30 maintenant. Appelle-moi ! |
| Jacques: Hi, Mireille, it's Jacques! I've been thinking about you since the picnic. Are you at work? It's four-thirty now. Call me! |
| Mardi, 19 h 15 |
| Tuesday, at sevenfifteen p.m. |
| Répondeur: Bonjour, c'est Mireille, mais je ne suis pas à la maison en ce moment, alors laissez un message après le bip, s'il-vous-plaît... Biiiiip ! |
| Machine: Hello, it's Mireille, but I'm not home right now, so please leave a message after the beep... Beeeeep! |
| Jacques: Allô ! C'est moi, Jacques. Où es-tu ? J'aimerais bien te parler. Il est 7 heures et quart. Rappelle-moi ! Bye ! |
| Jacques: Hi! It's me, Jacques. Where are you? I would like to talk to you. It's a quarter past seven. Call me back! Bye! |
| Jeudi, 20 h 45 |
| Thursday, at eightforty-five p.m. |
| Répondeur: Bonjour! Je ne suis pas à la maison parce que je suis très, très occupée. Laissez un message. Biiiiip ! |
| Machine: Hello! I'm not home because I'm very, very busy. Leave a message. Beeep! |
| Jacques: Bonsoir Mireille. C'est encore moi, Jacques. Il est neuf heures moins quart. Tu sembles être très occupée. Je suis désolé de te laisser beaucoup de messages comme ça. Si tu es libre, appelle-moi à la maison ou au travail. J'espère te parler bientôt. Salut. |
| Jacques: Good evening, Mireille. It's me again, Jacques. It's a quarter to nine. You seem to be very busy. I'm sorry for leaving you so many messages. If you are free, call me at home or at work. I hope I can talk to you soon. Bye. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Greg: Listeners, you can make your own answering machine message in French. |
| Mailys: What an good way to impress your French-speaking friends! |
| Greg: Start by introducing yourself by saying ‘Bonjour, c'est’ and add your name. |
| Mailys: Bonjour, c'est Mailys. |
| Greg: You can then say that you are not home... |
| Mailys: Je ne suis pas à la maison en ce moment. |
| Greg: “I'm not at home right now.” Or you can say that you can't answer... |
| Mailys: Je ne peux pas répondre en ce moment. |
| Greg: “I can't answer right now.” Then you ask them to leave a message... |
| Mailys: Laissez un message s'il-vous-plaît. |
| Greg: “Leave a message please.” Finally, say ‘au revoir, à bientôt’, “see you soon”, or ‘à plus tard’, “see you later”. |
| Mailys: Make sure you use formal French and the ‘vous’ polite form, and we hope you get lots of French messages! |
| Greg: Ok, let’s move to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Greg: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Mailys: laisser [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to leave |
| Mailys: laisser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: laisser [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: après [natural native speed] |
| Greg: after |
| Mailys: après [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: après [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: maintenant [natural native speed] |
| Greg: now |
| Mailys: maintenant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: maintenant [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: rappeler [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to call again, to call back |
| Mailys: rappeler [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: rappeler [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: parce que [natural native speed] |
| Greg: because |
| Mailys: parce que [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: parce que [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: occupé [natural native speed] |
| Greg: busy |
| Mailys: occupé [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: occupé [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: encore [natural native speed] |
| Greg: still , again, more |
| Mailys: encore [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: encore [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: sembler [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to seem |
| Mailys: sembler [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: sembler [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: si [natural native speed] |
| Greg: if |
| Mailys: si [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: si [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Mailys: espérer [natural native speed] |
| Greg: to hope |
| Mailys: espérer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mailys: espérer [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Greg: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases in this lesson. Let’s start with ‘appeler’, meaning “to call”. |
| Mailys: This is the same verb we used in lesson 2 to say “my name is”, ‘je m’appelle.’ |
| Greg: Here’s an example. |
| Mailys: Jacques appelle Mireille encore et encore. |
| Greg: Jacques calls Mireille again and again. |
| Greg: To say “to call again” or “to call back”, you can simply add an ‘r’ at the beginning of the word... |
| Mailys: rappeler. |
| Greg: This can be done with most other verbs as well - add ‘re’ before a consonant or just ‘r’ before a vowel. |
| Mailys: While ‘appeler’ is a regular verb, it is sometimes written with one ‘l’ and sometimes with two. |
| Greg: In the present tense, it’s written with 2 ‘l’s’, except for ‘nous appelons’ and ‘vous appelez’. |
| Mailys: Let's now look at ‘encore’, which means both “again” and “still”. |
| Greg: It can refer to an event that is happening again, or that is still going on. |
| Greg: First, an example where ‘encore’ means “again”. |
| Mailys: Jacques laisse encore un message. |
| Greg: Jacques is leaving a message again. |
| Greg: And let’s have an example where ‘encore’ means “still”. |
| Mailys: Tu travailles encore? |
| Greg: Are you still working? |
| Greg: Finally, let's look at ‘parce que’ which means “because.” It introduces the second part of a sentence called a dependent clause. |
| Greg: Here are some examples. |
| Mailys: Elles sont fatiguées parce qu’elles travaillent depuis ce matin. |
| Greg: They are tired because they have been working since this morning. |
| Mailys: Nous adorons ce restaurant parce que la pizza est délicieuse. |
| Greg: We love this restaurant because the pizza is delicious. |
| Mailys: Note that it can only be used with a sentence; it can’t be used to mean “because of”. |
| Greg: ‘Si’, meaning “if”, also works the same way to introduce a dependent clause. |
| Mailys: Rappelle-moi si tu es là. |
| Greg: Call me back if you are there. Alright, let’s go to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Greg: The focus of this lesson is infinitive verbs. |
| Mailys: The infinitive is the form of the verb you will find in the dictionary. It exists in every language. It’s the base form of the verb we use when introducing a new verb. |
| Greg: Some examples would be ‘aimer’, ‘appeler’, ‘être’, ‘avoir’ or ‘adorer’. |
| Greg: We use this form when the verb is not conjugated, meaning that there is no subject that changes its form. A verb in the infinitive can sometimes be the subject of a sentence. Can you give us some examples please Mailys? |
| Mailys: Travailler dans un restaurant est difficile. |
| Greg: Working in a restaurant is difficult. Literally, it’s saying, To work in a restaurant is difficult. |
| Mailys: Réserver une table en français est impossible pour moi. |
| Greg: It's impossible for me to book a table in French. Literally, it’s saying, To book a table in French is impossible for me. |
| Mailys: We also use the infinitive form when a subject is already conjugating a verb, leaving the second verb without a subject. For example, ‘Nous aimons faire la cuisine.’ |
| Greg: We like cooking. |
| Mailys: Jacques aime travailler dans cette école. |
| Greg: Jacques likes to work in this school. |
| Greg: In this last example, Jacques is the subject of ‘aimer’, so we use the conjugated form ‘aime’, but the noun ‘Jacques’ can only conjugate one verb, so the second one, ‘travailler’, stays in the infinitive form, even though logically Jacques is also the one working. |
| Mailys: Here are a few more examples. |
| Greg: Remember to pay attention to the way some of these words require certain prepositions in French. |
| Mailys: Je suis désolé de te laisser beaucoup de messages. |
| Greg: I’m sorry for leaving you lots of messages. |
| Mailys: J’espère te parler bientôt. |
| Greg: I hope to speak to you soon. |
| Mailys: J'adore prendre un café et parler avec mes amis. |
| Greg: I love to have coffee and talk with my friends. |
Outro |
| Greg: Ok, that’s it for this lesson! Make sure to check the lesson notes, and join us for lesson 13 to find out where our story goes. |
| Mailys: À bientôt! |
| Greg: See you soon! |
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