Learn how to form past tense verbs from adjectives
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Sleeping Your Life Away in France. I’m Brandon! |
| Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use past tense verb forms. The conversation takes place in a house. |
| Yasmine: And it’s between a father, Thierry, and his son, Cyril. |
| Brandon: Since the speakers are family members, they’ll be using informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Thierry: Qu'as-tu fait ce matin ? |
| Cyril: J'ai dormi. |
| Thierry: Et cet après-midi ? |
| Cyril: J’étais endormi. |
| Thierry: Tu te lèves maintenant. C'est le soir. |
| Cyril: Je suis un adolescent. Mes amis disent que c'est normal. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation slowly one more time. |
| Thierry: Qu'as-tu fait ce matin ? |
| Cyril: J'ai dormi. |
| Thierry: Et cet après-midi ? |
| Cyril: J’étais endormi. |
| Thierry: Tu te lèves maintenant. C'est le soir. |
| Cyril: Je suis un adolescent. Mes amis disent que c'est normal. |
| Brandon: Now, let’s listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Thierry: Qu'as-tu fait ce matin ? |
| Thierry: What did you do this morning? |
| Cyril: J'ai dormi. |
| Cyril: I was sleeping. |
| Thierry: Et cet après-midi ? |
| Thierry: And this afternoon? |
| Cyril: J’étais endormi. |
| Cyril: I was asleep. |
| Thierry: Tu te lèves maintenant. C'est le soir. |
| Thierry: You get up now. It's evening. |
| Cyril: Je suis un adolescent. Mes amis disent que c'est normal. |
| Cyril: I'm a teenager. My friends say it's normal. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Wow, Cyril really likes to sleep, doesn’t he? Do French people like to take naps? |
| Yasmine: Not really. In France, naps are usually for children. In kindergarten, napping is required for all kids until they go to primary school. For adults, napping during working hours is considered inappropriate. |
| Brandon: Do you ever take a nap? |
| Yasmine: I don't usually nap, unless there’s an exceptional situation or a sleepless night. Most people see naps as a luxury, but they can also be attributed to laziness. |
| Brandon: What’s a useful expression to know about naps? |
| Yasmine: Well, “to nap” in French is faire la sieste. |
| Brandon: Listeners, we hope you stay awake through this lesson! Now let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let’s review the vocabulary words from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Yasmine: ...où. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: where |
| Yasmine: Où. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Où. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...dormir. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to sleep |
| Yasmine: Dormir. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Dormir. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our next word is... |
| Yasmine: ...après-midi. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: afternoon |
| Yasmine: Après-midi. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Après-midi. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next one is... |
| Yasmine: ...endormi. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: asleep |
| Yasmine: Endormi. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Endormi. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Yasmine: ...se lever. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to get up |
| Yasmine: Se lever. [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: Se lever. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...maintenant. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: now |
| Yasmine: Maintenant. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Maintenant. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next word is... |
| Yasmine: ...adolescent. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: teenager |
| Yasmine: Adolescent. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Adolescent. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Our final word is... |
| Yasmine: ...normal. [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: usual |
| Yasmine: Normal. [slowly - broken down by syllable] Normal. [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Yasmine: ...après-midi. |
| Brandon: Which means "afternoon." |
| Yasmine: Après-midi is a compound word that literally means "after noon." Après means "after," and midi means "noon." Also, après-midi is both feminine and masculine. For example, you can say une après-midi as well as un après-midi. |
| Brandon: When can you use this word? |
| Yasmine: L'après-midi is from noon until about six o’clock in the evening, so that’s when you’ll want to use it. Three o’clock in the afternoon is expressed as quinze heures, or 15h00, but you can also say trois heures de l'après-midi, literally meaning “three hours in the afternoon.” |
| Brandon: Can we use this word in a greeting like, “Good afternoon?” |
| Yasmine: Not really. French people don’t say bonne après-midi which literally means "Good afternoon", as a greeting. If you want to greet someone in the afternoon, you can say bonjour, or from around six o’clock in the evening, bonsoir. But if you’re saying goodbye to someone in the afternoon, you can say bonne après-midi instead of au revoir. |
| Brandon: Can you use the word for “afternoon” in a sentence, please? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Cet après-midi je vais travailler dans mon bureau. |
| Brandon: "This afternoon I'm going to work in my office.” Okay, next we have... |
| Yasmine: Se lever. |
| Brandon: Meaning "to get up." |
| Yasmine: Se lever is a pronominal verb, meaning that it’s conjugated with the addition of a reflexive pronoun, such as me or te. |
| Brandon: It expresses reflexive actions, so the subject performs the action on itself. If the subject performs the action on someone or something else, the verb is not reflexive anymore. How do you use this verb? |
| Yasmine: You use this verb when you talk about animate objects or the sun. If you want to talk about inanimate objects, it's better to use the verb s'élever. For example, la Tour Eiffel s'élève haut dans le ciel. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “The Eiffel Tower rises high in the sky.” Okay, can you give us an example with our key word? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Je me lève tous les jours à 6 heures du matin. |
| Brandon: "I get up every day at six o’clock in the morning." |
| Yasmine: If you get up late, you can say, se lever en retard. This is a common expression. Again, se is included in the sentence as a reflexive pronoun because the subject—”he”—is performing the action on himself. |
| Brandon: Okay, next we have... |
| Yasmine: ...endormi. |
| Brandon: Meaning "asleep." |
| Yasmine: That’s right. Endormi means “asleep”, and it also means “lethargic”. That’s why you can say je suis endormi even if you’re awake. |
| Brandon: How do I say “I’m falling asleep”? |
| Yasmine: If you're falling asleep, you can say, je m'endors, using the verb s'endormir. |
| Brandon: Okay. Can you give us an example with our key word? |
| Yasmine: Sure! Je suis totalement endormi, je n'arrive pas à me concentrer. |
| Brandon: This means, "I'm totally asleep; I can’t concentrate." |
| Yasmine: Well, I hope you’re not falling asleep! We haven’t finished the lesson yet! |
| Brandon: (laughs) Okay, now on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn how to make past tense verbs. |
| Yasmine: In the dialogue, Thierry asked, qu'as-tu fait ce matin ? |
| Brandon: Meaning, “What did you do this morning?” The answer to this must be in the past tense. How do you form the past tense? |
| Yasmine: To express the past tense, French uses two main verb tenses. The first one is called passé composé, and it expresses one-time events or events marking change. |
| Brandon: For example, this is the equivalent of saying "I bought," "I did," or "I found something." |
| Yasmine: We use the second tense, called imparfait, for ongoing or unfinished events. |
| Brandon: For example, if you want to say something like "I was doing" or "I was looking for something." So there are two main verb tenses for the past tense. Which one will we learn in this lesson? |
| Yasmine: In this lesson, we’ll introduce the passé composé form. You’ll find two examples of this in the dialogue - qu'as tu fait ce matin, and, j'ai dormi. |
| Brandon: Meaning, “What did you do this morning?” and “I was sleeping.” |
| Yasmine: You create the passé composé form by using an auxiliary verb, usually avoir which means "to have," and a past participle. A few verbs require être as an auxiliary verb. To form the past participle, remove -er from the end of the verb, and add -é - which is the French “e” with an accent above it. It actually sounds the same as the infinitive and the vous forms, so even native speakers have trouble spelling the past participle correctly. |
| Brandon: Okay, can you give some examples of how to conjugate this verb? |
| Yasmine: Well, let's look at the passé composé conjugation for dormi. Listeners, I’ll give you the French, and Brandon will translate into English. Firstly, J'ai dormi. |
| Brandon: “I slept.” |
| Yasmine: Tu as dormi. |
| Brandon: “You slept.” |
| Yasmine: Il a dormi. |
| Brandon: “He slept.” |
| Yasmine: Nous avons dormi. |
| Brandon: “We slept.” |
| Yasmine: Vous avez dormi. |
| Brandon: “You slept.” |
| Yasmine: Ils ont dormi. |
| Brandon: “They slept.” So you can see that the conjugation of the auxiliary verb changes. Yasmine, can you give us some more sample sentences? |
| Yasmine: Sure! elle a cherché un livre mais elle ne l'a pas trouvé. |
| Brandon: Means, "She looked for a book but didn't find it." |
| Yasmine: And here’s another one as-tu regardé cette série télé? |
| Brandon: "Did you watch this TV series?" Listeners, be sure to check out the lesson notes for more examples of this usage. |
| Yasmine: As we mentioned earlier, a small number of verbs require the auxiliary verb être, meaning "to be," instead of avoir. Of the verbs we’ll present in this series, only devenir, venir, revenir, arriver, and aller use être. |
| Brandon: Can you give us some sentences with these verbs? |
| Yasmine: Okay. Il est arrivé à l'heure, comme toujours. |
| Brandon: "He arrived on time, as always." |
| Yasmine: Es-tu allé au marché comme je l'ai demandé? |
| Brandon: Meaning, "Did you go to the store as I asked?" Yasmine, are there any other verbs that need this auxiliary verb? |
| Yasmine: Well, reflexive verbs also need être, even when the verb otherwise uses avoir. |
| Brandon: Hmm, that’s a bit confusing. Can you give us an example? |
| Yasmine: Sure. For example, je me suis lavé les mains. |
| Brandon: "I washed my hands." |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Yasmine: À bientôt! |
Comments
Hide