Learn how to use the French near future tense and the compound past tense
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| Introduction |
| Eric: Salut tout le monde! |
| Virginie: Hello, bonjour everyone, this is Virginie and I am here with Eric. |
| Eric: Hello Virginie, how are you today? |
| Virginie: I am good, how are you? |
| Eric: Very good. |
| Virginie: Ok. |
| Eric: Master speaking on the phone and put all of your French friends one touch away. |
| Virginie: We are almost at the end of our lesson series here. |
| Eric: We are on 29 and I think we only go up to 30. |
| Virginie: Yes, that’s true, so that means you are almost finished. |
| Eric: You are almost done, you’ve put in a good workout. |
| Virginie: And we are very proud of you. |
| Eric: We are very proud of you. |
| Virginie: Yeah, definitely. So I think today we are gonna talk about the passé composé a little bit again, to review. |
| Eric: Right. And then we are also gonna review the futur proche. |
| Virginie: It’s a lesson of reviews, basically. What happens in our dialogue, Eric? |
| Eric: Well, Joe is set to go back to the US and he calls some friends to say goodbye and he also leaves a voicemail. |
| Virginie: So this conversation is gonna be happening on the phone. Let’s listen to it. |
| Dialogue |
| Messagerie : Le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. Le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. |
| Messagerie de Frank : Franck n'est pas disponible pour le moment. Veuillez laisser un message après le bip. |
| Joe : Salut Frank. C'est Joe. Encore merci pour tout ! Mon séjour a été super, et ça m'a fait plaisir de te rencontrer. Je t'envoie un e-mail des Etats-Unis. Ciao. |
| Eric: One more time, a little more slowly. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, plus lentement. |
| Messagerie : Le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. Le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. |
| Messagerie de Frank : Franck n'est pas disponible pour le moment. Veuillez laisser un message après le bip. |
| Joe : Salut Frank. C'est Joe. Encore merci pour tout ! Mon séjour a été super, et ça m'a fait plaisir de te rencontrer. Je t'envoie un e-mail des Etats-Unis. Ciao. |
| Eric: One more time, with the translation. |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, avec la traduction. |
| Messagerie : Le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. Le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. |
| Eric: The number you asked is not in service. The number you asked is not in service. |
| Messagerie de Frank : Franck n'est pas disponible pour le moment. Veuillez laisser un message après le bip. |
| Eric: Frank is not available at the moment. Leave a message after the beep. |
| Joe : Salut Frank. C'est Joe. Encore merci pour tout ! Mon séjour a été super, et ça m'a fait plaisir de te rencontrer. Je t'envoie un e-mail des Etats-Unis. Ciao. |
| Eric: Hi, Frank. This is Joe. Thank you again for everything! My trip was great, and I was pleased to meet you. I'm going to send you a message from the US. Bye. |
| Post Conversation Banter |
| Virginie: Joe is leaving. |
| Eric: Joe is leaving France – very sad, very sad. |
| Virginie: How sad, yeah. |
| M The end of Les aventures de Joe. |
| Virginie: Yeah, it is. |
| Eric: The end of Joe’s adventures. |
| Virginie: Joe, we want you to stay in France, please. |
| Eric: Ok, are French people as addicted to cell phones as Americans are? |
| Virginie: That’s a good question. Yes, they are, obviously. But they know how to turn it off too. |
| Eric: Really? |
| Virginie: It happens a lot that people don’t actually pick up. |
| Eric: You wouldn’t take it personally if somebody doesn’t pick up because it happens all the time? |
| Virginie: Yeah, it happens all the time and you don’t get mad because you understand that this person wants some privacy. |
| Eric: I see. I remember also in France, the cell phones were slightly different, like I think the charges were different if you called another person's cell phone or if you called like a landline, you’d have a different charge. We don’t have that in the US. |
| Virginie: Oh really? Oh ok. Yeah, it’s more expensive to call a cell phone in France than just to call a landline. |
| Eric: And then also I think, I remember you have the SIM card, you have to purchase that separately and then insert in the phone. It was very, very complicated. The cell phones are much more complicated in Europe. |
| Virginie: The SIM card is the little memory card in your phone, which means you can actually take it out of your phone and use someone else’s phone with your card, and… |
| Eric: That’s useful. That’s useful because then you would have all of the people you know and your phonebook and all that stuff. |
| Virginie: Yeah, all this information on this little SIM card. It works like a puce électronique, which is literally a flea card. |
| Eric: An electronic flea, which is essentially like a little computer chip. |
| Virginie: We also have those on our Visa cards. |
| Eric: Right, interesting. The Visa cards, the credit cards are like more complicated in France as well. I don’t know, everything is more technologically advanced. |
| Virginie: It’s a complex culture. |
| Eric: It’s very complexed. |
| Virginie: Yes, it is. We are complex people. Don’t worry if you give a call to your French friend and he is not picking up his phone. |
| Eric: He probably hasn’t figure out how to turn it on. |
| Virginie: Because it’s so complicated. No, he is probably busy, but it’s not against you. You will just have to leave a message and they will get back to you. Ok. Let’s take a look at our vocabulary. |
| Vocab List |
| Virginie: un numéro [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a number |
| Virginie: un numéro [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un numéro [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: que [natural native speed] |
| Eric: that, which |
| Virginie: que [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: que [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: demander [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to ask |
| Virginie: demander [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: demander [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: en service [natural native speed] |
| Eric: in service |
| Virginie: en service [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: en service [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: disponible [natural native speed] |
| Eric: available |
| Virginie: disponible [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: disponible [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: pour le moment [natural native speed] |
| Eric: at the moment |
| Virginie: pour le moment [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: pour le moment [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: laisser [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to leave |
| Virginie: laisser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: laisser [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: veuillez [natural native speed] |
| Eric: please (+ verb) |
| Virginie: veuillez [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: veuillez [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: après [natural native speed] |
| Eric: after |
| Virginie: après [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: après [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: un bip [natural native speed] |
| Eric: a beep |
| Virginie: un bip [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un bip [natural native speed] |
| Vocab and Phrase Usage |
| Virginie: Okay, so the answering machine here tells Joe, le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. And “number” in French is? |
| Eric: Un numero |
| Virginie: Un numero. |
| Eric: So if I want to say a phone number, I would say, un numero de telephone. |
| Virginie: Well, you can use un numero also to talk about, ah, for example, you are going to a circus show and the artists are going to have un numero, a number sort of. |
| Eric: Ah okay. So it’s similar to in English when we used to say musical song, a number, the next number is for the… something like that, right? |
| Virginie: Yeah, yeah exactly. Well, we still say it in French, yeah. Un numero. |
| Eric: But when you say it in French, you could use that for piece of drama… |
| Virginie: Yes. Any type of production usually circus, songs, and comedy shows. Yeah, un numero, like a sketch. |
| Eric: Okay, great. And then finally we have un numero de chambre. So it’s a room number as in the hotel. |
| Virginie: Un numero de chambre. |
| Eric: But we also had a phrase that’s just pretty close to the English. |
| Virginie: Yes. |
| Eric: En service. |
| Virginie: En service So it’s still in this voice mail message, le numéro que vous demandez n'est pas en service. Is not in service. Now, how would you say not in service. You know what I mean like out of order. |
| Eric: Out of order, hors service. |
| Virginie: For example, what can be hors service? |
| Eric: An elevator. |
| Virginie: An elevator. So how would you say that? |
| Eric: L’ascenseur, the elevator, est hors service. |
| Virginie: Exactly. L’ascenseur est hors service. |
| Eric: Or I think there is an expression about this as well. What is it, Virgnie? |
| Virginie: Oh yes, when you are tired in French – in France, you are going to say, je suis HS, which means je suis hors service, but you only keep the initials of hors, which is H, and service which is S. |
| Eric: So I am HS, is that what you are saying? |
| Virginie: Umm… |
| Eric: Okay and then continuing with our answer machine message, we also have il n'est pas disponible, which means, he is not available. |
| Virginie: Disponible is “available.” |
| Eric: You could ask this in another context as well. You know, you are inviting somebody to a party, you could say tu es disponible? Are you available? |
| Virginie: So it’s a little formal. To a friend, I don’t think you would say, tu es disponible? You would say, tu es libre? |
| Eric: You are free. |
| Virginie: And then we have the verb demander. |
| Eric: To ask. |
| Virginie: Which is interesting because in English, it’s very different. It doesn’t mean the same thing. |
| Eric: Yeah it’s not demand. You are not demanding something. |
| Virginie: No, no, no… |
| Eric: It’s just asking. |
| Virginie: Yeah, demander is just to ask. You can demander quelque chose. |
| Eric: To ask something. |
| Virginie: Demander une baguette. |
| Eric: To ask for piece of bread. |
| Virginie: But if you want to say, can I ask you a question, you are not going to use demander. |
| Eric: No. |
| Virginie: You are going to use poser une question, which basically means “to pose a question.” |
| Eric: Now, what about this word veuillez? |
| Virginie: Very formal polite way of saying “please.” |
| Eric: Right. I’ve seen that on you know signs in the metro or something, when it’s really very formal and addressed to le grand public, to everyone. |
| Virginie: You will see that on posters a lot. Veuillez déposer vos bagages. |
| Eric: Please put down your bags. |
| Virginie: Veuillez ne pas fumer. |
| Eric: Please don’t smoke. It’s just very formal way of asking please, very polite. |
| Virginie: And it’s followed by the Infinity form of your verb. |
| Eric: As you heard Virginie, Veuillez ne pas fumer, so it’s, please do not smoke. |
| Virginie: Yeah. |
| Eric: So fumer again is infinitive to smoke. |
| Virginie: And in our dialogue, it’s veuillez laisser un message, please leave a message. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: Okay and I think we want to review the near future, le futur proche. |
| Virginie: Okay. So what is the futur proche again? |
| Eric: The futur proche is one of the ways that we talk about a future action that’s sort of imminent, that’s in the near future. |
| Virginie: But it’s very concrete. You know when it’s going to happen. |
| Eric: And how is it constructed? |
| Virginie: It’s very easy. So I don’t know if you guys remember but, what are you going to do, is conjugate the verb aller “to go,” and then have it followed by the infinitive of your action. |
| Eric: So you are going to be using aller followed by the infinitive. For example, demain “tomorrow,” je vais travailler, “tomorrow I am going to work.” |
| Virginie: Exactly, or I could be also demain je vais partir. |
| Eric: Tomorrow, I am going to leave. Okay now, what about the passé compose? And I think we had an example in our dialogue. |
| Virginie: It is in Joe’s message, obviously, mon séjour a été super “my trip was great”. So let’s see how to conjugate the verb être to be in the passé compose. |
| Eric: Basically, être is another irregular verb. So the past participle isn’t following any particular pattern. It’s going to be something that deviates from the norm. It’s été. |
| Virginie: Right, and again it’s été, and that’s the past participle. Now the verb être in the passé compose is conjugated with the verb avoir. |
| Eric: Even though it is the verb être it’s still going to take avoir. |
| Virginie: Yes. |
| Eric: It’s a normal verb. It’s not one of the verbs of motion or like states of change. |
| Virginie: Yeah, so again, Joe says, mon séjour a, which is the verb, avoir, of the third singular person, and then été, which we just saw with Eric that it’s the past participle. |
| Eric: So mon séjour a été super. |
| Virginie: My trip was great. So that was for the third singular person. How would I say I was happy? |
| Eric: So if we are using je, we are going to be conjugating with avoir as usual. So it’s going to be j’ai, and it’s going to take again the same past participle, été. |
| Virginie: J’ai été, “I have been” or “I was”. J’ai été heureux, I was happy. |
| Eric: Now, we have another verb in the passé compose in our dialogue, right? |
| Virginie: Yes, which construction is a little too tricky for you beginners, I think. We will get there in our next lesson series. |
| Eric: Right but you can get the basics, it’s… |
| Virginie: Yeah. |
| Eric: Ça m'a fait plaisir de te rencontrer |
| Virginie: And that means, it was nice to meet you. |
| Eric: And the part of this phrase that’s in the past tense is ça m'a fait plaisir. |
| Virginie: Just for you to know, the passé compose in the sentence is a fait. It’s used with the verb, faire, which is to do, to make. But again, this is a fixed expression and we don’t want to – we don’t want to overwhelm you with details of constructions. |
| Eric: It’s basically following the same rule as taking avoir, ça m’a, and then fait is the past participle of faire. |
| Virginie: You can try to remember that expression because you can actually say that to French people, ça m'a fait plaisir, it was nice. Ça m'a fait plaisir, it was a pleasure. |
| Eric: Exactly. Ça m'a fait plaisir. |
Outro |
| Virginie: All right, I think we are done with our futur proche and our passé compose but don’t forget, we have our lesson notes. |
| Eric: And if you you know want to look over something or if you are like something needs to be reinforced, don’t hesitate. |
| Virginie: Oh yeah. These are very useful. Okay thank you, Eric. |
| Eric: Thank you very much. |
| Virginie: Have a good day, bye bye, au revoir. |
| Eric: Tchao! |
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