Learn when you need to use the subjunctive mood
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Virginie: Bonjour et bienvenue à frenchpod101.com. This is Virginie, and I'm here with JP. |
| JP: Salut tout le monde. Do You Find French Jokes About Blondes Funny? |
| Virginie: This lesson is going to be the first lesson of our five mini lesson series about French humor. |
| JP: French humor. |
| Virginie: Correct. |
| JP: If there is such a thing as French humor. |
| Virginie: I didn't hear that. |
| JP: We should have a survey for our listeners, “Have you ever met a French person who was funny?” and by funny I mean who made you laugh like funny “ha ha” and not funny like “Ooh funny” like laughing at his expense. |
| Virginie: Are you done? You'll say I have no sense of humor I guess. |
| JP: I guess not, you can't take a joke. |
| Virginie: Well, we'll see if French people are not funny JP. I have five lessons to prove you wrong. |
| JP: Alright it's going to take all five I think. The focus of our lesson is going to be the subjunctive mode right? |
| Virginie: Le subjonctif. |
| JP: Yeah we're going to try to make it as painless as possible. So we have a conversation between two friends... |
| Virginie: And one of them is trying to get the other one to go to a comedy show, a French comedy show. |
| JP: A French... you know that's going to be hilarious. Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Virginie: Okay. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Brice : Valérie, il faut que tu viennes avec moi à l’Olympia demain. |
| Valerie : Qu’est-ce qu’il y a à l’Olympia ? |
| Brice : Il y a le nouveau spectacle de Frank Dubosc. |
| Valerie : Ah non merci ! Il n’est pas drôle du tout ce type. |
| Brice : T’es pas marrante, vraiment. Il est hilarant Dubosc. |
| Valerie : Il est lourdingue ! |
| Brice : Je ne crois pas que tu connaisses très bien ses sketches. |
| Valerie : Écoute, je comprends que tu veuilles y aller. Bon, je t’accompagne, mais alors tu me paies la place et tu m’invites au resto après. |
| Brice : Tu es gonflée. Dans ce cas je préfère que tu ne viennes pas. |
| Valerie : Parfait ! Demain je reste chez moi, et je regarde une vidéo de Pierre Desproges. Voilà un vrai humoriste ! |
| Virginie: Encore une fois, avec des sous-titres. |
| JP: Once again, with English subtitles. |
| Brice : Valérie, il faut que tu viennes avec moi à l’Olympia demain. |
| JP: Valerie, you have to come with me to the Olympia tomorrow. |
| Valerie : Qu’est-ce qu’il y a à l’Olympia ? |
| JP: What's happening at the Olympia? |
| Brice : Il y a le nouveau spectacle de Frank Dubosc. |
| JP: Frank Dubosc's new show is playing. |
| Valerie : Ah non merci ! Il n’est pas drôle du tout ce type. |
| JP: No thanks! That guy is not funny at all. |
| Brice : T’es pas marrante, vraiment. Il est hilarant Dubosc. |
| JP: You're no fun, really. Dubosc is hilarious. |
| Valerie : Il est lourdingue ! |
| JP: He's heavy-handed! |
| Brice : Je ne crois pas que tu connaisses très bien ses sketches. |
| JP: I don't think you know his sketches very well. |
| Valerie : Écoute, je comprends que tu veuilles y aller. Bon, je t’accompagne, mais alors tu me paies la place et tu m’invites au resto après. |
| JP: Listen, I understand that you want to go. Okay, I'm coming with you, but on the condition you pay for my ticket and you invite me to the restaurant after. |
| Brice : Tu es gonflée. Dans ce cas je préfère que tu ne viennes pas. |
| JP: That's a bit much! In that case, I prefer you don't come. |
| Valerie : Parfait ! Demain je reste chez moi, et je regarde une vidéo de Pierre Desproges. Voilà un vrai humoriste ! |
| JP: Perfect! Tomorrow I stay at home and I watch a video of Pierre Desproges**. He's an actual stand-up! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Virginie: Okay we’re back. Alors, il aime Frank Dubosc et elle n’aime pas Frank Dubosc. |
| JP: Okay, mais qui est Frank Dubosc, Virginie ? |
| Virginie : JP, tu ne connais pas Frank Dubosc, l’humoriste ? |
| JP : L’humoriste ? L’humoriste ? The comedian, no I do not know Frank Dubosc and I don't know if you've noticed but French comedians don't really get exported here that much. |
| Virginie: Well it's true, but he's a très célèbre en France. |
| JP: Très célèbre. “He's very famous” so do you think he's funny? |
| Virginie: Oui assez. |
| JP: “Assez”, he’s “Fairly funny” right? So what is he known for, what is his routine about? |
| Virginie: What he does is impersonations of the mid aged loser who thinks he's hip and irresistible. That's his shtick. |
| JP: That's his shtick? |
| Virginie: Yes. |
| JP: Alright so what do you call that, that's a “ringard” right? |
| Virginie: Yeah that's what he plays, he plays a “ringard”, un “has been”. |
| JP: The middle aged loser“Has been” you can say. |
| Virginie: “Has been” yeah, yeah, yeah. “Has been”, this character you know he's a sexiste, un peu raciste... |
| JP: Is that funny? |
| Virginie: Well yeah because in the end he's making fun of these kind of people. |
| JP: Okay. |
| Virginie: Mais parfois c’est lourd. |
| JP: Okay, “lourd” can be “heavy-handed”. |
| Virginie: Très lourd parfois, lourdingue. |
| JP: “Lourdingue” that's “super heavy-handed”. |
| Virginie: Right that's in our dialog “lourdingue”, en tout cas, in any case Franck Dubosc is very popular in France. Et ses spectacles sont complets et aussi il joue dans les films. |
| JP: “He always sells out the theater and now he's in film” |
| Virginie: Right. |
| JP: Okay, so good for him. Do you think I'd like him? |
| Virginie: Probably not. |
| JP: Okay, well I'll check him out and in the dialog they're saying he's playing at the L'Olympia right? |
| Virginie: Yeah Olympia Theater it's a very popular venue for comedy shows. |
| JP: Okay in Paris right? |
| Virginie: In Paris, yeah. |
| JP: So let's take a look at our vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Virginie: un spectacle [natural native speed] |
| JP: a show |
| Virginie: un spectacle [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un spectacle [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: un type [natural native speed] |
| JP: a guy |
| Virginie: un type [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un type [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: lourdingue [natural native speed] |
| JP: heavy-handed (casual) |
| Virginie: lourdingue [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: lourdingue [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: un sketche [natural native speed] |
| JP: a skit |
| Virginie: un sketche [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un sketche [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: une place [natural native speed] |
| JP: a seat |
| Virginie: une place [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: une place [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: être gonflé(e) [natural native speed] |
| JP: to have some nerves |
| Virginie: être gonflé(e) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: être gonflé(e) [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: parfait(e) [natural native speed] |
| JP: perfect |
| Virginie: parfait(e) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: parfait(e) [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: dans ce cas [natural native speed] |
| JP: in this case |
| Virginie: dans ce cas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: dans ce cas [natural native speed] |
| Virginie: un(e) humoriste [natural native speed] |
| JP: a stand-up comedian |
| Virginie: un(e) humoriste [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Virginie: un(e) humoriste [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Let's take a closer look at these words and phrases that we have here. |
| Virginie: Oui. First we have “un type” |
| JP: “Un type”, so it's a dude right? |
| Virginie: Yeah it's casual for man “un type”, as in “JP est un type formidable.” |
| JP: “JP is a great guy” oh thank you Virginie. |
| Virginie: C’est vrai; always a pleasure. In our dialog she says, “il n’est pas drôle du tout ce type”. |
| JP: He's not funny at all that guy, ooh and here we have that redundant construction that you can do in French right? |
| Virginie: Oui. |
| JP: “Il n’est pas drôle”, “he's not funny” right? “Ce type”, “That guy” so the explicit subject is actually at the end. |
| Virginie: Yes and we use this structure all the time in France. Another example would be “Il est bien ce sketch”. |
| JP: “This skit is good” right? The “sketch” is the “skit”. Actually in English Virginie you can also say sketch comedy. |
| Virginie: Oh okay. |
| JP: But sketch also means to draw, to draw quickly. |
| Virginie: Then you can't say that in French. |
| JP: No, so “sketch” means “skit”. |
| Virginie: Right. |
| JP: Let's do “tu es gonflée”. |
| Virginie: Oh yeah he says “tu es gonffée” after she says she will only go to the show if he pays for everything. |
| JP: Yeah that's a little bit... that's an exaggeration right? Elle exagère ! |
| Virginie: Elle exagère, elle est gonflée ! |
| JP: Elle est gonflée ! |
| Virginie: Now literally you know what it means? |
| JP: “Gonflé” is like pumped up. |
| Virginie: Yeah. |
| JP: Inflated. |
| Virginie: Inflated. “You're inflated” “tu es gonflé” “You got some nerves”. |
| JP: Okay “You've got some, nerve”. |
| Virginie: “Nerve” without an “S”. |
| JP: Right. “Gonflé” I usually associate a tire with that word. |
| Virginie: Exactly “inflated” |
| JP: Pkay but you can call someone inflated too. |
| Virginie: Exactly. |
| JP: Okay let's do some grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Virginie: Okay, let's get started with our subjunctive mood. Nous avons un subjonctif dans la première réplique : “Il faut que tu viennes avec moi à l’Olympia”. |
| JP: “You have to come with me to The Olympia” so here we have a complex sentence, the first part “il faut” and the second part “que tu viennes” and you can hear that “que tu viennes” that “venir” is in the subjunctive. |
| Virginie: Exactly. |
| JP: And why is it in the subjunctive Virginie? |
| Virginie: Because the first part of the sentence has a trigger and that's “il faut” |
| JP: “Il faut” and when you have a clause after “il faut” so you're going to have a “que” so when you have “il faut que” the following verb is going to be in the subjunctive. |
| Virginie: Now our trigger “il faut que” expresses a necessity so we're going to call it the necessity trigger. |
| JP: The necessity trigger. |
| Virginie: That triggers the subjunctive. |
| JP: I like how you shake your shoulders when you say “It's the necessity trigger”. |
| Virginie: Ah I wish you all could see me. |
| JP: “Il faut que”. |
| Virginie: Another example would be “JP, il faut que tu sois sympa avec moi”. |
| JP: “JP it's necessary” it's a necessity trigger, “it's necessary that you be nice to me”. |
| Virginie: Exactly and here our verb “sois” is in the subjunctive and that's... |
| JP: That's the subjunctive of “être” |
| Virginie: Exactly. |
| JP: There's other kind of triggers right? |
| Virginie: Yeah in the dialog there's the appreciation trigger, the judgmental trigger, and that's in “Je comprends que tu veuilles y aller”. |
| JP: “I understand that you want to go there” |
| Virginie: So our trigger here is “je comprends” and it's “to understand” and that's an appreciation. |
| JP: So it's generally a feeling right? So you can understand or you can tolerate something. |
| Virginie: Exactly, so “je comprends” is going to trigger “que tu veuilles” and that's the verb “vouloir”. |
| JP: “Veuilles”. |
| Virginie: “Veuilles”. |
| JP: The verb “vouloir” is “to want”. What about “je préfère” that's also an appreciation trigger too right “a feeling”? |
| Virginie: Oui et dans le dialogue c’est “je préfère que tu ne viennes pas”. |
| JP: “I prefer that you don't come” |
| Virginie: Yeah it's a preference again and the verb in the subjunctive form is “que tu viennes” that's the verb “venir” another example would be “Je préfère que tu fasses tes devoirs”. |
| JP: “I would rather that you do your homework”, “I prefer that you do your homework”. |
| Virginie: Exactly. |
| JP: “Que tu fasses”. |
| Virginie: “Que tu fasses”. That's the verb “vouloir”. |
Outro |
| JP: Alright, folks, if you look at the dialog closely you'll find other examples of the subjunctive and it would be great if you can find those and comment them to us in the comment section. |
| Virginie: Oh yeah. |
| JP: Just come to frenchpod101.com and leave your comments there. |
| Virginie: Exactly but remember before we go, one can not avoid the subjunctive, it is everywhere. |
| JP: It's hiding under the table waiting for your trigger verb. |
| Virginie: Exactly and trust me, French people use subjunctive all the time. |
| JP: We're going to put a conjugation chart of the subjonctif on the website frenchpod101.com in the lesson notes attached to this lesson. |
| Virginie: That was a little dense we hope you are not too tired. |
| JP: Thanks for listening. |
| Virginie: Merci d’avoir écouté et à bientôt. |
| JP: À la prochaine ! |
| Virginie: Bye. |
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