Learn about simple past tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Bonjour, chers auditeurs! Je m'appelle Gabriella. Bienvenue à Lower Intermediate French, Season 2, Lesson 10 - A Revolutionary French Lesson! |
| Jeremy: Moi, c'est Jeremy. |
| Gabriella: Let's get started. Quel est le sujet de la leçon d'aujourd'hui ? |
| Jeremy: In this lesson, you’ll learn something big, the simple past! We'll listen to a lesson about the French revolution. |
| Gabriella: Wow! Ok, donc c'est du français formel? |
| Jeremy: Oui, et c’est Charlène qui est le professeur. |
| Gariella: Okay, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Charlène: Pendant la Révolution, ce fut la naissance des symboles de la République française. |
| Les révolutionnaires et les députés de l'Assemblée Nationale firent de Marianne, du bonnet phrygien et de la cocarde bleu-blanc-rouge les plus célèbres d'entre eux. |
| Ce sont les artistes qui permirent de les immortaliser à travers la peinture, comme le célèbre « La Liberté guidant le Peuple » de Delacroix où Marianne est représentée. |
| Quant au bonnet et à la cocarde, on les retrouve surtout dans les gravures. |
| Gabriella: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| Charlène: Pendant la Révolution, ce fut la naissance des symboles de la République française. |
| Charlene: During the Revolution-that was when the symbols of the French Republic were born. |
| Les révolutionnaires et les députés de l'Assemblée Nationale firent de Marianne, du bonnet phrygien et de la cocarde bleu-blanc-rouge les plus célèbres d'entre eux. |
| The revolutionaries and the members of Parliament turned the Marianne, the Phrygian cap, and the blue, white, and red cockade into the most famous of them. |
| Ce sont les artistes qui permirent de les immortaliser à travers la peinture, comme le célèbre « La Liberté guidant le Peuple » de Delacroix où Marianne est représentée. |
| They were immortalized by artists through paintings, such as the famous "Liberty Leading the People" by Delacroix, where Marianne is depicted. |
| Quant au bonnet et à la cocarde, on les retrouve surtout dans les gravures. |
| As for the Phrygian cap and the cockade, they are mainly represented in etchings. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: J’aime beaucoup l’histoire de France! Are there many symbols of the Republic? |
| Jeremy: Oui,il y en a huit! Le drapeau, l’hymne national, Marianne, et la devise sont les plus connus. |
| Gabriella: Ok, so what are the others? |
| Jeremy: The National Holiday, on July the 14th, where the French celebrate the Fête de la Fédération, which was held first in 1790. |
| Gabriella: I heard about the rooster too. |
| Jeremy: Oui, le coq est un des symboles de la France. It comes from ancient France, when they were still the Gaulish. |
| Gabriella: I don’t know the last two ones. |
| Jeremy: Les faisceaux et le sceau? Peu de Français les connaissent. |
| Gabriella: Ok, I see. What are they? |
| Jeremy: The fasces are not an official symbol, but they are used everywhere to represent the Republic. And the seal is a Justice symbol, since it was used historically to sign official documents. |
| Gabriella: How interesting! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: The first word we shall see is... |
| Jeremy: Révolution française [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: French Revolution |
| Jeremy: Révolution française [slowly - broken down by syllable] Révolution française [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: symbole [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: symbol |
| Jeremy: symbole [slowly - broken down by syllable] symbole [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: révolutionnaire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: revolutionary |
| Jeremy: révolutionnaire [slowly - broken down by syllable] révolutionnaire [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: député [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: deputy |
| Jeremy: député [slowly - broken down by syllable] député [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: bonnet phrygien [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Phrygian cap |
| Jeremy: bonnet phrygien [slowly - broken down by syllable] bonnet phrygien [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: cocarde [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: cockade |
| Jeremy: cocarde [slowly - broken down by syllable] cocarde [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: artiste [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: artist |
| Jeremy: artiste [slowly - broken down by syllable] artiste [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: immortaliser [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to immortalize |
| Jeremy: immortaliser [slowly - broken down by syllable] immortaliser [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Jeremy: représenter [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to depict |
| Jeremy: représenter [slowly - broken down by syllable] représenter [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last... |
| Jeremy: gravure [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: etching |
| Jeremy: gravure [slowly - broken down by syllable] gravure [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Jeremy, what’s the first word? |
| Jeremy: Our first word is révolutionnaire. which means “revolutionary”. This word has two meaning in French, but ultimately, they're the same. It’s describing someone who is a part of a revolution or fight against political power for their rights. |
| Gabriella: Je vois, mais en France, c’est surtout utilisé en Histoire? |
| Jeremy: Oui, c’est ça! |
| Gabriella: Ok, got it! What is a gravure? |
| Jeremy: In the dialog, it stands for “etching”, but it can be translated as "engraving” or "woodcut," depending on the material. |
| Gabriella: Je vois, et le verbe est “graver”. |
| Jeremy: Yes, this one is used too for graver un CD, meaning “to burn a CD” |
| Gabriella: Ok, that sounds logical. You engrave data on the CD. |
| Jeremy: Exactly! |
| Gabriella: And what’s the last word? |
| Jeremy: Artiste, which is “artist” in English. |
| Gabriella: C’est très simple! |
| Jeremy: Yes, but it also stands for “performer” and “craftsman”, especially if they are masters. As in Les artistes de cirque sont habitués à travailler dur. |
| Gabriella: "Circus performers are used to hard work." |
| Jeremy: Ok, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the simple past tense in French. Jeremy, when is it used? |
| Jeremy: In two contexts only. First, it's used in literature, instead of the compound past. |
| Gabriella: What’s the other one? |
| Jeremy: In daily life, it’s used to talk about something that used to be going on in the past and has finished in the present. |
| Gabriella: Donc le passé simple sert pour parler de durée! |
| Jeremy: C’est exactement ça. |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear an example. |
| Jeremy: A famous one is... Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d’enfants. |
| Gabriella: "They married and lived happily every after." It’s a fairytale ending! |
| Jeremy: Yes, and since it’s literature, it’s the simple past! |
| Gabriella: Ok, compris! Et pour la vie de tous les jours? |
| Jeremy: Elle fit le tour de l’immeuble en quelques minutes. |
| Gabriella: "She did the tour of the building within a few minutes." |
| Jeremy: Right. Note that usually, people would prefer the passé composé. |
| Gabriella: C’est vrai que je n’ai jamais entendu de Français parler au passé simple. |
| Jeremy: It’s because it’s a bit hard to conjugate it, in my opinion. |
| Gabriella: Tell me more about this. |
| Jeremy: There are four conjugations, which are conjugations for the first group, then the verbs with a stem ending in ‘-i’, the ones ending in “-u” and finally the ones ending in “-in”. |
| Gabriella: You can find the details in the lesson notes. |
| Jeremy: Let’s see a conjugation, le verbe “être”. |
| Gabriella: The first three are Je fus, tu fus, and il or elle fut. |
| Jeremy: And the last ones are Nous fûmes, vous fûtes, and ils or elles furent. |
| Gabriella: Another one? |
| Jeremy: The verb aller, "to go," which is from the first group. |
| Gabriella: J’allai, tu allas, il or elle alla… |
| Jeremy: Nous allâmes, vous allâtes, ils or elles allèrent. |
| Gabriella: C’est un peu difficile… |
| Jeremy: A little bit difficult, so you should practice it as much as you can, by writing little stories for example. |
| Gabriella: Ok, compris! |
| Jeremy: With practice, you'll get it very quickly. |
| Gabriella: Donc, n’hésitez pas à pratiquer dans les commentaires! |
| Jeremy: Bonne chance, et à la prochaine! |
Outro |
|---|
| Jeremy: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Gabriella: Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Jeremy: Salut! |
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