Learn how to use the negative form of the passé compose so that you can speak about facts in the past that did not happen
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jason: A Case of French Stage Fright! C’est Jason. Jason here! |
| Ingrid: Bonjour à tous, Ingrid here! |
| Jason: Welcome to our Upper Beginner series! This lesson will be a first introduction to the negative form of the “passé composé” |
| Ingrid: You will be able to talk about facts in the past with the negative form. |
| Jason: So what will we hear in our conversation? |
| Ingrid: Our conversation is between two friends, Karine and Lisa. Lisa is coming back from a casting… and the pressure is on…! As they are good friends, the conversation is of course in informal French. |
| Jason: Okay, so let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| 1st time: natural native speed: |
| Karine Alors, comment c’était ton audition? |
| Lisa Très bien puisque je n'y suis pas allée! |
| Karine Comment ça? Tu ne t'es pas présentée? |
| Lisa: Non, je n'ai pas eu le courage! Le jury était impressionnant et j’ai eu le trac! |
| Karine: Au moins, tu n'es pas tombée dans les pommes comme la dernière fois, c'est déjà ça! |
| (1 time slowly) |
| Karine Alors, comment c’était ton audition? |
| Lisa Très bien puisque je n'y suis pas allée! |
| Karine Comment ça? Tu ne t'es pas présentée? |
| Lisa: Non, je n'ai pas eu le courage! Le jury était impressionnant et j’ai eu le trac! |
| Karine Au moins, tu n'es pas tombée dans les pommes comme la dernière fois, c'est déjà ça! |
| (1 time natural native speed with the translation) |
| Karine Alors, comment c’était ton audition? |
| So how was your audition? |
| Lisa Très bien puisque je n'y suis pas allée! |
| Great, since I didn’t go! |
| Karine Comment ça? Tu ne t'es pas présentée? |
| What do you mean? You didn’t attend it? |
| Lisa: Non, je n'ai pas eu le courage! Le jury était impressionnant et j’ai eu le trac! |
| No I didn’t have the courage to do it! The panel of judges was too impressive and I had stage fright! |
| Karine Au moins, tu n'es pas tombée dans les pommes comme la dernière fois, c'est déjà ça! |
| You did not faint like last time, at least that’s something! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Ingrid: So Jason I guess you know Shakespeare right? |
| Jason: Of course I do! |
| Ingrid: And now, do you know the French Shakespeare? |
| Jason: Huuum no I don’t really know, so tell us! |
| Ingrid: It is Molière, whose real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. He lived during the 17th century in France, during the kingdom of Louis XVI. |
| Jason: And he was a playwright too? What plays did he create? |
| Ingrid: Yes but he was also an actor and his most popular plays are “Le malade imaginaire” and “Dom Juan” among many others. |
| Jason: But it is a quite old playwright, how come he is still famous today? |
| Ingrid: Because his texts were very modern for his time and above all because the topics he dealt with are universal. And you know, his plays are still even played in some famous French theaters like “the Comedie Française”. |
| Jason: Nice! So next time you do to Paris, try to have a ticket to see a Molière play at the “Comedie Française”! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Okay, so now, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first expression we shall see is: |
| Next: |
| Audition[natural native speed] |
| Meaning “audition” |
| Audition [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Audition[natural native speed] |
| Très bien [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Great” |
| Très bien [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Très bien[natural native speed] |
| Puisque [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Since/or because” |
| Puisque [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Puisque [natural native speed] |
| Se présenter à [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “To come to” |
| Se présenter à[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Se présenter à [natural native speed] |
| Avoir le courage de[natural native speed] |
| Meaning “to have the courage to” |
| Avoir le courage de[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Avoir le courage de [natural native speed] |
| Le jury [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “a panel of judges” |
| Le jury [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Le jury [natural native speed] |
| Impressionnant[natural native speed] |
| Meaning “Impressive” |
| Impressionnant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Impressionnant[natural native speed] |
| Avoir le trac[natural native speed] |
| Meaning “To have stage fright” |
| Avoir le trac[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Avoir le trac [natural native speed] |
| Tomber dans les pommes [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “to faint” |
| Tomber dans les pommes [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Tomber dans les pommes [natural native speed] |
| C’est déjà ça ! [natural native speed] |
| Meaning “At least that's something!” |
| C’est déjà ça ! [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| C’est déjà ça! [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Jason: What’s the first expression? |
| Ingrid: It is « Puisque » which is a very useful French word that means « since » or « because » |
| (Slowly) « puisque » |
| Jason: And now at natural speed? |
| Ingrid: (natural speed) “puisque” |
| Jason: And how can you use it exactly? |
| Ingrid: One example was in our conversation. We had “Très bien, puisque je n’y suis pas allée” which means “It was great since I didn’t go there”. Here the link between the consequence “it was great” and the reason why “I didn’t go there” is the word “since” which is “puisque” in French. |
| Jason: So in fact “puisque” is a link word that is always used to link sentences that have a relation of cause and effect that’s right? |
| Ingrid: Exactly, for instance, let’s take the sentence « Il ne viendra pas puisqu’il est à l’hôpital » Here you have first the consequence « Il ne viendra pas » that is « he won’t come » then the link word « puisqu » which is « since » and finally the reason why « he is in the hospital”. The whole sentence is “Il ne viendra pas puisqu’il est à l’hôpital” |
| Jason: But here, why don’t you simply use the word “because” which is “parce que” in French ? |
| Ingrid: You are right, you could also use it, it would be correct to say “Il ne viendra pas à l’hopital parce qu’il est à l’hopital” but in fact it sounds much more elegant and appropriate with “puisque”. |
| Jason: Great, so by using “puisque” you will sound like a native speaker! What is the next expression? |
| Ingrid: It’s « ne pas avoir le courage d e » that means « Not to have the courage to » or « not to have the heart to ». It is mainly used when you don’t do something because you are afraid of it or that you are not motivated at all to do so. |
| Jason: Can you give us some examples? |
| Ingrid: For instance, you can say “Je n’ai pas le courage de lui dire la vérité” which is “I don’t have the courage to tell him the truth”. Here, it is so hard to tell it that you lack courage to do so. |
| Jason: Is there any other situations when you can use it? |
| Ingrid: Also when you lack energy to do something as in “Je n’ai meme pas le courage de faire la cuisine” that is “I don’t even have the energy to prepare food”. |
| Jason: Nice, so now everybody, let’s have a look at our 2nd lesson on the brand new tense we learnt last time, the “passé compose,” which is the most used past tense in French. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jason: So as I said Ingrid, this is our 2nd lesson about “Passé composé” what we are going to learn now? |
| Ingrid: Last time we only focused on positive sentences in “passé composé”, and in this lesson we are going to learn how to talk about something that didn’t happened using this tense, that’s to talk about the negative form. |
| Jason: Great so this will cover several situations too! But first, can you specify when we can use this form? |
| Ingrid: So you can use the “passé composé” in negative form as soon as you want to talk about a thing that didn’t happen. Remember that “passé composé” is always the most used past tense in French, so you won’t be taking a big risk by using it! |
| Jason: So for example, how can you say “I didn’t go there” in French? Is it “Passé composé” here? |
| Ingrid: Yes it is, it makes : |
| “Je ne suis pas allé là-bas” so here, you have to use the “être” auxiliary to conjugate the verb “aller” which is “to go”. The particular thing here is that you have to use the pattern for the negative, that is to say to add “ne” before the auxiliary, and add “pas” after it. |
| Jason: Can you repeat your example slowly, so that we can hear the 2 negation words “ne” and “pas”? |
| Ingrid: (slowly) Je ne suis pas allé là-bas |
| Jason: And again at natural speed? |
| Ingrid: (Natural speed) Je ne suis pas allé là-bas |
| Jason: And how does it sound this time with the ”avoir” auxiliary? Is it the same idea? |
| Ingrid: Exactly, here too you just have to add “ne” before “avoir” auxiliary and “pas” after it. For instance “Je n’ai pas fait mes devoirs” which means “I didn’t do my homework.” |
| Jason: One last time please? |
| Ingrid: (slowly) Je n’ai pas fait mes devoirs |
| Jason: Great and don’t forget that you have to learn by heart whether your verb has to be conjugated with the “avoir” auxiliary or the “être” one. (slowly) It's got to be one auxiliary or the other, but it can’t be both! |
Outro |
| Ingrid: This is very important. Please have a look at our lesson notes to find more examples and details! |
| Jason: Well, that brings us to the end of Upper beginner season 1. We enjoyed having you with us, listeners, and we hope you learned something along the way! |
| Ingrid: It was very fun learning French together. |
| Jason: Until next time! |
| Ingrid: Merci and à bientôt ! |
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