LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Lesson 43 Damn! I ve broken it Plus Publications Bramley Douglas Road Cork Ireland (t) 353-(0)21-4847444 (f) 353-(0)21-4847675 (e) editor@learnfrenchbypodcast.com (i) www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com
Hello, and welcome back to LFBP. My name is Hugh Nagle and with me is Amélie Verdier. Bonjour Amélie. Bonjour! In this lesson, we re going to deal with an unfortunate situation : we re in a shop, we pick up something to take a look at it and crash! we drop it. Let s see how the conversation might go with the shop assistant. je pourrais avoir [= could I have? ] Here s that powerful combination once again: the verb pouvoir, followed by the infinitive of a second verb. In this case, pouvoir is in the Conditional: [ Could I? ] pouvoir (to be able) au présent je peux tu peux il / elle / on peut nous pouvons vous pouvez ils / elles peuvent au conditionnel je pourrais* tu pourrais* il / elle / on pourrait* nous pourrions vous pourriez ils / elles pourraient* * that, despite the spelling, these parts of the verb all sound exactly the same! Il va falloir (que) [= It is going to be necessary (to) ] The verb falloir requires that the verb which follows be in the subjunctive form: Il va falloir que vous le payiez [It s going to be necessary that you pay for it ] Bien sûr! Watch the accent on the adjective sûr which means sure, safe, etc. Without that accent we have the preposition sur which means on! au présent d indicatif je paie tu paies il / elle / on paie nous payons vous payez ils / elles paient au présent du subjonctif que je paie que tu paies qu il / elle / on paie que nous payions que vous payiez qu ils / elles paient, in the case of er (1st group) verbs, the similarity between the Indicative and Subjunctive forms. Watch the nous and vous parts, however, for the distinctive endings. Merde! This expletive is often approximated to the English Sh*t! The English equivalent, however, has a more vulgar feel and is more offensive than Merde! On the offensiveness scale, Zut! is the gentlest of all of the above. Je veux dire zut vouloir dire = to mean (i.e. to signify) Literally, it equates to to want to say. Consider the following: Qu est-ce qu il veut dire? [What does he mean?] Luas est un mot irlandais qui veut dire vitesse. [ Luas is an Irish word which means speed.] Qu est-ce que tout cela veut dire? [What does all that mean?] Tenez! [= Here [you are]!] This is the verb tenir. It has many meanings to hold, to keep, to last, to run (a store), to (with)stand, etc. In this context, someone is being asked to hold (onto) something. tenir to hold je tiens tu tiens il / elle / on tient nous tenons vous tenez ils / elles tiennent past participle : tenu Tenir is conjugated in the same way as venir, devenir, etc.
And one more time First, the customer asked to see an item in a display cabinet. Let s hear that question dans la vitrine that s in the display cabinet. Now, une vitrine can refer, also, to a shop window. During Hallowe en, that takes place during the traditional Catholic feast, la fête de la Toussaint, and which French people call Halloween, one might say the windows are decorated with lanterns. How would we say that? Les vitrines sont décorées de lanternes. Les vitrines sont décorées de lanternes. To come back to the original conversation, let s see how the customer reacted when he dropped the item. Oh merde! Enfin, je veux dire zut! Now, it s important to realise that the exclamation merde is very common in French. In fact, it s not a very serious expletive. The customer recovered the situation with an even softer expletive. We heard : Enfin je veux dire zut! Enfin je veux dire zut! In fact, I mean Damn! Est-ce que je pourrais [avoir] une vitrine / être décoré de Merde! / Zut! Le client laisse échapper le verre [= literally, the customer allows the glass to escape. That is, he drops it.], the formula in French: the verb laisser in the Present is followed by the infinitive of a second verb échapper. In the past we would find: Je l ai laissé échapper. Je l ai cassé. [= I broke it.], once again, the preceding direct object pronoun l which refers to the masculine noun le verre. Les vitrines sont décorées de [= The windows are decorated with ] the feminine plural ending on the adjective, corresponding to the feminine plural noun les vitrines., also, that the expression decorated with = décoré de in French.
Though the customer apologised, the assistant wasn t so forgiving. She said it would have to be paid for. We heard Il va falloir que vous le payiez Il va falloir que vous le payiez After the expression Il faut que or, in this case Il va falloir que It s going to be necessary to we need the Subjunctive Mood. It s a special form of the verb. If we listen carefully, we ll hear that subjunctive : que vous le payiez que vous le payiez If the assistant said : you re going to have to buy it, we would hear : falloir + subjunctive Il va falloir que vous le payiez In fact, the pronunciation of the subjunctive form vous payiez is very close to the Present Indicative form vous payez. In the case of other er verbs, like those below, the pronuncation is more distinctive: que vous cherchiez que vous considériez que vous donniez Il va falloir que vous l achetiez que vous l achetiez Again, we can hear that subjunctive form. Now, in a resigned way, the customer said 10 euros is expensive for a few bits of broken glass! The expression It s expensive is : C est cher. C est cher. être cher / être bon marché The opposite it s cheap would be : C est bon marché. C est bon marché. Ok. Now don t forget the accompanying Lesson Guide available from our website at www.learnfrenchbypodcast. com. It contains a lot of additional information which will help make sense everything. Let s hear that dialogue one more time
If you understood our lesson, then you should be able to translate Now it s your turn Until next time! A la prochaine. 1. He broke them. 2. She is very sorry. 3. He is going to have to pay for them. 4. He is going to have to buy them. 5. We are going to have to reserve them. 6. We don t have any choice! See how you have fared in the exercise above by clicking on the graphic. ( that we wait a few days after a lesson has been released before posting the answers to exercises on our website.) Vocab extra! avoir...to have bien sûr...certainly bon...good bout (m)...end, piece casser...to break ce...this cela...that chercher...to look for choix (m)...choice client (m)...customer combien?...how much? considérer...to consider dans...in désolé, être ~...to be sorry devenir...to become dire...to say donner...to give enfin...in fact, finally irlandais...irish marché, bon ~...cheap merci...thank you merde!...sh*t! mot (m)...word oui...yes pouvoir...to be able tenir...to hold tout...all vendeuse (f)...sales assistant venir...to come verre (m)...glass vitesse (f)...speed vitrine (f)...display cabinet, shop window vouloir...to wish, to want vraiment...really, truly