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LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Lesson

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A problem at the airport!

Plus Publications Bramley Douglas Road Cork Ireland (t) 353-(0)21-4847444 (f) 353-(0)21-4847675 (e) [email protected] (i) www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com

Lesson 04: Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 Level: intermediate.

Dialogue

• • • • • •

the verb “devoir”: il a dû + infinitive the pronoun “y” understanding directions the perfect tense: avoir + past participle the expression “pour que…” an introduction to the Imperfect

Hello once again, and welcome to Learn French by Podcast. My name is Hugh Nagle and here with me is Amélie Verdier. Welcome back, Amélie! Bonjour! Our first few lessons have been aimed at beginners or at least those with only a little French. Today, though, we’re going to target Intermediate listeners. Amélie, we’ll be talking about … l’arrivée de mon oncle à l’aéroport de Paris Charles de Gaulle. That is, your uncle’s arrival in France, from Germany. So, when he arrived, what happened, exactly? Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé au juste? Bon, alors… mon oncle travaille dans une entreprise pharmaceutique à Berlin. Le mois dernier il a dû partir en voyage d’affaires à Paris. Le vol s’est bien passé, j’espère? Oui, oui. Quelques turbulences au décollage mais rien de grave. Après l’atterrissage, il a cherché où est-ce que l’on récupère les bagages. Mais l’aéroport de CDG est très grand et il y a beaucoup de tapis à bagages ! Il a regardé les panneaux et les écrans d’information, mais il ne comprenait pas ce qui était écrit.

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Remember!

Ok. Let’s listen again to this first part of the story. Mon oncle travaille […]

“he looked at (the signs)…”

And one final, time… Mon oncle travaille […] Now, let’s talk about the expression … il a dû partir … That means, he had to leave…. In French, we have the verb devoir, combined with the infinitive of a second verb. Let’s hear another few examples. He had to revise… il a dû réviser.

“il a dû…” + infinitive

This past tense – le passé composé – relies heavily on the verb “avoir”: j’ai...........................I have tu as........................you have il/elle/on a...............he/she/one has nous avons.............we have vous avez................you have ils/elles ont.............they have Remember that the French don’t say “I ate…”: they say “I have eaten…” • il a regardé… = he has looked at…

“He had to take the train…”: il a dû prendre le train. “He had to sign a contract…” il a dû signer un contrat.

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© Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.

Lesson 04: Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 Level: intermediate. the verb “devoir”: il a dû + infinitive the pronoun “y” understanding directions the perfect tense: avoir + past participle the expression “pour que…” an introduction to the Imperfect

Dialogue

• • • • • •

Now, Amélie, we should remind our listeners that il a dû is an example of … le passé composé. That is, the past tense. Now, this past tense consists of the auxiliary verb, avoir: in this case, that’s… il a followed by the past participle of the verb devoir, that’s… dû.

dû

Ila dû…. As we explained, we can now put the infinitive of any verb after this. Now, if this sounds a little complicated, don’t forget that you can find all this information in our PDF Guides, downloadable from www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com. Amélie, let’s continue with our story. Your uncle, like many people, he had difficulties getting around Charles de Gaulle airport. What did he do next? Ton oncle, qu’a-t-il fait ? Il a demandé à une femme à côté de lui où est-ce qu’il devait aller.

= past participle of “devoir”. Remember the accent circonflexe on the letter “û”. Without that accent, we have a different word altogether!

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Qu’a répondu la femme ? Elle lui a dit : « Le vol en provenance de Berlin ? C’est le tapis numéro 3. Pour y aller, c’est très facile. Vous allez tout droit, au bout de ce couloir, vous tournez à droite. Là, vous passez le contrôle de police. Ensuite vous tournez à gauche et vous allez voir les tapis à bagages. » Et alors ? Il a trouvé ? Le tapis à bagages, oui. Mais pas sa valise ! Let’s hear this second section of the story once again. Let’s see if our listeners can understand the directions given to get to the baggage reclaim. Ton oncle, qu’a-t-il fait? Il a demandé à une femme […] Now, let’s pause for a moment to discuss the expression, “Pour y aller, c’est facile”. Y is an important word which has several meanings, in fact. Often, it means there. Notice that it comes in front of the verb: Pour y aller… “… to go there”. How would we say, for example, “We sometimes eat there”?… Nous y mangeons parfois.

“y” y = “there”. Remember that it comes in front of the verb.

And, “They do their shopping there”?… Ils y font les courses.


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Dialogue

• • • • • •


Now, on another topic, when giving directions, the person said… Allez tout droit…

directions

Then… Tournez à droite…

l’imperatif

And then… Passez le contrôle…

The “imperative” is the form of the verb which is used when someone is ordering you to do something. In the case of a large number of verbs which end in –er, the imperative has a distinctive –ez ending.

And finally… Tournez à gauche… We have several important verbs which relate to giving and receiving directions: aller, tourner, passer. It’s important to remember, too – when someone in the street is giving us directions, for example – we’ll hear the formal, “command form” of the verb, in other words the imperative. In the case of regular, –er verbs like tourner and passer, we’ll hear the distinctive –ez ending. For “turn left”, we’d hear… Tournez à gauche… While, in the case of “Go past the information desk”, we would have… Passez le bureau d’informations… Let’s move on to the next part of our story. When your uncle couldn’t find his suitcase, what happened next? Que s’est-il passé ensuite?… Il a attendu pendant une heure et quand il a vu qu’il n’y avait plus de bagages, il a compris que son bagage n’était pas arrivé.

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Qu’est-ce qu’il a fait ? Et bien, il a cherché où était le bureau des réclamations. Cette fois-ci, ça n’a pas été difficile ! Il est toujours situé près des tapis à bagages. Ce qui a été plus dur, c’était de remplir toutes les formalités ! Let’s hear this again. Que s’est-il passé ensuite?… Il a attendu […]

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Dialogue

• • • • • •

Now, earlier we said that il a dû was an example of le passé composé, that is the past tense. We have several other examples here: • il a attendu… • il a vu… • il a compris… • il a cherché…

past participles

We know that il a is the auxiliary verb, avoir. The problem is, though, remembering all these past participles: • attendu • vu • compris • cherché

Remember!

We must remember, when we meet a new verb, we must learn the infinitive – that is, the form of the verb we find in the dictionary – and the past participle. We’ll need to know this past participle to speak and write about events in the past.

Past participles are essential when working in the past tense. Consider these sentences in English: • He has stated many times that… • She has spoken to him about it… • They have played badly twice in succession.

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Now, to finish our story, your uncle found himself at an information desk. Qu’est-ce qu’ils lui ont demandé exactement? Tout d’abord, le numéro de vol et sa carte d’embarquement. Puis le billet d’avion, ou au moins le reçu. Il a dû également fournir le coupon de sa valise perdue.

Et ensuite? Ensuite, la personne a tenté, grâce à un ordinateur, de localiser le bagage. Heureusement pour mon oncle, sa valise était en fait restée à Berlin. Il a donné ses coordonnées, c’està-dire l’adresse de l’hôtel, son numéro de chambre et son numéro de téléphone, pour que la compagnie le prévienne de l’arrivée de son bagage. Il était assez énervé ! Let’s hear that section one more time. Qu’est-ce qu’ils lui ont demandé exactement? Tout d’abord [… ] Once again, we have further examples of le passé composé. How did you say that the person tried to find his luggage?… La personne a tenté de localiser… “La personne a ténté de” – “The person tried to…”. Then you said that “He gave his details…”: Oui. Il a donné ses coordonnées…


The bold words are past participles: when learning French verbs, make sure to learn the past participles, too.

Remember! infinitive............ past participle tenter.................. tenté donner................ donné jurer.................... juré It’s easy to figure out the past participle of regular verbs which end in –er. The ending of the participle will simply be: –é. The pronunciation of infinitive and past participle is the same in the case of such verbs.

la personne la personne (= person) is an unusual noun in French. It is feminine, even if we are talking about a male! “La personne qui répond…” (= “The person who is answering…”) could, in fact, be a man named Pierre!

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Dialogue

• • • • • •


In a few moments, in the final section, we’ll also hear: “He swore (he wouldn’t take that airline again)…” Mon oncle a juré … So, we have three further past participles here: tenté, donné, juré. In fact, these three are easy ones because they come from regular verbs, ending in –er. The past participle for this kind of verb has an –é as its ending. Now, there’s another expression we should look at: it’s the expression pour que… which is technically called a conjunction as it links two parts of a sentence.

“pour que…”

You said he provided his details so that they could let him know when his luggage arrived. How did you say that, again?… Il a donné ses coordonnées pour que la compagnie aérienne le prévienne…

pour que… means “so that” or “in order that”.

Pour que… – that’s the key expression. Let’s take one more example: Peux-tu m’appeler pour que je sache que tu es bien arrivée? “… pour que je sache” – “… so that I’ll know you arrived safely”. Now, let’s take the final section of our story. Did everything turn out ok for your uncle? Tout s’est donc bien fini?… Plus ou moins ! La valise est arrivée le lendemain matin, mais elle était très abîmée! La poignée était cassée, il y avait une grosse tache d’huile sur un côté et un trou sur l’autre côté. Mon oncle a juré de ne plus jamais reprendre cette compagnie aérienne !

This link expression – technically called a “conjunction” – is followed by a special form of the verb called the subjunctive. We’ll study the subjunctive in greater detail later.

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And, one more time… Tout s’est donc bien fini?… Plus ou moins ! […] So, your uncle got his suitcase back, but not quite in the same condition as it originally was. Amélie, how did you say “It was damaged…”? Elle était abîmée. “Elle était abîmée” – “It was damaged”. The imperfect tense of the verb être. How did you say “the handle was broken…”? La poignée était cassée. How did you say “there was a big oil stain on one side…”? Il y avait une grosse tache d’huile sur le côté. “Il y avait…” – That’s the Imperfect form of the expression

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Vocab extra!


Dialogue

• • • • • •

“Il y a…”. These are just a few examples of the imperfect tense which is used when describing something in the past. We’ll be discussing this tense in greater detail later. Once again, there’s a lot of material to digest in this lesson. To our listeners, don’t forget to download our accompanying PDF Guide from our website at www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com. Finally, if you’re enjoying our podcasts, why not send us some feedback? To do that, you can click the link on the last page of our PDF Guide or visit our website. We look forward to hearing from you. So, Amélie, until next time! A la prochaine!

Now it’s your turn…

If you understood our lesson, then you should be ready for the following… 1. I looked at the signs. 2. I had to take the train. 3. Pierre and Philippe had to sign a contract. 4. Caroline sings there. [to sing = chanter] 5. Go right. Then go left. [then = ensuite] 6. I waited for two hours. 7. We saw John. 8. We gave our details. [our = nos]

click! See the answers at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/FTEW_pages/answers.htm

Do you have a question?… Submit it to us at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/FTEW_pages/question.htm click!


• abîmé...................damaged • aller......................to go • alors......................so • après.....................after • arrivée (f).............arrival • attendre................to wait for • atterrissage (m)....landing • avion (m)..............airplane • billet (m)..............ticket • bout, au ~ de........at the end of • ça..........................that • carte (f)................card • cassé.....................broken • ce, cette................this • chambre (f)..........bedroom • chercher................to look for • comprendre..........to understand • contrat (m)...........contract • contrôle (m)..........check(point) • coordonnées (f pl).details • couloir (m)............corridor • courses (f pl).........shopping • décollage (m).......take-off • dernier..................last • devoir...................to have to • droit, tout ~.........straight on • droite, à ~............(on/to the) right • écran (m)..............screen • écrire....................to write • embarquement.....embarcation • énervé..................annoyed • ensuite..................then • espérer..................to hope • fois (f)...................time • fournir..................to provide • grâce à..................thanks to • heure (f)...............hour • heureusement......thankfully • huile (f)................oil • lendemain matin..following morning • mais......................but • mois (m)...............month • panneau (m).........sign • par........................by • partir....................to leave • pendant................during, for • perdu....................lost • pharmaceutique...pharmaceutical • poignée (f)...........handle, grip • prendre.................to take, to get • prévenir................to warn, to notify • provenance, en ~ de.. from • puis.......................then • réclamation (f).....claim • reçu (m)................receipt • récupérer..............to collect • regarder................to look at • remplir..................to fill (out/in) • rester....................to stay, to remain • réviser...................to revise • rien de grave.........nothing serious • signer...................to sign • situé......................situated • sortir.....................to go out • tache (f)................stain • tapis (m)...............conveyor, carpet • tenter....................to try • toujours................always, still • trou (m)................hole • valise (f)...............suitcase • vol (m)..................flight • voyage (m) d’affaires...............business trip

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