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Lesson

A problem at the airport!

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

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

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

Dialogue

Hello once again, and welcome to Learn French by Podcast. My name is Hugh Nagle and here with me is Amlie Verdier. Welcome back, Amlie! Bonjour! Our first few lessons have been aimed at beginners or at least those with only a little French. Today, though, were going to target Intermediate listeners. Amlie, well be talking about larrive de mon oncle laroport de Paris Charles de Gaulle. That is, your uncles arrival in France, from Germany. So, when he arrived, what happened, exactly? Quest-ce qui sest pass au juste? Bon, alors mon oncle travaille dans une entreprise pharmaceutique Berlin. Le mois dernier il a d partir en voyage daffaires Paris. Le vol sest bien pass, jespre? Oui, oui. Quelques turbulences au dcollage mais rien de grave. Aprs latterrissage, il a cherch o est-ce que lon rcupre les bagages. Mais laroport de CDG est trs grand et il y a beaucoup de tapis bagages! Il a regard les panneaux et les crans dinformation, mais il ne comprenait pas ce qui tait crit. Ok. Lets listen again to this first part of the story. Mon oncle travaille [] And one final, time Mon oncle travaille [] Now, lets talk about the expression il a d partir That means, he had to leave. In French, we have the verb devoir, combined with the infinitive of a second verb. Lets hear another few examples. He had to revise il a d rviser. He had to take the train: il a d prendre le train. He had to sign a contract il a d signer un contrat.

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Remember!
he looked at (the signs) This past tense le pass compos relies heavily on the verb avoir: jai...........................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 dont say I ate: they say I have eaten il a regard = he has looked at

il a d + infinitive

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Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.

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

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

Dialogue

Now, Amlie, we should remind our listeners that il a d is an example of le pass compos. That is, the past tense. Now, this past tense consists of the auxiliary verb, avoir: in this case, thats il a followed by the past participle of the verb devoir, thats d. Ila d. As we explained, we can now put the infinitive of any verb after this. Now, if this sounds a little complicated, dont forget that you can find all this information in our PDF Guides, downloadable from www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com. Amlie, lets 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, qua-t-il fait? Il a demand une femme ct de lui o est-ce quil devait aller. Qua rpondu la femme? Elle lui a dit: Le vol en provenance de Berlin? Cest le tapis numro 3. Pour y aller, cest trs facile. Vous allez tout droit, au bout de ce couloir, vous tournez droite. L, vous passez le contrle de police. Ensuite vous tournez gauche et vous allez voir les tapis bagages. Et alors? Il a trouv? Le tapis bagages, oui. Mais pas sa valise! Lets hear this second section of the story once again. Lets see if our listeners can understand the directions given to get to the baggage reclaim. Ton oncle, qua-t-il fait? Il a demand une femme [] Now, lets pause for a moment to discuss the expression, Pour y aller, cest 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. And, They do their shopping there? Ils y font les courses.

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

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

Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.

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

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

Dialogue

Now, on another topic, when giving directions, the person said Allez tout droit Then Tournez droite And then Passez le contrle And finally Tournez gauche We have several important verbs which relate to giving and receiving directions: aller, tourner, passer. Its important to remember, too when someone in the street is giving us directions, for example well hear the formal, command form of the verb, in other words the imperative. In the case of regular, er verbs like tourner and passer, well hear the distinctive ez ending. For turn left, wed hear Tournez gauche While, in the case of Go past the information desk, we would have Passez le bureau dinformations Lets move on to the next part of our story. When your uncle couldnt find his suitcase, what happened next? Que sest-il pass ensuite? Il a attendu pendant une heure et quand il a vu quil ny avait plus de bagages, il a compris que son bagage ntait pas arriv. Quest-ce quil a fait? Et bien, il a cherch o taitle bureau des rclamations. Cette fois-ci, a na pas t difficile! Il est toujours situ prs des tapis bagages. Ce qui a t plus dur, ctait de remplir toutes les formalits! Lets hear this again. Que sest-il pass ensuite? Il a attendu []

directions

limperatif
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.

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Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.

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

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

Dialogue

Now, earlier we said that il a d was an example of le pass compos, that is the past tense. We have several other examples here: il a attendu il a vu il a compris il a cherch We know that il a is the auxiliary verb, avoir. The problem is, though, remembering all these past participles: attendu vu compris cherch 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. Well need to know this past participle to speak and write about events in the past. Now, to finish our story, your uncle found himself at an information desk. Quest-ce quils lui ont demand exactement? Tout dabord, le numro de vol et sa carte dembarquement. Puis le billet davion, ou au moins le reu. Il a d galement fournir le coupon de sa valise perdue.

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

Et ensuite? Ensuite, la personne a tent, grce un ordinateur, de localiser le bagage. Heureusement pour mon oncle, sa valise tait en fait reste Berlin. Il a donn ses coordonnes, cest-dire ladresse de lhtel, son numro de chambre et son numro de tlphone, pour que la compagnie le prvienne de larrive de son bagage. Il tait assez nerv! Lets hear that section one more time. Quest-ce quils lui ont demand exactement? Tout dabord [ ] Once again, we have further examples of le pass compos. How did you say that the person tried to find his luggage? La personne a tent de localiser La personne a tnt de The person tried to. Then you said that He gave his details: Oui. Il a donn ses coordonnes

Remember!
infinitive. .......... past participle tenter.................. tent donner................ donn jurer.................... jur Its easy to figure out the past participle of regular verbs which end in er. The ending of the participle will simply be: . 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 rpond (= The person who is answering) could, in fact, be a man named Pierre!

Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.

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

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

Dialogue

In a few moments, in the final section, well also hear: He swore (he wouldnt take that airline again) Mon oncle a jur So, we have three further past participles here: tent, donn, jur. 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 as its ending. Now, theres another expression we should look at: its the expression pour que which is technically called a conjunction as it links two parts of a sentence. 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 donn ses coordonnes pour que la compagnie arienne le prvienne Pour que thats the key expression. Lets take one more example: Peux-tu mappeler pour que je sache que tu es bien arrive? pour que je sache so that Ill know you arrived safely. Now, lets take the final section of our story. Did everything turn out ok for your uncle? Tout sest donc bien fini? Plus ou moins! La valise est arrive le lendemain matin, mais elle tait trs abme! La poigne tait casse, il y avait une grosse tache dhuile sur un ct et un trou sur lautre ct. Mon oncle a jur de ne plus jamais reprendre cette compagnie arienne! And, one more time Tout sest donc bien fini? Plus ou moins! [] So, your uncle got his suitcase back, but not quite in the same condition as it originally was. Amlie, how did you say It was damaged? Elle tait abme. Elle tait abme It was damaged. The imperfect tense of the verb tre. How did you say the handle was broken? La poigne tait casse. How did you say there was a big oil stain on one side? Il y avait une grosse tache dhuile sur le ct. Il y avait Thats the Imperfect form of the expression

pour que

pour que
means so that or in order that.
This link expression technically called a conjunction is followed by a special form of the verb called the subjunctive. Well study the subjunctive in greater detail later.

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Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.

Vocab extra!

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

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

Il y a. These are just a few examples of the imperfect tense which is used when describing something in the past. Well be discussing this tense in greater detail later. Once again, theres a lot of material to digest in this lesson. To our listeners, dont forget to download our accompanying PDF Guide from our website at www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com. Finally, if youre 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, Amlie, until next time! A la prochaine!

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

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Submit it to us at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/FTEW_pages/question.htm click!

abm...................damaged aller......................to go alors. ....................so aprs. ...................after arrive (f).............arrival attendre. ..............to wait for atterrissage (m)....landing avion (m)..............airplane billet (m)..............ticket bout, au ~ de. ......at the end of a. ........................that carte (f)................card cass.....................broken ce, cette................this chambre (f)..........bedroom chercher. ..............to look for comprendre..........to understand contrat (m)...........contract contrle (m). ........check(point) coordonnes (f pl).details couloir (m)............corridor courses (f pl).........shopping dcollage (m).......take-off dernier. ................last devoir...................to have to droit, tout ~.........straight on droite, ~............(on/to the) right cran (m)..............screen crire....................to write embarquement. ...embarcation nerv..................annoyed ensuite. ................then esprer. ................to hope fois (f). .................time fournir..................to provide grce ..................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 poigne (f)...........handle, grip prendre.................to take, to get prvenir................to warn, to notify provenance, en ~ de. from puis. .....................then rclamation (f).....claim reu (m)................receipt rcuprer..............to collect regarder. ..............to look at remplir. ................to fill (out/in) rester....................to stay, to remain rviser. .................to revise rien de grave. .......nothing serious signer...................to sign situ. ....................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) daffaires...............business trip

Now its your turn

Dialogue

Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.