LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Lesson 17 She s not here right now would you like to leave a message? 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 to LFBP. My name is Hugh Nagle and with me is Amélie Verdier. Bonjour, Amélie! Bonjour! Today we have a very short lesson, but a practical one, nonetheless. We have to make a phonecall but, when we do, the person we re looking for isn t there. Let s hear, first of all, how the conversation might go Let s hear the conversation a second time vouloir [= to wish, to want] je veux tu veux il / elle / on veut nous voulons vous voulez ils / elles veulent past participle: voulu Voulez-vous? means Do you want? An even softer possibility would be the Conditional form: Voudriez-vous? [= Would you like to?] Note pour lui donner means, literally, to give [to] him my news. lui is an indirect object pronoun. Note that, depending on the situation, lui (as an indirect object pronoun) can also mean (to) her. In fact, there are two objects in this sentence: the indirect object is him, while the direct object is the news which will be conveyed. Study the table below which covers many but not all of the possibilities: direct object pronouns le [= him, it] la [= her, it] les [= them] indirect object pronouns lui [= (to) him, (to) her] leur [= (to) them] And, one final time Now, commonly in French, rather than a formula like This is Amélie Verdier, we say, literally, This is Amélie, at the handset. We need to remember that expression. It s: Amélie Verdier à l appareil. Amélie Verdier à l appareil. à l appareil note Est-ce que je peux la rappeler? means May I call her again [later]? la is one of those direct object pronouns we were talking about above. 2 Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.
We ll require the conditional form of the pouvoir, to ask if we could talk to the person we re looking for. We ll say Pourrais-je parler à Sophie? Pourrais-je parler à Sophie? Pourrais-je. Here, to create the question form, we have the inversion of the and the pronoun: Pourrais-je. Alternatively, we could say Est-ce que je pourrais Est-ce que je pourrais Once again, we can follow the pouvoir with almost any infinitive. Could I meet you at 10 o clock? would be Pourrais-je vous retrouver à 10 heures? Pourrais-je vous retrouver à 10 heures? And, to a friend, you d say Pourrais-je te retrouver à 10 heures? Pourrais-je te retrouver à 10 heures? Could I ask a favour? would be Pourrais-je vous demander un service? Pourrais-je vous demander un service? And, to your friend, you d say Pourrais-je te demander un service? Pourrais-je te demander un service? Now, we heard that Sophie wasn t there. The person at the other end of the phone said Elle n est pas là pour le moment Elle n est pas là pour le moment That s slightly strange. The word là can often mean there. For example, when I want to switch TV channels, I might ask Où est la télécommande? You see the remote on the table, and you say Elle est là. Elle est là. pouvoir: May I? pouvoir, au conditionnel, + infinitif là : there, here Note Pourrais-je means Could I. It s the pouvoir (to be able) in the Conditional Mood. Here, the subject je and pourrais are inverted to create the interrogative (question) form: Pourrais-je? When inversion occurs, a hyphen is placed between and subject. In other words, It s there! But, to come back to our telephone conversation, the person at the other end said She s not here Elle n est pas là. Elle n est pas là. So, in fact, là can mean both there and here, depending on the situation. Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved. 3
When you were asked if you d like to leave a message, you said it wasn t necessary, that you merely wanted to tell her your news. How did you say that again? C était juste pour lui donner de mes nouvelles. C était juste pour lui donner de mes nouvelles. mes nouvelles is my news. Now, an item of news or something interesting to tell you is If you ve heard something interesting and you can t wait to tell someone, you ll say Ecoute! J ai Ecoute! J ai Now, when Sophie wasn t there, you asked if you could call her back. You said Je peux la rappeler plus tard? Je peux la rappeler plus tard? That s, can I call her back later. Now if it was Joseph you were looking for, that formula would change. Instead, we d have Je peux le rappeler plus tard. Je peux le rappeler plus tard. Let s also note that the rappeler is a derivative of the appeler, to call. I m going to call Jack is Je vais appeler Jack Je vais appeler Jack And, I m going to call Jack again is Je vais rappeler Jack Je vais rappeler Jack Rather than the question form, you might simply say, I m going to call him back in the evening. That would be the Immediate Future. We d have Je vais le rappeler ce soir. Je vais le rappeler ce soir. To come back to the original conversation, the person on the other end of the phone said Sophie would be back around six o clock. We heard Elle va rentrer vers six heures. Elle va rentrer vers six heures. So, around 10 o clock would be vers 10 heures vers 10 heures des nouvelles, object pronouns: le, la appeler / rappeler vers Ecoute! écouter [= to listen] j écoute tu écoutes il / elle / on écoute nous écoutons vous écoutez ils / elles écoutent past participle: écouté Note that, in this situation, we have the Imperative (command) form: Ecoute! We re really saying you listen!, that is, tu écoutes In the Imperative, we drop the pronoun tu. Furthermore, the s is dropped in the case of regular er s. Why no accent on Ecoute? If an accented letter occurs at the beginning of a sentence, the accent is not required. Occasionally it is included, but is not necessary. In this case we might see either Ecoute or Écoute. aller [= to go] je vais tu vas il / elle / on va nous allons vous allez ils / elles vont past participle: allé In this situation, it s another example of the Immediate Future, that is, a combination of aller + infinitive to convey the meaning of what we re going to do. 4 Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved.
and, around midnight, will be vers minuit vers minuit Ok, Amélie. We ve picked up quite a few useful expressions here, today. Until next time! A la prochaine! If you understood our lesson, then you should be able to translate Vocab extra! Now it s your turn 1. [Hello.] Mike, here! [at the beginning of a phone conversation] 2. May I speak to Joe? 3. Could we meet you at three o clock? 4. Could they come at 8 o clock? 5. They re not here right now. 6. May I call him back later? 7. May he call her back later? 8. He s going to call her back around 6 o clock. See the answers at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/ftew_pages/answers.htm appareil (m)... device, machine appeler... to call beaucoup... a lot bien, très ~... very good bonjour... hello c était... it was ce... this donner... to give heures, six ~... six o clock juste... just, simply là... there, here moment, pour le ~.. for the moment, right now nouvelle (f)... item of news parler... to speak, to talk peu, un ~... a little rappeler... to call again rentrer... to come back, to return revoir, au ~... goodbye soir (m)... evening tard, plus ~... later télécommande (f)... remote control vers... around Any questions? Submit them to us at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/ftew_pages/question.htm Any comments? Submit them to us at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/ftew_pages/feedback.htm Plus Publications, 2006. All rights reserved. 5