LEARN FRENCH BY PODCAST AUDIO PODCASTS FOR LEARNERS OF FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE Lesson 23 Sorry, I can t make it tonight 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 Learn French by Podcast. My name is Hugh Nagle and here with me is Amélie Verdier. Bonjour, Amélie! Bonjour! In this lesson, we re going to see how to cancel an engagement that we ve arranged but that we now want to defer. Before we get started, remember that the PDF Guide which accompanies this lesson contains the complete transcript of our conversation and a lot more information besides. You can download that Guide right away from our website at www.learnfrenchbypodcast. com. Now, let s start with a short dialogue. Then we ll come back and look more closely at the conversation, piece by piece. Allons-y! Allô, Xavier? Oui. Ecoute, je suis vraiment désolée, mais je ne vais pas pouvoir venir ce soir. J ai eu une journée épuisante et je suis crevée! Ah non, tu peux pas me faire ça! Ça fait trois semaines qu on en parle de cette soirée! Là, tu me déçois beaucoup! Bah, on remet ça à une autre fois! Tiens, par exemple, mardi! Bon, bah écoute, repose-toi bien et on se tient au courant! A plus! Salut! Let s hear the conversation again, a second time Allô, Xavier? Oui. Ecoute, je suis vraiment désolée, mais je ne vais pas pouvoir venir ce soir. J ai eu une journée épuisante et je suis crevée! Ah non, tu peux pas me faire ça! Ça fait trois semaines qu on en parle de cette soirée! Là, tu me déçois beaucoup! Bah, on remet ça à une autre fois! Tiens, par exemple, mardi! Bon, bah écoute, repose-toi bien et on se tient au courant! A plus! Salut! je suis désolée Amélie is talking so we need an extra e for the feminine form of the adjective. je vais Remember the verb aller it s essential in the formation of the Futur immédiat. That s the future tense which is used to say: I m going (to visit Jack, etc). aller to go je vais tu vas il / elle / on va nous allons vous allez ils / elles vont j ai eu Here s avoir in the passé composé: I have had (an exhausting day). eu is the past participle of avoir. tu me déçois That s you re disappointing me. Note the syntax: the object pronoun me comes in front of the verb in French. décevoir to disappoint je déçois* tu déçois* il / elle / on déçoit* nous decevons vous decevez ils / elles déçoivent* *Watch the cedilla accent for these parts of the verb. Before the broad vowel o, in this case it ensures that the ç will sound like an s, (not a k ). Where you see this symbol it s your turn to repeat what you ve heard. Then we ll repeat once more. Bah, There s no real equivalent in English in this case, it s simply an expression of frustration. Tiens, The verb tenir often means to hold. In this kind of situation, however, it equates to Hey! (How about ) or Hold (on a minute)! (For example, (we could do Tuesday)) A plus. The equivalent of A plus tard, this means (Un)til later! Note that the s is pronounced.
The first thing we need to say here, is I m sorry. That s Je suis désolée. Je suis désolée. You emphasised that further by saying you were very sorry, or truly sorry. That s Je suis vraiment désolée. I m not going to be able to is a useful formula. Once again, we ll need that vital verb, pouvoir. We ll say Je ne vais pas pouvoir Je ne vais pas pouvoir and we ll follow that with the infinitive appropriate to our situation. Here, you couldn t come over this evening, so we heard Je ne vais pas pouvoir venir Je ne vais pas pouvoir venir Je ne vais pas pouvoir venir That s I m not going to be able to come. We can change the red infinitive to create other possibilities: Je ne vais pas pouvoir lui rendre visite. [I m not going to be able to visit him.] Il ne va pas pouvoir l acheter. [He s not going to be able to buy it.] Nous n allons pas pouvoir y aller. [We re not going to be able to go there.] In a different context, if you weren t going to be able to participate, you d say Je ne vais pas pouvoir participer Or, to take one more example They aren t going to be able to pay their debts Ils ne vont pas pouvoir payer leurs dettes. Ils ne vont pas pouvoir payer leurs dettes. Referring to our original conversation, you couldn t make it because you had an exhausting day. How do we say that? J ai eu une journée épuisante J ai eu une journée épuisante J ai eu, let s remember that that s the verb avoir in the passé composé the Perfect tense. Now, if an exhausting day is une journée épuisante, an exhausting week would be une semaine épuisante une semaine épuisante and, an exhausting morning une matinée épuisante une matinée épuisante une journée épuisante Watch and listen out for the feminine ending of the adjective épuisante (which must agree with the feminine noun une journée ). Where you see this symbol it s your turn to repeat what you ve heard. Then we ll repeat once more. In this situation, you could simply say Je suis très fatigué. Je suis très fatigué.
But, another adjective that is worth remembering is to describe our state if we really shattered. The expression we re looking for is: Je suis crevée. Je suis crevée. Imagine your sister has just played a tough basketball game. Now she s shattered. You ll say. Elle est crevée. Elle est crevée. Xavier was disappointed that you weren t going to be able to make it. He used a common expression Ah non, tu ne peux pas me faire ça! Ah non, tu ne peux pas me faire ça! Je suis crevée If Xavier was speaking, we d simply have: Je suis crevé. The pronunciation would be the same as for the feminine, but the silent e is necessary when we re writing. Ah non, tu ne peux pas me faire ça! Where you see this symbol it s your turn to repeat what you ve heard. Then we ll repeat once more. That s an easy and useful expression: again, we meet the verb pouvoir, followed by the infinitive faire. He said: you re letting me down or You re really disappointing me! That was Là, tu me déçois beaucoup. This is the verb décevoir in the Present Tense. Let s hear it again Tu me déçois beaucoup. Let s try another couple of variations on this: He s disappointing her. Il la déçoit. Il la déçoit. She s disappointing him. Elle le déçoit. Before moving away from this verb décevoir we must mention the past participle déçu which means disappointed. I am disappointed is: Je suis déçu Je suis déçu We must make one very important point here, about the Present tense in French. You disappoint me (that is, in general) and You re disappointing me (right now) are both translated by the expression Tu me déçois. The Present Tense in French covers both situations. The same goes for I eat and I am eating, and so on. Literally, you can t do that to me! Notice, again, the position of the direct object pronoun me. It s in front of the verb, as we ve come to expect. Là, tu me déçois Là with the important accent grave often means there. Remember, in particular là-bas = (over) there. Here, though, it s more like Now, you re disappointing me Je suis déçu That is, I m disappointed. In terms of the possible agreements, we could also find: Elle est déçue. Ils sont déçus. Elles sont déçues. Despite these different spellings/ agreements, the pronunication of each of the bold words is the same!
Now Xavier, said you d both been talking about this arrangement for three weeks. To convey the meaning that we ve been doing something for a period of time requires the expression Ça fait, followed by the period of time. Let s listen to Xavier s expression again, Ça fait trois semaines qu on parle de cette soirée Ça fait trois semaines que You remedied the situation by suggesting an alternative. How did you say that? On remet ça à une autre fois On remet ça à une autre fois That s the verb remettre à which means to put back or to defer. Xavier doesn t really commit to the new arrangement, one way or the other. He simply says we ll keep in touch! How should we say that? On se tient au courant. That s the verb tenir used reflexively. Let s hear it again On se tient au courant. On se tient au courant. Ça fait trois semaines que We can replace the red period of time for other possibilities: Ça fait quatre jours qu il reste chez lui. [It s been four days that he s stayed at home.] Ça fait trois mois que j apprends le français avec Learn French by Podcast. [I ve been learning French with LFBP for three months.] On remet ça à une autre fois. That s We ll put that off until another time. Once again, the red part could change: On remet ça à la semaine prochaine. [We ll put that back until next week.] On remet notre réunion au trente. [We ll put our meeting off until the 30th.] Now that we ve taken a closer look at this conversation, let s hear it, once again, right through. Before we do that, don t forget to visit our site at www.learnfrenchbypodcast. com and download the accompanying PDF Guide which will provide even more information about this short dialogue. Here it is once again. Allô, Xavier? Oui. Ecoute, je suis vraiment désolée, mais je ne vais pas pouvoir venir ce soir. J ai eu une journée épuisante et je suis crevée! Ah non, tu peux pas me faire ça! Ça fait trois semaines qu on en parle de cette soirée! Là, tu me déçois beaucoup! Bah, on remet ça à une autre fois! Tiens, par exemple, mardi! Bon, bah écoute, repose-toi bien et on se tient au courant! A plus! Salut! Ok, Amélie, we ve learned in this short lesson a practical task how to postpone something. Until next time! A la prochaine! On se tient se tenir je me tiens tu te tiens il / elle / on se tient nous nous tenons vous vous tenez ils / elles se tiennent I keep myself updated would be: Je me tiens au courant. écoute, repose-toi [= listen, rest (yourself) ] But écouter and (se) reposer are 1st group, er verbs, right? I thought the 2nd person, singular of these verbs has an s at the end: tu écoutes, tu te reposes. What s going on? Well, this is absolutely true, but in the Imperative (command) form, the final s is dropped for 1st group verbs.
If you understood our lesson, then you should be able to translate Now it s your turn Any questions? 1. I m not going to be able to fly on that day. [ ce jour-là] 2. She s not going to be able to work. 3. We re not going to be able to call you. 4. They re not going to be able to find the hotel. 5. Jim has had an exhausting week. 6. Sophie and Carole are exhausted. 7. I m extremely disappointed by the quality of the service. [ la qualité du service] 8. Jacques has been doing judo for two years. [ faire du judo] 9. She keeps up to date with the situation. See the answers at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/ftew_pages/answers.htm Submit them to us at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/ftew_pages/question.htm Vocab extra! Allô... Hello (on the phone) apprendre... to learn autre... other beaucoup... a lot ce, cette... this courant, au ~... in-the-know, up-to-speed crevé... exhausted décevoir... to disappoint désolé... sorry écouter... to listen épuisant... exhausting exemple, par ~... for example fois (f)... time, occasion français (m)... French (language) journée (f)... day mais... but mardi... Tuesday parler... to speak, to talk plus, à ~!... See you! pouvoir... to be able reposer, se ~... to rest (oneself) réunion (f)... meeting salut!... hello, bye semaine (f)... week soir (m)... evening soirée (f)... evening, night out trois... three venir... to come vraiment... really, truly Any comments? Submit them to us at http://www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com/ftew_pages/feedback.htm