French Language Blog

Today’s DMCV is a SPÉCIAL HALLOWEEN !

If you’re still at a loss as to what déguisement de Halloween (meaning Halloween costume) to wear, you may -or may not!- consider this special French character, who has (well, almost) nothing in common with the “usual suspects” of French stereotypes you got used to see in TV, such as l’Inspecteur Clouseau, or Pépé le Putois, a.k.a. in English “Pepe le Pew”!

               
                           His cri de guerre is “Vengeaaaaaaaaaaaance” ! ! !
                                                     (“Reveeeeeeeeenge ! ! !”)

In fact, no other character has ever managed to be both assoiffé de sang (bloodthirsty) and attachant (endearing) in the same time!

Alors, quelle est son histoire ? (So, what’s his story?)

Tout a commencé un beau jour de printemps (Everything started a beautiful Spring day), when a happy bunch of kids decided to go camping…

Quand tout à coup (When all of a sudden)…

- “Mais pourquoi est-il si méchant ?” (“But why is he so mean?”)
- “Parcequeeeeeeeeeeeee ! ! !” (“Just because! ! !”)

By the way, if you’re still under the shock of the previous terrifying scene, we may divert your attention for a second to the song that the happy bunch were singing at the beginning of their trip.

It goes like this:

Un éléphant se balançait
Sur une toile, toile, toile d’araignée,
C’était un jeu… tellement amusant
Qu’il appela… un… deuxième éléphant

Deux éléphants se balançaient
Sur une toile, toile, toile d’araignée,
C’était un jeu tellement amusant
Qu’ils appelèrent… un troisième éléphant


                         Notice how the last “BA-DA-BOUM” goes!
                        “Aïe,  ça fait mal” ! (“Ouch, that hurts!”) 

Which Mamalisa translates as:

An elephant was balancing
On a web, web, a spider web,
It was a game that was so much fun
That he called…. a second elephant.

Two elephants were balancing
On a web, web, a spider web,
It was a game that was so much fun
That they called… a third elephant.

And so on, until they reach the part where they say:

“Quand tout d’un coup… BaDaBouM !“  (“Then all of a sudden… Badaboum!”)

And just when you thought that the Orangina Rouge was forever gone, with his terrifying tronçonneuse (chainsaw), devinez ce qui s’est passé (Guess what happened?)

“Ohh, he just assaulted us with a chainsaw and wants to cut us into pieces, but… le pauvre (poor thing), he got hit by un camion (a truck)!”

But juste une seconde (just a sec’), before we do that that, let’s make sure you bookmark all the previous posts, because what you’ll end up saving as a référence personnelle is an essential guide that will help you overcome the informal French barrier so often met by foreign students, especially when they go to France for the first time and hear French people speak among themselves (“Zut alors, it’s all Greek to me!”), or when they watch French movies, or even listen to French songs!

     
This is a “concrete” (uhm) example of a ”bétonnière qu’on a laissé béton”… - Roughly translated: A concrete mixer which was ”dropped like it’s hot.”  If you still don’t get it, then, well, laisse béton… Or just read the section below!

Once again, the links to the previous posts are listed here alphabétiquement.
 Les voici, les voilà:
 
- A: * B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘A’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘A’)
- B: * B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’)
        * B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘B’ [Cont.] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘B’ [Cont.])
- C: * “C comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘C’)
        * “C comme…(Ça Continue!)” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French   Slang: ‘C’ [cont.])
- D: * “D comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘D’)
- E: * “E comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot (the ABC of French Slang: ‘E’)
- F: * “F comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘F’ [1] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘F’ [1]) 
        * “F comme…” B.A.-BA de l’Argot: ‘F’ [2] (the ABC of French Slang: ‘F’ [2])
- G: * More French Slang! B.A.-BA de l’Argot: “Lettre G” (1ère partie)
        * More French SLANG! B.A.-BA de l’Argot: “Lettre G” (2ème partie)—and ATTENTION aux MEUPORGs!
        * “GRATOS!” and other ‘G’ French Slang words (3ème partie)
- I:     * ‘I’ comme “Illico Presto!”—and more from le B.A.-BA de l’Argot (The ABC of French Slang)
- J:  * Madame JE-SAIS-TOUT (and more of the ABC of French Slang!)
- K: “Hey KEUM, Tu KIFFES l’argot ou KOI?” (an enKore of the ABC of French Slang) 

* * *

I started studying French in middle school, and by 8^th grade, I had learned everything. All I needed was a little more vocabulary, and I’d be fluent.

Grammar cat is watching your past tenses.

Then I came into class one day, and my teacher said, Alors la classe, aujourd’hui on va commencer le passé composé, a form of past tense.

Oh putain (oh crap).

Past tense. Connaissez-vous bien le passé? It turns out you need it, and you all are smarter than me: you recognized that one needs to be able to express things in the past (le passé).

Alors, comme vous l’avez demandé (merci surtout à Claire): past tenses ! Plus spécifiquement, le passé composé v. l’imparfait. Today, le passé composé ; next time, l’imparfait !

I. Le passé composé

A. Le passé composé is used for an action or series of actions completed in the past. It has three possible meanings in English: For example, j’ai dansé can mean “I danced,” “I have danced,” or “I did dance” (with emphasis).

Le passé composé is called the composed past because it is composed of two components:

1.     The present tense of the auxiliary verb, either avoir or être, PLUS

2.     The past participle of the action verb

So: (subject) + (être or avoir, conjugated) + (main verb, in past participle form).

For example: I danced yesterday = J’ai dansé hier, where the main verb, danser, takes avoir (=> J’ai) and the past participle of danser (to dance) is dansé.

B. While irregular verbs have irregular past participles, there is a pattern for regular verbs: -er verbs end in é, while –ir end in i and –re verbs end in –u. Exemples:

Regarder = regardé

Partir = parti

Répondre = répondu

C. The past participle agrees in gender with an indirect object, but does not agree with the subject (so a girl and a boy both say “J’ai regardé” without the girl needing to add an extra ‘e’).

D. To use le passé composé, you need to know the past participle of the verb, and whether to use avoir or être.

All right, her name is Serena van der Woodsen, but "van der Tramp" works too...

The rule is, all verbs take avoir, except reflexive verbs (with se) and DRMRSVANDERTRAMP.

Dr. & Mrs. Van Der Tramp (kind of like van der Woodsen; who watches “Gossip Girl”?) is a mnemonic for the 21 verbs that take être instead of avoir. They are all related to movement.

DRMRSVANDERTRAMP (verbs that take être) stands for:

Devenir : to become
Revenir : to return, to come again
Monter : to go up
Rester : to rest, stay
Sortir : to exit
Venir : to come
Aller : to go
Naître : to be born
Descendre : to go down
Entrer : to enter
Rentrer : to reenter, to return
Tomber : to fall
Retourner : to return
Arriver : to arrive
Mourir : to die
Partir : to leave, to depart

For more practice with le passé composé, try this Byki list.

L’imparfait is used for repeated, incomplete or ongoing actions. On va l’étudier prochainement. I hope this has helped- leave questions and we’ll examine them next time!

Finalement, des mauvaises nouvelles (bad news):

Paul est mort.

It’s passé composé: Paul (subject) est (verbe être, conjugated with the subject) mort (past participle of mourir, to die). Vous l’avez compris? Did you understand it?

RIP cher ami.