et
(ay)
Now say, “and then paid the bill”.
et puis payé l’addition
(ay pwee pay-ay la-dis-yon)
Let’s put those bits together again and say “I booked a table, ordered the dinner and then paid the bill.”
J’ai réservé une table, commandé le dîner et puis payé l’addition.
(zhay ray-zurv-ay oon tarb-luh, comm-on-day luh din-ay ay pwee pay-ay la-dis-yon)
And let’s add the final bit onto it all. Again, how would you say “what is it that”?
Qu’est-ce que
(kess-kuh)
Plus, as I mentioned earlier, “you have done” in French is:
vous avez fait
(voo za-vay fay)
So, how would you say “what have you done?” / “what did you do?” (literally “what is it that you have done?”)?
Qu’est-ce que vous avez fait?
(kess-kuh voo za-vay fay)
Let’s combine absolutely everything together now and (taking your time to think it out) say “I booked a table, ordered dinner and then paid the bill. What did you do?”
J’ai réservé une table, commandé le dîner et puis payé l’addition. Qu’est-ce que vous avez fait?
(zhay ray-zurv-ay oon tarb-luh, comm-on-day luh din-ay, ay pwee pay-ay la-dis-yon. kess-kuh voo za-vay fay)
How did you find that final, complex sentence? Try it a few more times, even if you’ve got it right, until you feel comfortable constructing it. Every time you practise building these long sentences, the naturalness and fluidity of your spoken French will improve and your confidence in speaking will get better along with it.
Building Blocks 2
It’s time to add some new building blocks to the mix. As before, it will be just six new ones. Here they are:
* literally “a chamber”.
Once more, these new building blocks have been put into four piles. As previously, what I want you to do is to make sentences with them, each time using one building block from the first pile, one from the second, one from the third and one from the fourth. Make as many sentences as you can!
* literally “a chamber”.
Checklist 2
You have now reached your second checklist. Remember, don’t skip anything! The checklists are essential if you want what you’ve learnt to remain in your memory for the long term.
So again, cover up the English words on the right-hand side while you read through the list of French words on the left, trying to recall what they mean in English. If you can go through the entire list, giving the correct English meaning for each of the French words / expressions without making more than three mistakes in total, then you’re done. If not, then go through the list again. Keep doing this, either working from the top of the list to the bottom or from the bottom to the top (it doesn’t matter which) until you can do it without making more than three mistakes.
Okay. Ready, set, go!
| le week-end (luh weekend) | the weekend |
| démocratique2 (day-moe-kra-teek) | democratic |
| économique (ay-kon-oh-meek) | economic |
| psychologique (psee-ko-lozh-eek) | psychological |
| identique (ee-don-teek) | identical |
| J’ai (zhay) | I have |
| visité (visit-ay) | visited |
| J’ai visité (zhay visit-ay) | I have visited / I visited / I did visit |
| Paris (pa-ree) | Paris |
| Notre-Dame (not-re darm) | Notre-Dame |
| J’ai visité Notre-Dame. (zhay visit-ay not-re darm) | I have visited Notre-Dame / I visited Notre-Dame / I did visit Notre-Dame. |
| passé (pass-ay) | spent |
| J’ai passé (zhay pass-ay) | I have spent / I spent / I did spend |
| Vous avez (voo za-vay) | You have |
| Vous avez passé (voo za-vay pass-ay) | You have spent / You spent / You did spend |
| Nous avons (noo za-von) | We have |
| Nous avons passé (noo za-von pass-ay) | We have spent / We spent / We did spend |
| septembre (sep-tom-bruh) | September |
| Noël (no-ell) | Christmas |
| à Paris (a pa-ree) | in Paris |
| en France (on fronce) | in France |
| en Suisse (on swees) | in Switzerland |
|
Nous avons passé Noël en Suisse.
|