French People Never Say “Je fus”
If you’ve been learning French for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that spoken French isn’t just written French spoken out loud. There are a ton of “unwritten rules” in spoken French that make it almost a completely different language than the written French you may have learned in school.
Unfortunately, this does mean that some of the French you learned in the classroom isn’t really helpful if you want to focus on having conversations or even just understanding everyday spoken French. For example, we never use le passé simple. (Sorry if you spent a ton of time memorizing those conjugation tables when you were younger!)
In today’s lesson, I’ll explain why le passé simple is never really used. I’ll also give you examples of what you can use instead, with some practice exercises.
0:00 - Intro
0:31 - Don’t use “le passé simple”
3:20 - Your turn now: Practice!
12:35 - Final Challenge
⭐ DOWNLOAD THE PDF OF THIS LESSON
* Read, save and/or print the full written lesson here (free) - www.commeunefrancaise.com/blo...
✉️ RECEIVE GÉRALDINE’S FREE NEWSLETTER
* I show you how to improve your French fluency every Saturday. Subscribe here: www.commeunefrancaise.com/you...
🇫🇷 LEARN FRENCH WITH GÉRALDINE
* Ready to see faster progress in your spoken French fluency through consistent practice? Sign up for our next 30-Day French Challenge: school.commeunefrancaise.com/...
🥐 EXPLORE THE COMME UNE FRANÇAISE WEBSITE
* Actual spoken French is almost a completely different language than technical written French, which is what you were taught in schools. We specialize in everyday spoken French: speaking and understanding it, at all ages and levels. - www.commeunefrancaise.com/
✅ SUBSCRIBE SO YOU DON’T MISS ANY EPISODES
www.youtube.com/@Commeunefran...
At Comme une Française, we specialize in everyday spoken French. We focus on three unique aspects that are different from school French, self-study books, Duolingo, etc:
1. We focus only on the specifics of speaking/understanding/being understood in everyday French and have unique ways to help you learn it properly & faster.
2. We focus on shortcuts to help you make progress faster, which also means we tell you exactly what you can stop learning to prioritize what’s really important.
3. We use French culture as the subject to make it fun and interesting for adults.
Take care and stay safe.
😘 from Grenoble, France.
Géraldine
Пікірлер: 20
Depends on your purpose in learning French. So many teachers say this about the passe simple, but as soon as you pick up a book or even magazine it is everywhere.
@mpalin11
4 ай бұрын
I agree. Learning passé simple has been vital for me in reading French literature!
@connie5768
Ай бұрын
You should be able to recognize it when reading, but we were taught that it's not used in spoken French. Both in the United States and in France, BTW.
I learned a little about le passé simple in high school but I remember learning it was a literary tense, not one that is spoken.
Your videos are so incredibly helpful, and this one in particular is fantastic! Merci!
Merci!
Merci beaucoup pour enseigner cette nouvelle thème du début de finde semaine
Thank you for this lesson! I like the passe compose much better.
Vous avez tout à fait raison. Je suis québécois et je n'ai jamais entendu "je fus" chez personne. Je l'ai appris à l'école et je m'en sers parfois à l'écrit, (Ce fut un plaisir....) mais jamais à l'oral. Les Français que je connais font la même chose.
This was interesting. ALL of my high school, college, and adult French classes in the USA taught passé composé and l’Imparfait. Even my Duolingo lessons are in passé composé and l’imparfait. I have yet to encounter Passé Simple.
@cathryn1413
4 ай бұрын
Me too. Thank his I didn’t have to memorize passé simple too!😂
@New_Wave_Nancy
4 ай бұрын
Yes! Maybe this is a smart move on the part of French instruction in the US. I've never been taught passe simple.
@kennyhogg5820
3 ай бұрын
You encounter it when you read novels and such. I read the first Harry Potter book in french and it was used a lot in it. There are more recent books that don't use it but any books I've read used the passé simple. I've seen mangea many times reading.
merci !
Wonderful! I briefly studied le passé simple but never saw it directly compared to le passé composé. Just hearing the former pronounced was a learning experience. Merci!
I make pillow / cushion covers out of old quilts and bed spreads.
If you were reading a passage aloud in front of an audience or reading to. A child, won’t you speak the passé simple aloud or would you transform the phrase into the passé composé? Why does this tense exist? What sense or feeling does it convey instead passé composé?
Encore une leçon très utile, merci beaucoup. Pouvez-vous demander à vos informaticiens si vous pouvez mettre en place des micro-paiements sur votre site Web afin que je puisse vous offrir un café
et je viens d'envoyer un message à un ami français où j'écrivis "wow, nous téléphonâmes pendant 1¾ heure!" 😂
❤ !