In this lesson, we look at the other verbs that take être as their auxiliary verb in the perfect tense and we consider a way to remember them. Please note that lesson 17 of Season 2 was originally known as lesson 57 of Coffee Break French. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners.
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5 thoughts on “Season 2 – Lesson 17- Coffee Break French”
Just back from Brittany and proud of my prowess in French especially as day 1 and 2 were mainly J’ai un problème: lost medication and a puncture on a Saturday afternoon in rural France. Reached lesson 49 in about 8 weeks and listening to 50 onwards as we drove around France.
But you are losing me with all the technical stuff. I just don’t learn like that (after all I didn’t learn English by conjugating verbs). I bet there are others like me who will learn more slowly with nudges from you and repetition.
Please will you include some stock phrases and situations for us each week as well, while we gradually assimilate all the other technical stuff. Even Anna is having a few problems now and she is a language under-graduate.
Et plus – forgot to add. All your brilliant nagging over accent and pronunciation has a downside: we were too good at times. The people we conversed with assumed we spoke good French and gabbled back at a million miles an hour. Then on hearing us trying to understand, switched to perfect English, which was helpful but not as much fun.
well, thankyou sooo much Mark for your great episods, i’m learning french with you from this seires of podcast, and it is very usefull.
merci pour toi Mark
🙂
J’ai étudié le français en école et au lycée. Maintenant, j’étudie le français encore, particulièrement avec Coffee Break French. Merci pour les leçons.
Maintenant, en anglais:
I really like your mnemonic for recalling which verbs require être as an auxiliary verb. I went out to help me recall them again this evening (I was struggling a bit) and found two links that quickly helped me put them back in the order you provided:
http://www.happychild.org.uk/freeway/french/grammar/verbs01.htm
http://languagecenter.cla.umn.edu/LC/FrenchSite1022/VERBPCetrepairs.html
I understand why they added devenir, as it is related to venir. Of course, so is revenir. So… would you recommend adding devenir (and parvenir, for that matter) to the list of être verbs?
Many thanks for all the wonderful insights into the perfect tense. Just what I need.