In our previous lesson, we discussed the verb dire (to say), which has a few derivatives: médire (to speak ill of), maudire (to curse), redire (to say again), interdire (to forbid, ban), contredire (to contradict), and prédire (to predict). Although these verbs all end in -dire, they don’t necessarily follow the same conjugation patterns as dire (to say). Let’s explore the various meanings and characteristics of these verbs.
Redire (to say again) is the only verb that is conjugated in the exact same way as dire (to say). In other words, it is also irregular in the second-person plural in the present tense of the indicative. So, just as we say vous dites (you say), we say vous redites (you say again). Here is an example of this verb in the infinitive:
Maintenant tu vas me redire quelle couleur c'est.
Now you're going to tell me again what color this is.
Caption 33, Lionel et Automne Lionel retourne à l'école
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If Lionel had used the formal vous (you), this is what the sentence would look like:
Maintenant vous me redites quelle couleur c'est.
Now you tell me again what color this is.
Interestingly, redire doesn’t just mean “to say again.” When used in the idiomatic expression n’avoir rien trouver à redire, redire implies some kind of criticism: “to have nothing bad to say."
La direction de Vélo'v n'a trouvé rien à redire sur ces selles multicolores.
Vélo'v's management has found nothing bad to say about these multicolored seats.
Caption 19, Télé Lyon Métropole Street art: le yarn bombing, c'est quoi?
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Speaking of having bad things to say, we have the verb maudire, which means “to put a curse on somebody,” something that happens a lot in fairy tales:
Elle l'avait maudit aussi longtemps qu'une princesse ne l'aurait autorisé à manger dans son assiette et à dormir dans son lit pendant trois nuits.
She had cursed him for as long as a princess wouldn't allow him to eat off her plate and to sleep in her bed for three nights.
Captions 33-34, Contes de fées Le roi grenouille - Part 2
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Also worth noting is the fact that maudire (to put a curse on somebody) is the only derivative that belongs to the second-group (-ir) verbs, as it models its conjugation on finir (to finish) with the plural endings -issons, -issez, -issent in the present tense:
Les contes de fées finissent souvent mal quand les sorcières maudissent les princesses.
Fairy tales often end badly when witches put a curse on princesses.
In addition, when placed before a noun, the past participle maudit/maudite works as an adjective, often translating as “damned” in English:
En fait, c'est la faute de cette maudite molaire
Actually, it's the fault of this damned molar
Caption 53, Les zooriginaux La rage de Croqueur - Part 4
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A milder variation of maudire (to put a curse on someone) is médire (to speak ill of someone or to slander). Unlike maudire, médire is conjugated like dire, as in ils disent/ils médisent (they say/they speak ill of), except in the second-person plural. In this case, médire keeps the regular form, vous médisez (you speak ill of)—not "vous médites." Here is a quote from the book Histoire de Marie-Antoinette by Edmont and Jules de Goncourt:
Malin avec le sourire, impitoyable avec l'ironie, il médisait avec le silence.
Clever with a smile, merciless with irony, he slandered with silence.
Moving on to other derivatives, we have interdire (to forbid), contredire (to contradict), and prédire (to predict), which all conjugate like médire (to speak ill of). Let’s start with interdire (to forbid), something that Barbara has trouble understanding in the video below. She is in big trouble for dyeing her hair blond:
Je t'avais interdit de te teindre en blonde.
I had forbidden you to dye your hair blond.
Caption 93, Mère & Fille Tout en couleur
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Interdire often comes in the impersonal phrase il est interdit de (it is forbidden to) + verb:
Aujourd'hui il est interdit de se regrouper.
Today it's forbidden to gather in groups.
Caption 8, Lionel L La pandémie
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You may also come across contredire (to contradict):
Oui. -Monsieur qui est breton ne va pas me contredire. -Hé, c'est pas gagné!
Yes. -The gentleman from Brittany isn't going to contradict me. -Hey, that's not certain!
Caption 63, LCM Recette: Crêpes
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Finally, we have the verb prédire (to predict), which comes up frequently in the world of horoscopes:
Résultat: si un horoscope prédit trois choses...
The result: if a horoscope predicts three things...
Caption 136, Le Monde L’astrologie fonctionne-t-elle ?
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In conclusion, here is a summary of how each of these verbs is conjugated in the vous form:
interdire: vous interdisez (you forbid)
prédire: vous prédisez (you predict)
médire: vous médisez (you speak ill of)
contredire: vous contredisez (you contradict)
redire: vous redites (you say again)
maudire: vous maudissez (you curse)
That's about all that dire and its derivatives have to say. Thank you for reading!
Imitating the sound of an object or an animal is not easy to convey in writing, but it can be done! In fact, there is a special word derived from Greek for just that purpose, onomatopée (onomatopoeia), which is a close cousin to an interjection. (The distinction is open for debate as grammarians have conflicting views.)
Every language has its own version of onomatopoeia. For example, the sound of a rooster crowing will be rendered differently in various languages:
• In French: cocorico
• In English: cock-a-doodle-doo
• In German: kikeriki
• In Italian: chicchirichì
Animal sounds are a great source of onomatopée:
Le coq fait cocorico tous les matins.
The rooster goes cock-a-doodle-doo every morning.
However, you might be surprised to know that in French, some onomatopoeias can double as interjections, a type of exclamation where the emphasis is not on the sound so much as the sentiment behind it. Indeed, in the video below, cocorico is more of an interjection, a cry for victory, and an expression of national pride, as the Gallic rooster is the symbol of France:
Cocorico, bleu, blanc, rouge, pour nous les Nubians, pour la France
Cock-a-doodle-doo, blue, white, red, for us the Nubians, for France
Caption 33, Les Nubians Présentation
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Here is a more clear-cut example of onomatopoeia from the animal kingdom. A “French-speaking” dog goes ouaf! while its “English-speaking” counterpart goes "woof!" In the video below, "Ouaf!" is the name of a production involving dancing—and perhaps barking—dogs:
Des chiens dansants dans "Ouaf!"
Dancing dogs in "Woof!"
Caption 49, Extr@ Ep. 3 - Sam a un rendez-vous - Part 7
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Onomatopoeic words are not limited to representing animal noises. They can also mimic sounds of nature, such as plouf (splash), describing something falling into the water. Plouf is used as a noun in this video:
On fait un petit plouf et on se retrouve demain même heure
We're making a little splash and we're meeting again same time tomorrow
Caption 57, Le Mans TV Mon Village - Malicorne - Part 3
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Onomatopeoic words can also convey manmade sounds, such as loud explosions:
Et ça fait quoi le nucléaire pour les gens? -Ça fait boum!
And what does nuclear energy do to people? -It goes boom!
Caption 49, Manif du Mois Fukushima plus jamais ça
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The sound of gunfire, pan (bang), certainly qualifies as onomatopoeia:
Le fusil fait pan, pan, pan.
The gun goes bang, bang, bang.
However, in the example below, the focus is not so much on sound but instantaneity, making pan an interjection. The subject of this video is famous French photographer Cartier-Bresson, who knew when to click the shutter at just the right time:
Il y a une méditation. Dans la photo, il n'y en a pas. Pan!
It involves meditation. With photography, there is none. Snap!
Caption 21, Le Journal Le photographe Cartier-Bresson
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Like pan, the word paf will translate differently depending on whether we are talking about an onomatopoeia or an interjection. In the first instance, paf conveys the sound of something heavy hitting a hard surface:
Paf! Le livre est tombé par terre.
Thwack! The book fell on the floor.
In the second, paf is an interjection that conveys swift action. In this video, Sophie talks about quickly snipping cuttings in a public garden… without permission:
Paf! Tu coupes.
Bam! You cut.
Caption 44, Sophie et Patrice La maison verte
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Still with scissors in hand, Sophie uses tac instead of paf to imitate the snipping sound:
Tac! Je coupe et...
Snip! I cut and...
Caption 47, Sophie et Patrice La maison verte
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In another video, Sophie again uses tac to convey the sound of her homemade lamp turning on: Tac! (Click!)
Regarde, est-ce que ça marche? Tac!
Look, is it working? Click!
Caption 43, Sophie et Patrice Les lampes de Sophie - Part 2
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In yet another situation, Sophie says tac tac tac (tap tap tap) while making madeleines to imitate the sound of breaking eggs:
Tu prends tes trois œufs, tac tac tac.
You take your three eggs, tap tap tap.
Caption 40, Sophie et Patrice Les madeleines
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Fortunately, Sophie kept her fingers intact during all her ventures. If she hadn't, she might have used the interjections ouille! (ouch!) or aïe! (ow!)
Ouille là, c'est chaud, là!
Ouch, that's hot, there!
Caption 2, Il était une fois: Les Amériques 1. Les premiers Américains - Part 5
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Aïe! Mais pourquoi tu as fait ça?
Ow! Why did you do that?
Caption 11, Extr@ Ep. 10 - Annie proteste - Part 8
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Had she cut herself, she might have had to call on emergency services, with their distinctive sirens:
Pin-pon! Pin-pon!
Woo-woo! Woo-woo! [sound made by a two-tone siren]
Caption 2, Les zooriginaux Repos corsé - Part 2
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As this lesson draws to a close, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief—ouf! (phew!)—like the princess in the video below:
La princesse était très soulagée. -Ouf! Celle-là, je ne la reverrai pas de si tôt.
The princess was very relieved. -Phew! I won't be seeing that one again any time soon.
Captions 11-12, Contes de fées Le roi grenouille - Part 2
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For more examples of onomatopoeia, you may want to explore Yabla's animated series or simply browse through our video library. Ouf! La leçon est terminée!
In our last lesson, we introduced the general rule for conjugating French verbs in the present subjunctive: take the third-person plural (ils/elles) present indicative form of the verb, remove the -ent, and add the subjunctive endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, and -ent. While this rule applies to the vast majority of verbs, some of the most common French verbs have irregular subjunctive conjugations.
In this video about a tile factory in Courboissy, we find two irregular subjunctive verbs in the same caption, both introduced by the phrase pour que (in order that, so that):
Alors soit pour que ça soit respirant,
So either in order for it to be breathable,
pour que vous ayez une maison respirante...
so that you have a breathable house...
Caption 37, Salon Eco Habitat - Terres cuites de Courboissy
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The first verb is être (to be), which is conjugated as follows in the subjunctive: je sois, tu sois, il/elle/on soit, nous soyons, vous soyez, ils/elles soient. Note that the first soit in the above caption is not the same as the third-person subjunctive form of être—it's a separate word meaning "either." See our lesson Either/Or for more information on that.
The second verb, avoir (to have), looks like this in the subjunctive: j'aie, tu aies, il/elle/on ait, nous ayons, vous ayez, ils/elles aient.
Like the first-person subjunctive forms of avoir, those of aller (to go) also begin with ai-: j'aille, tu ailles, il/elle/on aille.
Si vous voulez que je m'en aille
If you want me to go away
Caption 17, Bertrand Pierre - Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
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But in the nous and vous forms, the i changes position: nous allions, vous alliez. Then it goes back to where it was for the third-person plural: ils/elles aillent.
Most forms of vouloir (to want) contain the letters euille: je veuille, tu veuilles, il/elle/on veuille, ils/elles veuillent.
...il n'y a rien d'autre à faire
...there's nothing else to do
qu'à attendre que le vent veuille bien se lever.
but wait until the wind finally decides to pick up.
Captions 15-16, Il était une fois - les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci
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But its nous and vous forms look a little different: nous voulions, vous vouliez.
Faire (to make or to do) and pouvoir (to be able to) both have a double s in the subjunctive:
Maintenant qu'on est en numéro trois,
Now that we are on step three,
il faut qu'on fasse quatre, cinq, six.
we have to do four, five, six.
Caption 36, B-Girl Frak - Le "6-Step"
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Et maintenant pose ton assiette en or devant moi
And now set your gold plate before me
pour que je puisse manger son contenu.
so that I can eat its contents.
Captions 4-5, Contes de fées - Le roi grenouille
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The full subjunctive conjugations of these verbs are:
je fasse, tu fasses, il/elle/on fasse, nous fassions, vous fassiez, ils/elles fassent
je puisse, tu puisses, il/elle/on puisse, nous puissions, vous puissiez, ils/elles puissent
Finally, there's savoir (to know), which has a ch in the subjunctive: je sache, tu saches, il/elle/on sache, nous sachions, vous sachiez, ils/elles sachent.
Comment tu veux que je le sache moi?
How do you want [expect] me to know?
Congrats! You're now fully capable of conjugating any French verb in the present subjunctive. Feel free to send us any suggestions for future lesson topics by tweeting us @yabla or emailing us at newsletter@yabla.com.
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