VERBcast: episode 13

Happy May everyone: an important month, of course - may it bring you success and achievement! It's edition 13 of the VERBcast which may be unlucky for some, but there's good news today: with the imperfect tense there only is one irregular verb!

On today's show
Today's VERBcast looks at our list of irregular verbs, all but one of which conjugate regularly in the imperfect! The one irregular verb is être and you'll be conjugating this in no time!

Downloads:
VERBcast 13 High quality (broaband users)
VERBcast 13 Low quality (dialup users)

Comments

[Andrea]

J'étais sur le point d'aller au cinema quand il est arrivé - I was on the point of going to the cinema when he arrived.

Il était dans la voiture quand il se est souveni des clefs. - He was in the car when he remembered the keys.

Nous étions aux maths quand le professeur est reçu une lettre. - We were in maths when the teacher received a letter.

(I know these sentences prbably don't make sense but I had no idea how to structure them!)

[Mark Pentleton]

Good stuff, Andrea. A couple of wee things. Your first sentence is fine - no probs. Sentence no.2 - quand il s'est souvenu* des clefs - watch your past participle. Sentence no.3 - recevoir is an avoir verb, so "quand le prof A reçu une lettre". Otherwise, good stuff!

[Anna]

Ils étaient dans le bus quand elle a chanté.

Elle était triste quand il est parti.

Tu étais avant la télé quand il a étudié pour les examens.

Sorry it's late :-)

[gavin]

J'étais sur le point d'aller au cinema quand il est arrivé -
I was on the point of going to the cinema when he arrived.

j'étais vraiment mignon quand j'étais jeune.
Nous étions tard pour le bus.

[Vivien]

Anna, don't think your third example works. You would need to say something like 'Elle était devant la télé quand il est arrivé'. (note that 'avant' only means 'before' in the sense of time - 'avant huit heures' / 'avant de partir' etc) - in your sentence it makes the studying too abrupt - does that make sense?

[Vivien]

Gavin, your first 2 sentences are fine. In your third sentence you need to use 'en retard' , and without knowing the context I can't say if this would be imperfect or perfect tense. If you were saying 'we were late for the bus when my dad arrived and gave us a lift' it would be imperfect.

[Anna]

Yeah I understand! I was trying to say in front of but got the word wrong! oops! Merci!

[Scott Mcglynn]

i was on the point of going to the cinema when he arrived.
j'etais dans ma chambre quand le telephone retenti.
j'faissais mes devoir quand ma mere crie.

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