French Lesson Confident Conversations – Here are some more helpful phrases to use, that will get you feeling more confident in conversations.
Chapter 6 is part of the Free French lessons on this website, and also features in the full french audiobook HERE
Here it is “to drop”: « baisser »
“Sales dropped in Q1.”
« Les ventes ont baissé en T1. »
Let’s break it down:
“sales”: « les ventes »
“to drop”: « baisser »
So “to drop” literally means to fall down. But the English uses very practical images whereas the French is more theoretical. « baisser » is “to decrease”
“in Q1”: « en T1 » (pronounced « té-un »)
So, Q1 means “the first quarter,” « T1 » means « le premier trimestre ».
In English you have two words, “quarter” and “trimester”. These mean the same thing in different contexts. In French, there’s only one word: « un trimestre ».
Quick tip: Articles
You see that “sales” has no article in English but « les ventes » has an article in French.
Here is a golden rule for you. You always need an article in French. There are few exceptions. When in doubt, use an article, either a definite article like here « les ventes »: “the sales” or an indefinite article like « des ventes »: “some sales”.
French Grammar point: Le passé composé
That is a very useful tense in the past. Why is it used? It is the standard past tense. It describes a past event that influences the present and is now complete. It describes a brief event, not a continuous background event.
For example:
“Sales have dropped suddenly.”: « Les ventes ont baissée d’un coup. »
versus
“Sales were dropping steadily throughout Q1.”: « Les ventes baissaient régulièrement au cours du T1. »
So, in the first sentence “have dropped”: « ont baissé », I used « passé composé » (brief event).
In the second sentence: “were dropping”: « baissaient », I used « imparfait » which is a different past, a continuous background event past.
How does it work? You use the auxiliary verb, « l’auxiliaire être »: “to be” or « avoir »: “to have”, in the present, and then you add the past participle [Note: the audio incorrectly says “principle”] of the main verb.
For example:
“have dropped”: « ont baissé »
« ont » is the verb « avoir » in the present, and « baissé » is the past participle of the verb « BAISSER », in the infinitive. So, you have six declensions for « baisser ».
French Lesson Confident Conversations and the Verb Baisser
Let’s conjugate it in the « passé composé »:
BAISSER (TO DROP): passé composé
J’ai baissé: I dropped
Tu as baissé: You dropped
Il/Elle a baissé: H/She dropped
Nous avons baissé: We dropped
Vous avez baissé: You dropped
Ils/Elles ont baissé: They dropped
You see, it is really easy because the past participle doesn’t change, « avoir » does change because it’s in the present.
Let’s now conjugate a third group « PRENDRE »: “to take”. « PRENDRE » ends with « -RE » so it rightly belongs to the third group.
Conjugate the Verb PRENDRE (TO TAKE): passé composé
J’ai pris: I took
Tu as pris: You took
Il/Elle a pris: He/She took
Nous avons pris: We took
Vous avez pris: You took
Ils/Elles ont pris: They took
So, you see that it works exactly the same. « avoir » in the present, with the past participle of « PRENDRE », which is « pris ».
Here is the example sentence again:
“Sales dropped in Q1.”
« Les ventes ont baissée en T1. »
There are a lot of good tips and tricks in this French Lesson, and there are even more pronouns HERE
When you are ready for even faster learning and progress to build your confidence, you should definitely check out the full French audiobook HERE
