Unité 1

cajun 101 - learn louisiana french at home

Leçon 5 - Hier, c'était... Demain, c'est...

Hier, c'était... Demain, c'est...
ee-air, set-ay... du-man, say...

Yesterday, it was... Tomorrow, it is...

When I first started learning French my teacher stuck to present tense constructions. Rarely (it seems) did we ever venture outside the present tense. So in my mind past tense, future tense, the conditional tense, were all a big mystery for more advanced French students. To avoid this prejudice I decided to introduce my son to the past tense of the verb être (to be). Hier, c'était vendredi. Yesterday, it was Friday. C'était is only one way of saying "it was." This form is called the imperfect tense, or imparfait. Another past tense construction is called passé composé and it corresponds roughly to the English "it has been, she has been, I have been," etc. This tense is a composition of the verb avoir (to have) and the past participle of the verb you want to use (in this case être.) The past participle of être is été, thus "I have been" would be j'ai été.

Demain is the word for tomorrow. Notice that in French we say "tomorrow is..." rather than "tomorrow will be..." Both are correct constructions in English, but I feel like I use the "tomorrow is..." form more than the "tomorrow will be..." form. I'm not sure if a French speaker would find it odd to say, "Demain, ce sera..." (sera is the third person, simple future tense of être.) I don't think I've ever run across this.

In the Quizlet set for this lesson, I add in a couple of the days of the week. Consult the list on the web site to review them all.