Bonjour les amis encore une fois! Different to the last time I would like to discuss something that questioned me much throughout reading this book. Also, I will add a pinch of some useful expressions for us. 😃
By the way in this chapter there is the famous drawing of le petit prince standing on his planet. Last week, I saw an art work below that is made with clays that is used for making korean potteries. C’est l’astéroïde B 612 et le petit prince!
If you read the ‘Le Petit Prince’ and searched some verbs, I am pretty sure that you have come across with this uncommon tense.
Indicative Passé Simple
When I learn past tense, I only learnt Passé Composé and l’imparfait but not Indicative Passé Simple(IPS). I simply ignored learning these tense because I was still in the middle of getting used to these two tenses.
But today, I asked GPT whether IPS is used in everyday life or not after I realised that I often come across “old” words in this book.
The passé simple is widely used in written literature, especially in narratives and historical texts. It lends a formal, elevated tone to the writing and is preferred for its conciseness and specificity in describing completed actions in the past.
In everyday spoken French, the passé simple is almost never used. Instead, the passé composé is used to describe past actions. The passé composé is more versatile and is the preferred tense for both formal and informal speech when talking about past events. (GPT 👾)
Even though we come across some passé simple, we can keep practicing passe composé. A big phew for beginners like me!
In this chapter, the writer writes comme ci comme ça. If you are using social media and following some French learning influencers/educators, you might have come across “Do not use comme ci comme ça! Use this instead!” Many introduce us a word ‘bof’, but I had a feeling that it is something that can be only used in casual context. As always I wanted to know more, so I asked GPT again.
Common alternatives:
Moyen - Means "average" or "so-so."
Pas terrible - Translates to "not great" or "not wonderful."
Pas mal - Means "not bad" or "okay."
Bof - A colloquial expression meaning "meh" or "so-so."
Ni bien ni mal - Translates to "neither good nor bad."
More formal or polite, here are some options:
Passable - Means "acceptable" or "adequate."
Acceptable - Indicates something that is okay or satisfactory.
Médiocre - Suggests something average or middling.
Raisonnable - Means "reasonable" or "fair."
Aren’t there more than you expected? This reel provides very good alternatives we can use (that is not in the paragraph above!).
I am sure that you learnt something new today. Are you ready for the chapter 5?