Dennis & Aimee's Big Gay Paris Adventure

 On Thursday, we learned how to say something that happened in the past. We used to have to say, “Yesterday, I buy bread.” But now I can say, “Yesterday, I bought bread.”

The constructions are surprisingly similar. I was afraid it would be really complicated, but it’s rather easy so far.

Yesterday, I buy bread = Hier, j’achète le pain.
Yesterday I bought bread = Hier, j’ai acheté le pain.

The bad part is that they sound very similar. You have to listen closely to j’achète (which ends with an “et” sound) vs. j’ai acheté (which ends with an “ay” sound). The good part is that there aren’t horrible conjugations involved. We already know how to conjugate the verb Avoir, to have, and that’s what the “ai” word is in there. So, take the conjugated form of “to have” and add any verb we already know, and we have past tense! Woo!

It’s satisfiying to be able to make ourselves understood most of the time. This morning, twice, Dennis had whole conversations on the phone with the baggage delivery man! Yay for him! (Jill’s baggage was lost, but it’s probably there by now.)

--Aimee