Returning a faulty purchase in French
You bring a lamp back to a shop because it has stopped working. Learn to explain the problem, request an exchange and show the receipt. The key is to distinguish a change, ne…plus, from a habit that never occurs, ne…jamais.
Bring back three familiar tools
Ne…pas makes a simple negative: je ne travaille pas means I do not work. Before a vowel, ne becomes n'. Cette lampe means this lamp; lampe is feminine. Je voudrais means I would like and makes a polite request; le or la replaces a known object, becoming l' before a vowel.
The object, the problem and the receipt
Marcher here means to work or function, said of a device: cette lampe marche, this lamp works. It is a different sense from marcher, to walk, and from travailler, to do a job. Échanger means to return a purchase for another item. Le ticket de caisse is the receipt; sans means without; plus here means no longer and jamais means never.
At the shop counter
Listen to the customer and the shop assistant. Ça means this/it, referring here to the object being shown; ça ne marche plus means it no longer works. Le ticket de caisse ? asks to see the receipt; j'ai le ticket de caisse means I have the receipt; j'ai is je + ai before a vowel. The assistant's je peux échanger cette lampe means I can exchange this lamp: an offer in this conversation, not a rule about every shop.
- A
Cette lampe ne marche plus.
- B
Le ticket de caisse ?
- A
J'ai le ticket de caisse.
- A
Je voudrais l'échanger.
- B
Je peux échanger cette lampe.
- A
Merci.
Stopped now, or never?
Ne…plus says that something used to happen or be true and has stopped: ça ne marche plus, it no longer works. Ne…jamais means on no occasion: je n'échange jamais sans ticket de caisse, I never exchange an item without a receipt; this is the speaker's habit. With these simple present verbs, plus or jamais follows the verb, where pas stood in the familiar negative. Do not add pas to these patterns; n' before échange is the vowel form of ne. Unlike English, French uses no do-support here: keep ne/n' before the verb and plus/jamais after it.
ne / n' verbe plus / jamais
Cette lampe marche.
Ça ne marche plus.
Je n'échange jamais sans ticket de caisse.
Name the item, then replace it
Je voudrais échanger cette lampe means I would like to exchange this lamp. Once the lamp is clear, say je voudrais l'échanger: l' replaces la lampe and stands directly before échanger, not before voudrais. Je voudrais is the polite request you already know; échanger stays in the infinitive. The assistant's peux means can and also takes the infinitive: je peux échanger cette lampe.
Je voudrais l'échanger
Je voudrais échanger cette lampe.
Je voudrais l'échanger.
Je peux échanger cette lampe.
Make the request yourself
The lamp used to work and now has stopped. Before reading the answers, say: this lamp no longer works; I would like to exchange it; I have the receipt, answering a request for it. Use cette lampe, ne…plus, je voudrais l'échanger and j'ai le ticket de caisse. Finally, say that you never exchange an item without a receipt: use ne…jamais with je…échange. Then check the four sentences in order and listen to them.
Cette lampe ne marche plus.
Je voudrais l'échanger.
J'ai le ticket de caisse.
Je n'échange jamais sans ticket de caisse.
One simple solution; legal language only to recognise
Say what has changed with ne…plus, ask with je voudrais l'échanger and show the ticket de caisse. Use ne…jamais for never, not for a device that has just stopped working. For recognition only, quels sont mes droits ? means what are my rights? (droits: legal rights); developing legal arguments is outside this lesson. The conversation supplies no promise about a shop's obligations or time limits.
Quels sont mes droits ?