J'allais + infinitive = I was going to (Le Futur Proche in the past)

Not to worry! I've realised my error as the sentence was: J'allais manquer.... ( I was going to miss.... ) vs Je manquais.... ( which could mean: I was missing.... or I used to miss..... and so the former sentence was correct.

Hi Jonathan,

Indeed it is exactly the same meaning in French, You were going to do something and something prevented you from doing it...

J'allais sortir promener mes chiens quand j'ai réalisé qu'il pleuvait = I was going to go and walk my dogs when I realised it was raining

Hope this helps!

Bonjour.  I’m curious, based on this reply, what’s the best way to say:

“i was going to the market when..”?

would that also be “j’allais au marché quand...

or would a different construction be better such as:

j’étais en train d’aller au marché quand...

Hi Bill,

"J'allais au marché quand ...." is correct  for "I was going to the market when..."

The use of the imperfect already conveys the duration required for that meaning.

 

Your sentence is also correct but has a slightly different meaning. 

Stephane was going to miss his meeting if he didn't hurry. -- Stephane allait rater son rendez-vous s'il ne se dépêchait pas  

Stephane would missed his meeting if he didn't hurry. -- Stephane raterait son rendez-vous s'il ne se dépechait pas. 

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Sorry, I made a typo in the second example:

Stephane would miss his meeting, ....

-- Chris. 

Please repost your question here. -- Chris. 

Bonsoir Tamani,

No, in this case, «m'as appelé» is the correct syntax, the reason being that it is NOT a reflexive verb. Instead «m' = me» functions as a direct object pronoun, who were you going to call --> me.
If, on the other hand, you were telling someone your name, one would say Je m'appelle . . . or Il s'est appelé . . .--> he called himself. . . or more correctly «he is named».
It is very easy to confuse the use of direct object pronouns with the reflexive verbs; however, this is something that you will learn with time.

J'espère que ma réponse vous aidera.
Bonne chance et bonne continuation dans vos études en français, la langue de Molière et qui a été utilisé par le monde depuis l’époque d’Hugues Capet

Bonjour Dzoan !

We don't have a lesson on this yet, but here's an explanation :)

Qu'est-ce que or Comme can both be used to introduce exclamative sentences such as "How bored were they going to get!" or "How nice are you!":
Comme tu es gentil!
Qu'est-ce que tu es gentil!

Here's a link to a related lesson on how to express exclamations with "What a...!":
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/how-to-express-what-a-with-quel-quelle-quels-quelles

À bientôt !

Nous allions à la cafétéria. It's the imparfait when you "used to"do something.

OK thanks.

"We used to go to the cafeteria." is a general statement about the past and therefore translated using the imparfait: "Nous allions à la cafétéria." However, the exercise seems to be about something else (Le futur proche in the past). If you wanted to say "We were going to go to the cafeteria." you would translate this as "Nous allions aller à la cafétéria." -- Chris.

Oui, si vous voulez dire "I was going to go."