Justement, j’allais te parler de cet ingrédient.

Here, justement means something like as a matter of fact, actually, or that’s exactly it.

In this sentence, it gives the idea:

• Funny you mention it
• That’s exactly what I was about to talk to you about
• As it happens, I was just going to talk to you about that ingredient

It does not mean justly here, even though that is another possible meaning of justement in other contexts.

J’allais is the imperfect form of aller.

• je vais parler = I am going to speak / I’m going to talk
• j’allais parler = I was going to speak / I was about to talk

So j’allais te parler means:

• I was going to talk to you
• I was just about to talk to you

The imperfect is used because the speaker is referring to an intention that existed in the past.

French often uses aller + infinitive to express the near future or something someone was about to do.

In the present:

• je vais parler = I’m going to talk

In the imperfect:

• j’allais parler = I was going to talk
• often with the nuance I was just about to talk

So this is a very common structure:

• aller + infinitive
• present = going to do
• imperfect = was going to do / was about to do

Te means to you here.

The verb parler often works with an indirect object when you mean talk to someone:

• parler à quelqu’un = to talk to someone

So:

• parler à toi becomes te parler

Examples:

• Je vais te parler. = I’m going to talk to you.
• Il veut me parler. = He wants to talk to me.
• Nous allons lui parler. = We’re going to talk to him/her.

So in this sentence, te is the indirect object pronoun.

Because parler de quelque chose means to talk about something.

French usually needs de after parler when introducing the topic:

• parler de quelque chose = talk about something
• parler de quelqu’un = talk about someone

So:

• te parler de cet ingrédient = talk to you about that ingredient

By contrast:

• parler à quelqu’un = talk to someone
• parler de quelque chose = talk about something

This sentence combines both:

• te = to you
• de cet ingrédient = about that ingredient

French uses cet instead of ce before a masculine singular noun that begins with a vowel sound or a mute h.

So:

• ce livre = this/that book
• cet ingrédient = this/that ingredient
• cet homme = this/that man

This is done mainly for smoother pronunciation.

Since ingrédient begins with a vowel sound, French says cet ingrédient.

It can mean either this or that.

French ce / cet / cette / ces does not always make a strict distinction between this and that the way English does.

So cet ingrédient can mean:

• this ingredient
• that ingredient

The exact meaning depends on context.

If French wants to be more explicit, it can add:

• cet ingrédient-ci = this ingredient
• cet ingrédient-là = that ingredient

The apostrophe shows elision.

Je becomes j’ before a vowel sound:

• je parle
• j’aime
• j’allais

Since allais begins with a, French drops the e in je and writes j’allais.

This is very common in French and helps the sentence flow more naturally.

Not exactly.

Allais is pronounced roughly ah-lay in standard French, but with French sounds, not English ones.

A rough breakdown:

• j’allais ≈ zha-lay

The j’ sound is like the s in measure. The ending -ais in allais sounds like é in this verb form.

So although an English speaker may hear something similar to allay, the French pronunciation is still different.

Allais is the imperfect indicative of aller.

Full imperfect of aller:

• j’allais
• tu allais
• il/elle allait
• nous allions
• vous alliez
• ils/elles allaient

In this sentence, the imperfect helps express a past intention or something that was about to happen:

• I was going to talk to you about that ingredient

Yes, absolutely.

J’allais te parler de cet ingrédient can suggest:

• I was going to talk to you about that ingredient
• I was just about to talk to you about that ingredient

That slight about to nuance is very natural here, especially with justement, which reinforces the idea that the topic has come up at exactly the right moment.

Because after allais in the structure aller + infinitive, the second verb stays in the infinitive.

So:

• j’allais parler
• tu allais partir
• nous allions manger

You only conjugate aller here. The next verb stays unchanged in the infinitive.

That is why it is:

• j’allais te parler not
• j’allais te parle

Yes, but the meaning is a little different.

• j’allais te parler de cet ingrédient = I was going to / I was about to talk to you about that ingredient
• je voulais te parler de cet ingrédient = I wanted to talk to you about that ingredient

J’allais focuses on something that was about to happen or was part of an immediate plan. Je voulais focuses more on a desire or intention.

So both are possible, but they are not identical.

It is neutral to informal because of te.

• te = singular informal you
• vous = formal or plural you

So if you were speaking formally to one person, you would say:

• Justement, j’allais vous parler de cet ingrédient.

Everything else in the sentence can stay the same.