Formation

avoir  /a.vwaʁ/ (ah-vwahr)	to have
j'ai /e/ (ay)	I have
tu as /a/ (ah)	you have
il a /a/ (ah)	he has
nous avons /a.vɔ̃/ (ah-voh(n))	we have
vous avez /a.ve/ (ah-vay)	you have
ils ont /ɔ̃/ (oh(n))	they have
eu /y/	had

Expressing Age

Avoir is used to express age.

• Tu as quel âge? - How old are you? [lit: You have what age?]
• J'ai trente ans. - I'm thirty (years old). [lit: I have thirty years]

There is/are - Il y a

The expression il y a means there is or there are.

• Il y a un livre. - There is a book.
• Il y a des livres. - There are books.

Tenses and Moods

French verbs can be formed in four moods, each of which express a unique feeling. Each mood has a varying number of tenses, which indicate the time when an action takes place. In the next section, we will look at the conjugations in the present tense of the indicative mood, more commonly called the present indicative. There is one conjugation for each of the six subject pronouns.

Infinitives

The infinitive form is the basic form of a verb. It does not refer to a particular tense, person or subject. In this book, the infinitive form of the verb is used to identify it. In English, the infinitive form is to ___. In French, the infinitive is one word. For example, parler translates to to speak, finir translates to to finish, and aller translates to to go.

Conjugation

French verbs conjugate, which means they take different shapes depending on the subject. English verbs only have one conjugation; that is the third person singular (I see, you see, he/she sees, we see, they see). The only exception is the verb "to be" (I am; (thou art); you are; he/she is; we are; they are;). Most French verbs will conjugate into many different forms. Most verbs are regular, which means that they conjugate in the same way. The most common verbs, however, are irregular.

Formation

Examples

Try to learn all these conjugations. They will become very useful in forming tenses.

Idioms

• Ça y est! - I've done it! Finished!
• J'y suis! - I get it!
• Vous y êtes? - Are you ready?

Expressing Agreement

Tu es d’accord ou pas?, Tu es d’accord? (lit: You are of agreement?), or simply D'accord? is used informally to ask whether someone agrees with you.

To respond positively, you say Oui, je suis d'accord. or simply D'accord. D'accord corresponds to the English okay.

Regular Formation

Most adjective changes occur in the following manner:

• Feminine: add an -e to the masculine form
  • un garçon intéressant --> une fille intéressante
  • un ami amusant --> une amie amusante
  • un camion lent --> une voiture lente
• Plural: add an -s to the singular form
  • un garçon intéressant --> des garçons intéressants
  • une fille intéressante --> des filles intéressantes

Pronunciation

Generally, the final consonant is pronounced only when it comes before an -e. Most adjectives, such as those above, are affected by this rule.

• Masculine Pronunciation: intéressan, amusan, len
• Feminine Pronunciation: intéressant, amusant, lent

With plural adjectives, the -s ending is not pronounced, so the adjective will sound exactly the same as the singular form.

Exceptions and Irregularities

Adjectives that end in e in the masculine form do not change in gender. When an adjective, such as gros, ends in -s, it does not change in the masculine plural form. Sometimes the final consonant is doubled in the feminine form. See French/Grammar/Adjectives for more.

Formation

Most French verbs fall into the category of -er verbs. To conjugate, drop the -er to find the "stem" or "root". Add endings to the root based on the subject and tense.

Elision and Liaison

In all conjugations, je changes to j ' when followed by a vowel. Example: J'attends. Also, as a rule of thumb: h is considered a vowel; as in J'habite.... If a phrase is negative, ne changes to n'.

In all plural forms, the s at the end of each subject pronoun, normally unpronounced, becomes a z sound and the n of on becomes pronounced when followed by a vowel.

Common -er Verbs

S'amuser

The verb s'amuser means to have fun in English. It is a type of pronominal verb (a verb that includes a pronoun as part of it) called a reflexive verb, which means that the action of the verb is reflected back onto the subject. Literally translated, the verb means To amuse oneself.

Conjugated Verb + Infinitive

Like in English, some verbs can be followed by infinitives. The most common -er verbs used in this manner are aimer and détester.

• J'aime parler. - I like to speak.
• Nous détestons travailler. - We hate working.

When negating a sentence, remember that the negative goes around the conjugated verb.

• Je n'aime pas parler. - I don't like to speak.

Formation

faire  /fɛʁ/ (fehr)	to do
je fais /fɛ/ (feh)	I do
tu fais /fɛ/ (feh)	you do
il fait  /fɛ/ (feh)	he does
nous faisons /fɛ.zɔ̃/ (feh-zhoh(n))	we do
vous faites /fɛt/ (feht)	you do
ils font /fɔ̃/ (foh(n))	they do
fait /ly/	done

Uses For Faire

• sports (in French you do sports rather than play them)
• weather
• tasks
• le faire causatif
  • faire (conjugated) + infinitive - to have something done for oneself
  • Je fais réparer le fourneau. - I make/have the stove repaired.

Related Words

• défaire - to demolish
• malfaire - to do badly
• refaire - to remake

Expressions with Faire

• faire attention - to pay attention
• faire connaissance - to get acquainted
• faire la morale - to scold
• faire la queue - to wait in line
• s'en faire - to worry

Meanings

• me - me, to me
• te - you, to you (singular, informal)
• nous - us, to us
• vous - you, to you (plural, formal)

Place in sentences

• These pronouns are placed before the verb that they modify
  • Je te vois. - I see you.
  • Je veux te voir. - I want to see you.
• If a perfect tense is used, these pronouns go before the auxillary verb.
  • Je t'ai vu. - I saw you.

Direct Object Replacement

• Il me voit. - He sees me.
• Il te voit. - He sees you.
• Il nous voit. - He sees us.
• Il vous voit. - He sees you.

Indirect Object Replacement

• Il m'appelle. - He calls to me.
• Il te le jette. - He throws it to you.
• Il nous le jette. - He throws it to us.
• Il vous le jette. - He throws it to you.

Formation and Rules

• Simple negation is done by wrapping ne...pas around the verb.
  • Je ne vole pas. - I do not steal.
• In a perfect tense, ne...pas wraps around the auxillary verb, not the participle.
  • Je n'ai pas volé. - I have not stolen.
• When an infinitive and conjugated verb are together, ne...pas usually wraps around the conjugated verb.
  • Je ne veux pas voler. - I do not want to steal.
• ne pas can also go directly in front of the infinitive for a different meaning.
  • Je veux ne pas voler. - I want to not steal.
• ne goes before any pronoun relating to the verb it affects.
  • Je ne le vole pas. - I am not stealing it.

Examples

Negation of Indefinate Articles

The indefinite articles un, une, and des change to de (or d’) when negating a sentence.

• J'ai un livre. - I have a book.
• Je n'ai pas de livre. - I don't have any book.
• J'ai des livres. - I have some books.
• Je n'ai pas de livres. - I don't have any books.

Examples

Formation

In the present indicative, aller is conjugated as follows:

Usage

There is no present progressive tense in French, so aller in the present indicative is used to express both I go and I am going.

Aller must be used with a place and cannot stand alone.

The preposition à, meaning in, at, or to, is used, followed by the place.

• Tu vas a l'école? - You're going to school.

Remember that à le contracts to au and à les contracts to aux.

• Je vais au stade. - I'm going to the stage.

Instead of a preposition and place, you can use the pronoun y, meaning there. Y comes before the verb. Remember that aller must be used with a place (there or a name) when indicating that you are going somewhere, even if a place wouldn't normally be given in English.

• J'y vais. - I'm going there.
• Tu y vas. - You're going there.
• Nous y allons. - We're going there.

Futur Proche

The structure aller + infinitive is used to say that something is going to happen in the near future.

• Il va pleuvoir demain. - It's going to rain tomorrow.
• Il va faire froid. - It's going to be cold.

Remember that the negative goes around the conjugated verb.

• Il ne va pas pleuvoir demain. - It's not going to rain tomorrow.

Idioms

• Allons-y - ahlonzee - Let's go! (impératif)
• Ça va? - How are you? (lit: It goes?)
• On y va! - Let's get going!
• On y va? - Should we go?

Liaison

Usually, whenever a vowel sound comes after ...ons or ...ez, the usually unpronounced s and z change to a sharp z sound and link to the next syllable. (This process is called liaison.) However, since allons and allez begins with vowels, nous allons is pronounced nyoozahloh and vous allez is pronounced voozahlay. In order to have a pleasing and clean sound, two liaisons should not go connsecultively. There is therefore no liaison in allons à when it comes right after nous and allez à when it comes after vous.

• In the phrase Vous allez à l'école?, vous allez à is pronounced vouzahlay ah.
• In the phrase vous et Marie allez à l'école?", allez à is pronounced ahlayzah.

Formation

Usage

As you can probably tell from their name, possessive adjective are used to express possession of an object.

• C'est mon livre. - It's my book.

In English the possessive adjective agrees with the subject (his sister, her brother). But in French, possessive adjectives act like all other adjectives: they must agree with the noun they modify.

Whether the third person singular possessive adjectives son, sa and ses are his or her is indicated by context.

• Elle lit son livre. - She reads her book.

Liaison and Adjective Changes

Liaison occurs when mon, ton, and son are followed by a vowel.

• Il est mon_nami. - He is my friend.
• Il est ton_nami. - He is your friend.
• Il est son_nami. - He is his/her friend.

Liaison also occurs with all plural forms, since they all end in s.

• Ils sont mes_zamis. - They are my friends.
• Ils sont nos_zamis. - They are our friends.

Mon, ton, and son are used before a feminine singular noun. Elision (to m', t', or s') does not occur.

• Elle est mon_namie. - She is my friend.

Formation

Vendre

The verb vendre is a regular -re verb:

vendre  /vɑ̃dʁ/ (vahn(n)dr)	to sell
je vends /vɑ̃/ (vahn)	I sell
tu vends /vɑ̃/ (vahn)	you sell
il vend  /vɑ̃/ (vahn)	he sells
nous vendons  /vɑ̃.dɔ̃/ (vahn dohn)	we sell
vous vendez  /vɑ̃.de/ (vahn day)	you sell
ils vendent  /vɑ̃d/ (vahnde)	they sell
vendu /vɑ̃.dy/	sold

Common -re Verbs

Compared to -er verbs, -re verbs are not very common. You will however see the following verbs fairly often.

Formation

Sentences Placement

As you have already learned, most adjectives come after the noun they modify in French.

• un homme intelligent - an intelligent man
• des hommes intelligents - intelligent men

However, some common French adjectives, including beau, nouveau, and vieux come before the noun.

• une jolie voiture - a pretty car

Des is replaced with de when an adjective comes before the noun.

• de jolies voitures - pretty cars

Note that in informal speech, des in very often used in place of de.

Formation

prendre  /pʁɑ̃dʁ/ (prah(n)dr)	to take
je prends /pʁɑ̃/ (prah(n))	I take
tu prends /pʁɑ̃/ (prah(n))	you take
il prend  /pʁɑ̃/ (prah(n))	he takes
nous prenons  /pʁə.nɔ̃/ (pruh-noh(n))	we take
vous prenez  /pʁǝ.ne/ (pruh-nay)	you take
ils prennent  /pʁɛn/ (prehn)	they take
pris /pʁi/	taken

Related Words

• prendre - to take
• apprendre - to learn
• comprendre - to comprehend/understand
• se méprendre - to be mistaken
• surprendre - to surprise

Idioms and Related Expressions

• prendre - to take, to have something to eat
• prendre conscience (de) - to become aware (of)
• prendre la correspondance - to change trains
• prendre une décision - to make a decision
• prendre des kilos - to gain weight
• prendre part (à) - to take part (in)
• prendre la parole - to start talking
• prendre le pas sur - to surpass
• prendre le petit déjeuner - to eat breakfast
• prendre rendez-vous - to make an appointment