Summary Chapters 3 & 4

Chapter Three

To be : être. Je suis, tu es, il/elle est; nous sommes, vous êtes, ils/elles sont

some common expressions using être:

être en train de: 'to be in the process of doing' (this is the paraphrase of the English present progressive which is, otherwise, lacking in French)

être au courant de: 'to be aware of, to be up on something'

être d'accord avec: 'to be in agreement with' (used alone, d'accord is the equivalent of English "OK")

To have: avoir. J'ai, tu as, il/elle a; nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont

Special uses of avoir.

Il y a: This expression means 'there is/are…": Il y a 15 étudiants dans cette classe.

avoir faim ('to be hungry; cf. famished)

avoir soif ('to be thirsty')

avoir chaud ('to be hot'; think cauldron)

avoir froid ('to be cold'; froid < Latin frigidus)

avoir sommeil ('to be sleepy'; cf. somnolent)

avoir peur [de] ('to be afraid [of]')

avoir besoin de ('to need, to be in need of')

avoir raison ('to be right')

avoir tort ('to be wrong'; think 'tort case, tort reform')

 

Or not: the negation ne… pas.

To form a negative sentence, or to negate a verb, French uses two words: "ne" (or n' before a vowel), which was historically the only necessary term in the negation, and a "forclusive" adverb which could/can specify or particularize the nature of the negation. (In English, along with "not", one has negations like "never", "nobody", "nothing", etc.) The first and most general "forclusive" is pas, which originally had a mild emphatic value, such as: "not a bit" or (literally) "not a step." (Un pas means "a step.")

Examples: Je ne suis pas riche. Elle n'a pas d'argent. ("She has no money." NB: When "pas" is followed by a noun, "de" is usually used to introduce the noun. Pas de is a kind of negative expression of quantity [see below].)

Negative infinitives: ne and pas come together to negate an infinitive:

Hamlet: Etre ou ne pas être -- là est la question!


Expressions of Quantity:

general ("some") : du, de la, de l'; des

specific ("a little, a lot, several" etc.): un peu de, beaucoup de, plusieurs, quelques, trop de, assez de, tant de, moins de la plupart de

NB: peu de is opposed to un peu de much as little is opposed to a little in English: the first suggests a quantity approaching zero, while the latter expression emphasizes the positive aspect of the small quantity (not nothing).

Peu d'argent; peu d'amis. ('Little money'; 'few friends')

Un peu d'argent. ('A little money.') NB: Quelques amis ('a few friends').

 

Possessive adjectives (or articles) [my, your, his…]:

mon, ma, mes

ton, ta, tes

son, sa, ses

notre, nos

votre, vos

leur, leurs

NB: gender is determined by the noun possessed, not its possessor ! Son livre could be "his book or her book" -- the masculine son is used because livre ('book') is masculine.

Ceci, cela, ce, c'

These are pronouns that can be used as subjects for third person singular verbs , in addition to il, elle, and on, learned in chapter two.

These pronouns are all based on "ce" which is a demonstrative ('this, that' in English). Ce (and c') are used almost exclusively with the verb être. With other verbs, cela is most commonly used. The pair ceci and cela function essentially like this and that: 'ci' is a particle that is often added to nouns and pronouns to indicate relative proximity (ce livre-ci), while  (or la) is used to indicate relative distance (ce livre-là). In most cases, however, cela is space neutral and simply means that.

Cela est is possible. In this case, "cela" is used as a stronger, more emphatic form of "ce".

Unlike that in English, ce (or c') + être can also refer to people: C'est un acteur. ('He's an actor.')

Irregular plurals

If a noun or an adjective already ends in "s", "x" or "z" in the singular, the plural will not add an "s".

If a noun or an adjective ends in "al" or "au" in the singular, it will most often have a plural "aux".

un prix; des prix ('a prize; prizes')

un concept nouveau; des concepts nouveaux ('a new [or 'novel] concept; new/novel concepts')

un homme phénoménal, des hommes phénoménaux ('a phenomenal man; phenomenal men')

 

Chapter Four

Present tense -ir verbs: 

je finis, tu finis, il/elle finit;

nous finissons, vous finissez, ils/elles finissent

Present tense -re verbs:

je permets, tu permets, il/elle permet ;

nous permettons, vous permettez, ils/elles permettent 

Past Participles: donner --> donné; finir --> fini; vendre --> vendu

Indefinite past ("passé composé"): 

form: the auxiliary verb (avoir) conjugated in the present tense + past participle 

j'ai trouvé, j'ai fini, j'ai vendu

tu as trouvé, tu as fini, tu as vendu 

il a trouvé, elle a fini, on a vendu (etc.)

meaning: the passé composé is used to represent actions accomplished (completed) in the past. It can be translated into English as the 'simple past' ("I ate, I finished, I sold," etc.) or as the 'present perfect' ('I have eaten, I have finished, I have sold'), depending on the context.

Uses of the past participles: 

• part of composed tenses (e.g. the passé composé)

• verbal adjectives: une personne civiliséeune maison démolie, un secteur peu développé