Summary Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Passé composé with être: some verbs (especially "verbs of movement") use être as the auxiliary-- e.g. arriver, aller ('to go'), venir ('to come')

je suis arrivé(e)                  je suis allé(e)                      je suis venu(e)

tu es arrivé(e)                    tu es allé(e)                        tu es venu(e)

il est arrivé                        elle est allée                       on est venu

nous sommes arrivé(e)s    nous sommes allé(e)s      nous sommes venu(e)s

vous êtes arrivé(e)(s)         vous êtes allé(e)(s)           vous êtes venu(e)(s)

ils sont arrivés                  elles sont arrivées              ils sont venus

NB: Some of these forms are listed as ending with an "-e" or an "-s" between parentheses. That is because the past participle reflects (or "agrees with") the subject of the verb, when être is the auxiliary.

"I can, I want": pouvoir, vouloir

je peux (puis)           je veux

tu peux                    tu veux

il/elle peut                il/elle veut

nous pouvons          nous voulons

vous pouvez             vous voulez

il/elles peuvent         ils/elles veulent

Uses of que/ qui

Que and qui are relative pronouns. As such they are used to link (or 'relate') two verbal phrases around a single noun, the second reference of which needs to be a pronoun, to avoid unpleasant (or confusing) repetition.

Que is used when the central (related) noun is the direct object of the verb that follows immediately (the verb of the relative clause -- which begins with the relative pronoun).

Le livre que je veux est bleu.

Qui is used when the central noun is the subject of the verb that follows:

Je veux le livre qui est bleu.

Both qui and que can refer to things or people. When qui refers to a person, it is translated "who"; when que refers to a person, "whom" is correct in English. Qui and que, when referring to an inanimate object, are both translated 'that' (or 'which').

L'homme que nous avons rencontré est chinois. ('The man whom we met is Chinese.')

L'homme qui arrive au restaurant a un message pour nous. ('The man who is arriving at the restaurant has a message for us.') 

NB: Qu' is a prevocalic for of que. Qui never shortens to qu':

L'homme qu'a attaqué notre ami est un criminel. ('The man whom [qu'=que 'whom'] our friend attacked is a criminal.')

L'homme qui a attaqué notre ami est un criminel. ('The man who attacked our friend is a criminal.')

Inverted word order after que. After the relative pronoun que (i.e., in the relative clause), the order of the subject and verb can be reversed (inverted). This is not mandatory: it happens only when the subject is a common or proper noun (i.e., not a pronoun) particularly when the subject is a long expression, as in this example:

Le livre que vend les marchands indépendants situés au centre de la ville ne coûte pas beaucoup d'argent.

In this relative clause, the subject is made up of the long phrase 'les marchand indépendants situés au centre de la ville.' In such cases, there seems to be an advantage in learning what the verb is sooner rather than later.

It is important to interpret this que followed by a verb as an inversion, so as not to confuse it with qui followed by a verb, which would have the effect of reversing subject/object roles intended in the utterance:

L'homme qui cherche les touristes est leur guide. ('The man who is looking for the tourists is their guide.')

L'homme que cherchent les touristes est leur guide. ('The man whom the tourists are looking for is the their guide.')

Que as a conjunction

Consider these sentences:

J'ai dit que nous sommes ici. ('I said that we are here.')

Ils pensent que la Terre est plate. ('They think that the Earth is flat.')

In these cases, there is no noun for que to refer to. Que simply opens up a clause (called a complement clause) explaining the content of my/their assertion or statement of belief (sometimes called an argument) and, as such, que is considered to be a conjunction translated as 'that' (or omitted) in English. Notice that the inversion is not used in this case.

(NB: Relative clauses and complement clauses can both begin with que ['that'] but they are not the same thing. A complement clause, most importantly, is a complete sentence in itself, plus the conjunction que, whereas a relative clause is not complete or independent: que je veux cannot be considered a complete sentence -- even (less so?) if we drop the que!)

Past infinitive

When the infinitive avoir or être is followed by a past participle, this compound form is called the past infinitive:

Après avoir mangé, nous sommes partis. ('After eating (or after having eaten), we left.')

Après être partis, nous avons parlé de notre journée. ('After leaving (after having left), we spoke of our day.')

(NB: This form is presented in a somewhat different context in our book.)