Grammar

My PDF Notes

• September 2013-December 2014
• Current grammar notes (July 2017): GRAMMAR notes
• Current vocab notes (July 2017): VOCAB notes
• Table of main verb endings in present, past, subjunctive

Basics

• Spelling: Accents – & why they are important
• Spelling: Capitalisation
• Punctuation (it’s not the same as English)
• The difference between simple and compound tenses & list of which tenses are simple/compound
• Using speech marks in French (“…” doesn’t exist)
• List of A1-C1 grammar: https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar

Simple sentence constructions

• the negative
  • negatives in Italian – non; when non doesn’t mean not
• making an adjective mean the opposite – the prefix of ‘im-‘ vs ‘in-‘
• adjectives (spelling for masculine & feminine forms)
• possessive adjectives (my, his, her’s, their)
• hypotheses: using imparfait & conditional vs. present & future
• Collective group (e.g. la plupart de…) and how to conjugate the noun

Present tense

Verb conjugation explanation (-IR, -ER,-OIR, -RE verbs)

• -IR verbs
• -ER verbs
• -RE verbs
• common irregular verb
• Conjugations of common verbs in the present

Using the present tense

• Present perfect (e.g. I’ve worked on this for ages…)
• Translating “-ING”: present progressive & the gerund
• Present tense vs imperfect past tense: some examples

Future tense

• Irregular verb stems

Simple Future

• Introduction
• Simple future
• Common verb conjugation table
• Near Future
• Listening to the future tense – some practice
• REVISING the future tense
• Hypothesis – SI + present + future

Futur Antérieur

• Conjugation

Past tense

• Difference between l’imparfait & passé composé
• An exercise where I try to combine the imperfect and the passée compose

Imperfect past tense (e.g. it was busy)

• Construction
• Rules for usage (v.s. passé composé)
• Conjugation of common verbs
• Practice Qs – when I was young…
• SI conditional – part 1 (with imparfait)
• Weather

Passé composé (e.g. I bought a book)

• DOWNLOAD MY NOTES IN PDF: Past tense – passé composé
• Construction
• Regular verb endings (avoir)
• Common irregular verbs (avoir)
• Gender & number agreement (avoir)
• Verbs that take être as the auxiliary & agreement with gender & number: explanation #1
• Verbs that take être as the auxiliary: explanation #2
• Verbs that can use both être or avoir
• Reflexive verbs & the past tense
• negation using the passé composé
• the passé composé past tense
• Present tense vs imperfect past tense: some examples

Pluperfect (e.g. I had eaten)

•  Construction

The conditional tense

Consolidated notes

• Introduction – when is this tense used
• Construction – regular endings
• Construction – common irregular verbs
• Rule: the conditional cannot follow SI (meaning if)
• hypotheses: using imparfait & conditional vs. present & future
• SI conditional

Passif

• Passive: an introduction
• Download my notes
• A PowerPoint presentation on the passive
• the passive tense (past tense)
• the passive tense (imparfait)
• the passive tense (future tense)
• the passive tense (futur proche)
• the passive tense (present/gerund)
• the passive reflexive tense
• reported speech in the passive

Subjunctive

• OVERVIEW: when one uses the subjunctive
• Practice tests
• When it is used (positive actions, not the negative/beliefs)
• Construction
• Irregular verbs
• Falloir & il faut que…
• SI (if) clauses
  • SI conditional
• Avoiding using the subjunctive

Reflexive verbs

• Reflexive verbs in the present tense & pronouns
• Reflexive verbs in the passé composé
• A list of reflexive verbs

Possessives: my, his, her, your

• possessive adjectives (mes, ma, mon…)
• possessive pronouns (le mien, les miennes…)

Comparisons

• Summary
• NOTE: how to pronounce “plus”

Prepositions

• list of prepositions
• describing places
• An A-Z list of verbs and the prepositions that they take
  • verbs that go with “a” (the equivalent of “to”)
  • verbs that don’t take a preposition (when their English equivalent might)
• dans vs. en (test) / dans vs. dedans

Prepositions	Adverbs	Common meanings / English equivalents
à		At, in, (position)  to (direction)
jusqu’à		Upto, as far as, until
vers		Towards
dans, en	dedans	In, within, into
sur, au dessus de	dessus, au dessus	On, on top (of), Over, above
Sous, en dessous de	dessous, en dessous	Under, below
à côté de	A côté	Beside
devant	devant	In front of
derrière	derrière, à l’arrière	Behind
auprès de		Next to
près de	(tout) près	Near
de, depuis		From, out of
entre		Between

Pronouns

• PART 1: A list of the types of pronoun

• Direct object pronouns: LA, LE, LES (replaces a thing or a person)
• Direct object pronouns & tastes/likes – you cannot use them for objects
• “IT” in the abstract (not attached to a particular object)
• Indirect object pronouns: LUI, LEUR – to him, to them
• Possessive pronouns: LE MIEN, LA VOTRE
• Possessive pronouns: TEST
• Relative pronouns : QUE, QUI, DONT (de+qui/que) – whom/who/to which
  • QUI: who, what, which, that, whom
  • QUE: whom, what, which, that
  • DONT: of which, from which, that, whose
  • LEQUEL/DUQUEL: (things): what, which, that
• Relative pronouns: extra rules for QUI & QUE
• Relative pronouns: CE QUE & CE QUI
• Demonstrative pronouns: CELLE, CELUI,
• les prénoms interrogatifs : QUI, QUELLE, QUAND
• les prénoms réfléchis (reflexive pronouns) : JE ME, VOUS VOUS, TE TOI…
• les prénoms toniques : MOI, TOI, VOUS
• Y (replaces reference to a place, introduced by à, dans, sous, éntre)
• EN (replaces an element introduced by ‘de’ – the quantity is mentioned)
• OU meaning “when” as a relative pronoun (when, where, which, that)
• Saying “them”: leur, les and eux/elles
• Stressed pronouns
• Indefinite pronouns (e.g. quelqu’un, quelche part, chacun)
• Double object pronouns: sentence position (e.g. je te le donne / je le lui donne)

Time, talking about it

• pour, depuis & pendant to translate the English “for”

Questions

• Asking questions
• Questions in the passé composé
• Starting questions in French: “qu’est-ce que” vs “est-ce que”
• Saying “WHAT”: que and quoi

Pronunciation

• liaison
• pronouncing plus

Reported speech

• using speech marks
• present tense (e.g. Mark wants to invite you to dinner)
• past tense (e.g. Mark told me that he had invited you to diner)
• future tense (e.g. tomorrow we will have calm weather)
• reported speech: the passive
• TIME – references
• TEST

Nuances

• Asking for “another” (difference between “autre” & “encore”)
• Using Bon, Bien, Mieux, Millieur (to mean “good” etc)
• the conditional cannot follow SI
• Initial capitals: the differences between French & English
• Reference to you generic (e.g. you don’t behave that way): YOU = ON (wrong to use tu or vous) / SOI = ONESELF
• The cedilla never goes in front of e or i – no exceptions.
• C’est vs. Ce Sont
• Faire causative – faire + infinitive
• HYPOTHESES

TYPES OF GRAMATICAL CONSTRUCTS

Subject vs. object (necessary to translate WHAT into either qui or que)

VERB: Le verbe	Le verbe is all about l’action.  L’action made by whom? By le sujet of course!	le temps de l’action determines the conjugaison
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NOUN: Le Nom	A noun can be une idée abstraite, une personne, un animal, or un objet .	L’accord (the agreement) of the le nom occurs with l’adjectif, le déterminant, le pronom, and le verbe
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Le déterminant	Used with un, the determiner provides more specific information on it, such as le nombre, and le genre (gender)	L’accord happens with le nom which it determines
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L’adjectif	Tied to le nom, it helps to express its quality, a relationship, etc.	Just like with the determiner, the adjective agrees with le nom which it serves to qualify
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Le pronom	Mostly to avoid repetition, a pronom can replace un pronom or un adjectif	The agreement is in gender and number
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L’adverbe	An invariable that modifies the sense of d’autres mots (of other words)	Les adverbes are invariable, so no accord in this case
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La conjonction	As the word conjonction indicates, its function is to link two words or two sentences	Also invariable, and therefore has no accord
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La préposition	A préposition aims at introducing un complément	Invariable

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EXAMPLES

VERB: Le verbe	Être, avoir, aimer, croire pardonner comprendre, pouvoir
NOUN: Le Nom	Crêpes, poème, festival, opéra, Paris, folklore
Le déterminant	Un, une, des; le, la, les; ce/cet, cette; mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa; etc.
L’adjectif	Fantastique, illustre, difficile, fabuleux, sympathique, etc.
Le pronom	Je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles, on, le mien, le leur, celle-ci, celui, tout, lequel, qui
L’adverbe	Beaucoup, très, heureusement, devant, peu, tellement, assez, parfois
La conjonction	Mais, ou, et, donc, or, ni, car, que, puis, si, néanmoins, comme, parce que, puisque
La préposition	Dans, sur, contre, à, sauf, avec, dans, de, depuis, avant, sans, vers, pour