Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: The Building Blocks of French 3
Part II: The Here and Now: Writing in the Present 3
Part III: Writing with Panache: Dressing Up Your Sentences 3
Part IV: That Was Then, and What Will Be, Will Be: The Past and Future Tenses 3
Part V: The Part of Tens 3
Part VI: Appendixes 4
Icons Used in This Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part I: The Building Blocks of French 5
Chapter 1: Understanding Parts of Speech and Bilingual Dictionaries 7
Identifying the Parts of Speech 7
What’s in a name? Nouns 8
The articles 8
Verbs take center stage 9
Describing adjectives 10
Using adverbs 10
Pronouns: They’re replacements 11
Prepositions: On top of it 12
Connecting with conjunctions 13
Correctly Using a Bilingual Dictionary 13
Figuring out what to look up 14
Choosing the right word based on context and part of speech 14
Understanding symbols and terminology 15
Interpreting figurative language and idioms 15
Verifying your findings 16
Answer Key 17
Chapter 2: Figuring Out Nouns, Articles, and Possession 19
Genre Bending: Writing with Masculine and Feminine Nouns 19
Determining the gender of nouns 19
Making nouns feminine 20
Nouns that are always masculine or feminine 21
Part Deux: Making Nouns Plural 22
Remembering your x’s: Other plural patterns 22
Irregular plurals 22
Understanding Articles and How They Indicate Gender and Number 23
Grasping the definite articles 24
Sorting out indefinite articles 24
Looking at some partitive articles 25
A Little of This and That: Using Demonstratives 26
Demonstrative adjectives 26
Demonstrative pronouns 27
Possession: Channeling the Spirit of Ownership 28
Possession using “de” 29
Working with possessive adjectives 29
Yours, mine, and ours: Understanding possessive pronouns 31
Answer Key 33
Chapter 3: The 4-1-1 on Numbers, Dates, and Time 35
Using Numbers 35
Counting on cardinal numbers: 1, 2, 3 35
Sorting out ordinal numbers 37
Mark Your Calendar: Expressing Days, Months, and Dates 39
A full sept: Knowing the days of the week 39
An even dozen: Identifying the months 40
Day, month, and year: Scoping out the “dating” scene 40
Understanding Time Differences 41
Answer Key 45
Part II: The Here and Now: Writing in the Present 47
Chapter 4: Right Here, Right Now: The Present Tense 49
Understanding Subject Pronouns, Your Conjugation Cues 49
Je or nous: The first person 50
Tu or vous: The second person 51
Il, elle, or on: The third person singular 51
Ils or elles: The third person plural 52
The Mainstream: Conjugating Regular Verbs 53
The most common regular verbs: -er 53
Another common regular verb ending: -ir 53
The third type of regular verbs: -re 54
Preserving Pronunciation with Spelling-Change Verbs 55
Working with -cer verbs 55
Managing -ger verbs 56
Dissecting Stem-Changing Verbs 56
Tackling -yer verbs 57
Figuring out -eler verbs 57
Focusing on -eter verbs 58
Looking at -e*er verbs 58
Dealing with -é*er verbs 59
The Rebels: Conjugating Irregular Verbs 61
Coming right up: Verbs like venir 61
Going out and out like a light: Verbs like sortir and dormir 62
Offering and opening: Verbs like offrir and ouvrir 62
Taking: Verbs like prendre 63
Beating and putting: Verbs like battre and mettre 63
Abilities and wants: Pouvoir and vouloir 64
Seeing is believing: Voir, c’est croire 64
Tackling unique irregular verbs 65
Answer Key 68
Chapter 5: Asking and Answering Questions 71
Oui ou Non: Asking Yes/No Questions 71
Posing informal questions 71
Asking formal questions with inversion 72
Asking Who, What, Which, When, Where, Why, and How Questions 73
Asking wh questions with “est-ce que” 74
Asking wh questions with inversion 76
Answering Questions 77
Answering yes/no questions 77
Answering wh questions 78
Answer Key 79
Chapter 6: Just Say No: The Negative 81
Using Negative Adverbs 81
The most common negative adverb: Ne pas 81
Other negative adverbs 82
Using Negative Adjectives, Pronouns, and Conjunctions 83
Negative adjectives 84
Negative pronouns 85
Negative conjunctions 87
Responding to Negative Questions and Statements 88
Replying with no 88
Answering with yes 88
Answer Key 89
Chapter 7: “To Be” or “Being” Is the Question: Infinitives and Present Participles 91
How to Use Infinitives 91
With the verb: Expressing action 92
Nouns: Standing as subjects 93
Understanding word order with infinitives 94
Presenting Present Participles 95
Forming present participles 95
Using present participles 96
Answer Key 101
Chapter 8: Deciphering the Subjunctive Mood 103
Conjugating the Subjunctive 103
Regular verbs 103
Stem-changing and most irregular verbs 104
Really irregular verbs 105
Getting Unreal: Using the Subjunctive 108
With impersonal expressions 108
Once more, with feelings (and orders and opinions) 110
Why not? With certain verbs in the negative or interrogative 111
And with conjunctions 112
With superlatives: Simply the best 113
Something else: Words with indefinite and negative pronouns 113
All by itself 114
Avoiding the Subjunctive 115
Shared and implied subjects: Using de + infinitive 115
Slipping in some indirect objects 116
Swapping the subjunctive for a noun 116
Doubting: Saying if only 116
Answer Key 118
Part III: Writing with Panache: Dressing Up Your Sentences 121
Chapter 9: Describing with Flair: Adjectives and Adverbs 123
Describing the Role of Adjectives 123
Making your adjectives agree 124
Correctly positioning adjectives with nouns 126
Using special forms for six adjectives that precede nouns 127
Identifying adjectives with meaning changes 128
Identifying an Adverb’s Role 129
Identifying types of adverbs 129
Forming adverbs of manner 132
Positioning adverbs 133
Comparing with Comparatives and Superlatives 135
More or less, equal: Relating two things with comparatives 135
Supersizing with superlatives 136
For better or worse: Special comparative and superlative forms 137
Answer Key 139
Chapter 10: I Command You: The Imperative 141
Conjugating the Imperative 141
Regular verbs 141
Irregular verbs 143
Pronominal verbs 146
Giving Affirmative and Negative Commands 147
For the to-do list: Affirmative commands 147
Don’t do it! Negative commands 148
Identifying Other Ways to Give Commands 149
Commanding with the infinitive 149
Forbidding with “défense de” 149
Requesting with the future 149
Demanding with the subjunctive 150
Answer Key 151
Chapter 11: Sorting Out Pronominal Verbs: Idioms, Oneself, and Each Other 153
Understanding the Types of Pronominal Verbs 153
Reflexive verbs: Acting on oneself 154
Reciprocal verbs: What you do to each other 155
Figuratively speaking: Idiomatic pronominal verbs 155
Introducing the Relationship of Reflexive Pronouns to Pronominal Verbs 156
Eyeing the reflexive pronouns 156
Knowing where the words go 158
Deciding Whether to Make a Verb Pronominal 159
Reflexive verbs: Oneself or something else? 159
Reciprocal verbs: Returning the favor? 161
Idiomatic verbs: What’s the meaning of all this? 162
Answer Key 163
Chapter 12: An Ode to Prepositions 165
Identifying Common Prepositions 165
The preposition à 165
The preposition de 166
Forming contractions with prepositions 166
Identifying other useful prepositions 168
Distinguishing between Prepositions 169
When to use à or de 169
When to use dans or en 170
Using Prepositions with Places 171
Prepositions with countries 171
Prepositions with cities 173
Looking at Verbs that Need Prepositions 173
Verbs with à 174
Verbs with de 175
Verbs with other prepositions 177
Verbs with different prepositions 178
Verbs with no preposition 179
Answer Key 181
Chapter 13: Getting a Hold on Pronouns 183
Using Object Pronouns 183
Presenting direct-object pronouns 183
Giving you indirect-object pronouns 186
Understanding Adverbial Pronouns 188
Getting there with the adverbial pronoun y 188
Adverbial grammar: Picking up more of it with the pronoun en 190
Positioning Double Pronouns 192
Lining up: Standard pronoun order 192
Using pronouns in commands 193
Answer Key 195
Chapter 14: Grasping Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns 197
Joining with Conjunctions 197
Coordinating conjunctions 197
Subordinating conjunctions 200
Grasping Relative Pronouns 202
Sizing up relative pronouns 202
Identifying indefinite relative pronouns 206
Answer Key 209
Part IV: That Was Then, and What Will Be, Will Be: The Past and Future Tenses 211
Chapter 15: It’s All in the Past: Passé Composé 213
Understanding and Creating the Passé Composé 213
Choosing your helper: avoir or être 214
Finding past participles 215
Creating agreement with the passé composé 218
Putting It All Together 219
Using the Passé Composé 221
Answer Key 223
Chapter 16: What Was Happening? The Imparfait Tense 225
Conjugating the Imparfait 225
Regular verbs 225
Stem-changing verbs 227
Spelling-change verbs 227
Irregular verbs 228
Using the Imparfait 229
Deciding Whether to Use the Imparfait or Passé Composé 231
Actions with (no) end in sight 232
Making a habit of it 233
The way we were 233
Two (or more) at a time 233
Getting interrupted 234
Answer Key 235
Chapter 17: It’s All Over! Other Past Tenses 237
Perfecting the Plus-Que-Parfait: What Someone Had Done 237
Conjugating the past perfect 238
The order of events: Using the past perfect 240
Waxing Literary: Conjugating the Passé Simple 241
Passé simple of -er verbs 241
Passé simple of -ir verbs 242
Passé simple of -re verbs 244
Answer Key 247
Chapter 18: What’ll You Do? The Future 249
The Infinitive and Beyond: Conjugating the Futur 249
Regular and spelling-change verbs 250
Stem-changing verbs 251
Irregular verbs 253
Looking Ahead with the Future Tense 256
Talking about the Near Future in Other Ways 257
Making the future into a present 258
Where there’s a will, there’s a vais: Using aller to say what’s going to happen 258
Answer Key 259
Chapter 19: What Would You Do? The Conditional Mood 261
Setting the Mood with Conditional Conjugations 261
Regular and spelling-change verbs 262
Stem-changing verbs 263
Irregular verbs 265
Terms and Conditions: When to Use the Conditional 268
With si clauses: If only 268
For special verbs: Could, should 269
In polite requests: What would you like? 270
Answer Key 271
Part V: The Part of Tens 273
Chapter 20: Ten Common French Mistakes and How to Avoid ’Em 275
Translating Word for Word 275
Leaving Out Accents 276
Using Too Many Capitals 276
Not Making Contractions 277
Trusting False Friends 278
Not Knowing When to Use Avoir Idiomatically 279
Misusing Auxiliary Verbs 280
Mixing up the Passé Composé and the Imparfait 280
Misunderstanding the Subjunctive 281
Not Knowing the Difference between Tu and Vous 282
Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Begin a Letter in French 283
Messieurs (Gentlemen) 283
Monsieur, Madame (To Whom It May Concern, Dear Sir or Madam) 284
Monsieur (Dear Sir) 284
Monsieur (Dear Mr ) 284
Madame (Dear Mrs ) 285
Monsieur le Maire (Mr. Mayor — or Other Title) 285
Madame la Directrice (Madam Director — or Other Title) 285
Chers Amis (Dear Friends) 285
Cher (Dear ) 286
Chéri (Darling) 286
Part VI: Appendixes 287
Appendix A: Verb Charts 289
Regular Verbs 289
-er Verbs 290
-ir Verbs 290
-re Verbs 291
Spelling-Change Verbs 291
-cer Verbs 291
-ger Verbs 292
Stem-Changing Verbs 292
-eler Verbs 292
-eter Verbs 292
-e*er Verbs 293
-é*er Verbs 293
-yer Verbs 294
Irregular Verbs 294
Appendix B: English-French Dictionary 299
Appendix C: French-English Dictionary 303
Index 307
Laura K. Lawless is a French fanatic. From the day she
learned her first French words (the numbers 1–10 at age 10), she
has been obsessed with the language of love. Her first trip to
France, at 15, further convinced her that French would always be an
essential part of her life. Laura has a BA in International Studies
from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and she has
done graduate work in French and Spanish translation,
interpretation, linguistics, and literature. She also studied
French at Institut de formation internationale in Mont-St-Aignan,
France, and at the Alliance française in Toulouse, France.
In 1999, after a year of teaching French and Spanish to adults,
Laura became the French Language Guide at About.com
(http://french.about.com), where she continues to create lessons,
quizzes, listening exercises, and games for French students and
teachers around the world. Her fascination with all things French
guarantees that she will never run out of ideas for her French site
or books (this is her fourth). Laura has lived in France, Morocco,
and Costa Rica, and after scheming and dreaming for more than half
her life, she and her husband will be moving to France in 2008.
"...exercises to help you learn...perfect if you want to brush up on your language." (France Magazine, April 2009)
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