French for Beginners (3 page)

There are many other words that are linked to other words via
enchaînement.
Luckily, these aren’t that difficult to pronounce since all the speaker would have to remember is that the final consonant of the first word would be attached to the beginning vowel of the next word.

Word Order

Just like in the English language, the basic order of words in a sentence is subject – verb – object.  When you are not sure, you can simply use the sentence structure that you would normally use when speaking in English.  If you do this, you will be generally understood.

Chapter 5: Understanding French Verb Forms

Verbs in the English language can easily be conjugated because the verb maintains the same form in most tenses while it would only require the addition of a single letter, such as the letter ‘s' when the tense or subject changes. In contrast, French verbs often have to be conjugated almost every single time that the verb tense changes. In order to understand how French verbs are conjugated, it would be best to first learn about the different categories that French verbs fall under. These categories include:

1.
      
Regular -ER verbs - these are the French words that end in -er, such as
accompagner
(to accompany),
danser
(to dance), and so on. These verbs are the French counterparts of English verbs that are in the infinitive form. These are conjugated in 6 different ways depending on the pronoun to which it would be attached. The following shows the list of how the infinitive French verb
accompagner
is conjugated according to each French pronoun:

2.
     
Regular -IR verbs - these verbs are words that end in -ir and are also the French counterparts of infinitive English verbs that require the use of the word ‘to' preceeding the verb. Conjugation also depends on the pronoun attached to the verb. Take for instance the verb
bâtir
(to build):

3.
      
Regular -RE verbs - these verbs end in -re and are also of the infinitive form. Conjugation still depends on the pronoun attached to the verb. Take as an example the word
défendre
(to defend):

4.
     
Stem-changing verbs - just like in the English verb categories, French stem-changing verbs also have two different stems that change in spelling or syllable stress depending on whether it is used with singular or plural pronouns. These are also called boot verbs because when the pronouns are listed 3 to a column, the similar verbs for each pronoun would often end up forming the shape of a boot.

Take for example the word
geler
(to freeze). This is conjugated in the same way as regular verbs but then the spelling of the stem word undergoes a tiny change, mostly by changing the first ‘e' with an ‘é'. Conjugating this word in the present tense would go as follows:

je géle                                          nous gelons

tu géles                            vous gelez

il géle                                          ils gélent

If you draw an interconnected line to encircle the conjugations that have the letter ‘é' as the first vowel, the resulting shape would be that of a boot or a shoe. This process makes it easy for non-native French speakers to remember how stem-changing verbs are conjugated in everyday usage depending on the tense of the verb and the pronoun that is attached to the verb.

5.
     
Irregular verbs - these verbs take the same form as regular verbs because they also end in -er, -ir, and -re. However, unlike regular French verbs, irregular verbs do not have a regular pattern for conjugation. In some cases, the spelling of the word could completely change in order to match the pronoun with which it is used. An example of this is the word être (to be). This words tops the list of the most widely-used French verbs, and it is conjugated in every usage through the following ways:

             
Je suis
, sometimes shortened to
j'suis

Tu es

              Il est

Nous sommes

              Vous êtes

Ils sont

It may take time for French-language learners to completely understand how French verbs are conjugated, especially given the fact that there are more than a thousand French verbs out there. However, once the individual has learned the basics of conjugating the most commonly-used verbs, he would often find it easier to move on to the more complex forms of French verbs.

As everyone is probably aware of, pronouns are used for replacing nouns in order to avoid redundancy or to simply make sentences shorter and more direct to the point. French pronouns function in the same way. However, unlike English pronouns, French pronouns usually take on different forms in order to fit into situations. Specifically, French pronouns are divided into two different categories

Category 1: Personal Pronouns

There are 5 primary types of personal pronouns used in the French language. These are:

1. Je
   /ʒ
   e/ - refers to the 1st-person singular and is used if the pronoun is the subject in the sentence. It is then changed to
   me
   /
   m
   ə
   /
   when the pronoun is the direct or indirect object in the sentence. In English, this is equivalent to the pronoun 'I' or 'me'.
   
2. Tu
   /ty/ - refers to the subject pronoun that is in the 2nd-person singular. This is then changed to
   te
   /
   tə
   / when the pronoun is the direct or indirect object in the sentence. This is the equivalent of the English pronoun 'you'.
   
3. Il
   /i/- refers to the masculine pronoun in the 3rd-person singular. This is changed to
   le
   when the pronoun is the direct object and then to
   lui
   /lµi/ when it is the indirect object in a sentence. This pronoun is the rough equivalent of the English pronoun 'he' or 'him'.
   
4. Elle
   /εl/ - refers to the feminine pronoun in the 3rd-person singular. This is then changed to
   la
   /la/ if the pronoun is the direct object, and
   lui
   if it is the indirect objet in a sentence. This is the French equivalent to 'she' or 'her'.
   

The plural forms for the 1st-person and 2nd-person pronouns remain the same regardless if the pronoun becomes the direct or indirect object in the sentence. The word
nous
/nu/ is used for 1st-person plural, and the word
vous
/vu/ is used for 2nd-person plural references.

The pronoun
vous
is also used as a means of politely conversing with people whom the speaker does not bear a close relationship with. People who are just learning the French language often find it difficult to discern when the singular pronoun
tu
or the more polite plural pronoun
vous
is to be used. This is why they sometimes come out as too demanding in conversations when politeness or a show of deference is required. However, since even the native French-speakers admit that there is no strict rule for when to use
tu
or
vous
, foreigners are often forgiven for the seemingly impolite form of address.

The following are some of the indications that French-language learners can use in deciding whether to use
tu
or
vous
:

1.              When unsure of which pronoun to use, it is better to be cautious by sounding a little too polite instead of a bit too rude. So the rule is: use
vous
. This is especially true in situations when the speaker is meeting somebody for the very first time.

2.              Remember that
vous
is used to show deference for somebody who is in a position of authority, such your boss and the other high-ranking officials in a company. Other authority figures include doctors, lawyers, policemen, teahers, people who work at government offices, and so on. It would also be best for newly-hired employees to use
vous
when speaking with colleagues, unless they are specifically invited to use
tu
instead.

3.              On this same note, always use
vous
with other adults unless they give the invitation to
tutoyer
(to use tu). These adults include neighbors, new acquaintances, and people who are at least 15 to 20 years older.

4.             
Tu
is most commonly-used to refer to young people, especially to teenagers and people who are at least 20 years younger than the speaker. Using
vous
when talking to a teenager might invite a few strange looks, so just use
tu
.

5.              Always use
vous
when talking to people who are paid to provide a service or are engaged in various trades, such as waiters and waitresses, vendors and salespeople in malls and supermarkets, cab drivers, and so on.

People who have known each other for a very long time usually use
tu
automatically despite any obvious difference in age or social status. Likewise, there are also cases when people who have been neighbors for many years are more comfortable in using
vous
than
tu
. There really are no strict guidelines that French-speakers have to adhere to, and most of the time, the conversation can become awkward when one speaker uses
tu
while the other is using
vous
. This is why it is always better to politely use
vous
and endlessly wait for the invitation to
tutoyer
instead being the first one to use
tu
.

When you are conversing with someone you are familiar to like your family and friends, it is normal to use the informal form of “you” in French which is “tu” instead of the plural or polite form “vous”.  This is the same norm when talking to children.  When you are starting to feel that you have already become familiar with another person and you think you can start using the informal French form when talking to him or her, it is polite to ask first if it is alright with them to use it.  You can ask the question: “Est-ce que je peux vous tutoyer?”

Aside from the plural pronouns
nous
and
vous
that roughly translate to 'they', 'them', and the plural use of 'you' (as in you guys or you all), the French language also has separate pronouns for masculine and feminine plurals. The plural masculine subject in a sentence is referred to as
ils
/il/, and this is changed to
les
/le/ when the noun becomes the direct object and
leur
/l
œʀ
/when the male is the indirect object. On the other hand, the plural feminine pronoun,
elles
, often remains the same regardless of its placement in a sentence.

Category 2: Impersonal Pronouns

These are the pronouns that do not have to change form in order to match the 1st to 3rd-person POVs. However, these pronouns do change in order to match the gender of the noun as well as its number (singular or plural).

Impersonal pronouns are divided into:

1. Demonstrative pronouns - composed of the pronouns
   celui
   (singular masculine noun),
   ceux
   (plural masculine),
   celle
   (singular feminine), and
   celles
   (plural feminine). These are the pronouns that roughly translate to the English pronouns this, that, these, those. These pronouns cannot function as stand alone words so would have to be attached to either a suffix or a prepositional phrase.
   
2. Interrogative pronouns - these are pronouns that ask questions. There are two primary interrogative pronouns:
   qui
   /ki/ (who or whom) and
   que
   /ke/ (what). These pronouns change in form depending on whether it is used as the subject or object in the sentence, as well as if it is followed by a preposition. Also, the phrase
   est-ce
   is added to the pronoun in order to indicate it as the subject or object in the sentence. This is illustrated below:
   

• Qui est-ce que
  /kεs
  kə
  / indicates that object in the question is the person referred to as 'whom'
  
• Qui est-ce qui
  /kεski/ indicates that the subject in the question is the person referred to as 'who'.
  
• Que est-ce que
  /kεskε/, often shortened to
  qu'est-ce que
  , indicates that the object is the thing that answers 'what'.
  

Notice that the phrases are almost the same except for the
qui
and
que
that comes at the end. Even when
qui
is listed after a preposition in a sentence, it still retains its
qui est-ce que
or
qui est-ce qui
format. One the other hand, if
que
(what) is listed after a preposition, it would then be changed to
quoi
/kwa/.

There is a third type of interrogative pronoun known as lequel /
ləkɛ
l/. This is considered by most French linguists as a difficult pronoun to learn. There are four different forms for
lequel
that are used in accordance with the gender and the number of the noun that is being replaced:

• Singular masculine: lequel /la
  kɛ
  l/
  
• Singular feminine: laquelle /la
  kɛ
  l/
  
• Plural masculine: lesquels /le
  kɛ
  l/
  
• Plural feminine: lesquelles /la
  kɛ
  l/
  

Aside from these basic forms,
lequel
is also spelled differently when it is listed right after the French preposition
a
, and then spelled differently again if it comes after the preposition
de
while still having to adhere to the number and the gender of the noun it has replaced:

After the preposition
à:

After the preposition
de

Some examples for using
lequel
:

•             
L’arbre sous lequel
.. –roughly translates to ‘the tree in which..’

•             
au centre de laquelle
– rouhgly translates to ‘the center of which’. This phrase is often used to describe places or give directions.

There is another type of impersonal pronoun that is often used for replacing nouns that come after the preposition
de
. This is known as the relative pronoun
dont
/dôn/ and it is used as a pronoun that roughly translates to ‘that’, ‘about whom’, ‘whose’, ‘out of/of which’ and pronouns that refer to non-human or inanimate objects.

Some examples of using the pronoun
dont
include:

•             
Le livre dont je suis
.. – roughly translates to ‘The book I am...’ depending on what comes after the
je suis
(I am) phrase.
Je suis
is followed by the phrase
l'auteur est
, then the English translation changes to ‘the book which I am the author..’

•             
Dont le tien
.. – This roughly translates to including yours and it has the obvious implication that there is a noun in the preceeding sentence or phrase. If the word
tien
is replaced with the pronoun
vous
, then the translation now changes to ‘which you’.

There are so many ways of using French pronouns in everyday conversation. The important thing is that you learn all the basics listed in this chapter in order to be able to construct valid sentences.