REVIEW FOR FRENCH 3 MID-TERM EXAM

Take notes! Go back through the lessons! You won’t be sorry!

LE PASSÉ COMPOSÉ

• Probably your best prep for the passé composé will be to go back to the announcements that were eloquently delivered about the passé composé. But this is a synopsis.

• Passé composé = HELPING VERB + PAST PARTICIPLE

• Helping verb will be AVOIR or ÊTRE – (mrs. Dr vandertramp are the être verbs – remember the announcement?)

• Past participle will be formed by dropping the ending from verbs and adding something according to a general pattern (for regular verbs).

Parler – ER + é= parlé

Finir – IR + i = fini

Vendre – RE + u = vendu

JOIN THEM!

• Remember we said the passé composé is TWO THINGS – always. So it will be the helping verb in the right form + the past participle, looking like this:

J’ai parlé

Tu as fini

On a vendu

Nous avons dansé

Vous avez choisi

Elles ont entendu

IRREGULAR PAST PARTICIPLES

• Remember, as all things with French, some past participles are irregular!

• Écrire – écrit

• Boire-bu

• Voir-vu

• Être – été

• Prendre- pris

• Comprendre – compris

ÊTRE VERBS

• The intransitive verbs of motion (Monter, rester, sortir, devenir, retourner, venir, aller, naître, descendre, entrer, rentrer, tomber, revenir, arriver, mourir, partir) will use the verb être instead of avoir to form the passé composé.

• When we use être, we also make the PAST PARTICIPLE “agree” (in gender / number) with the subject (yes, just as we do with adjectives).

• You have to memorize which verbs will use être! There will not be a list on the exam!!

• The next page here shows you what the être verbs would look like in the passé composé.

ÊTRE VERBS AU PASSÉ COMPOSÉ!

• Here you can see what the être verb looks like with agreement. We are assumming that the subject of the JE and NOUS / Tu / VOUS are all FEMALES – do you see the agreement made?

Je suis arrivée

Tu es devenue

Elle est allée

Nous sommes descendues

Vous êtes née

Elles sont entrées

ÊTRE VERBS AU PASSÉ COMPOSÉ!

• Now we are assumming that the subject of the JE and NOUS / Tu / VOUS are all male – do you see the agreement made?

Je suis arrivé

Tu es devenu

Il est allé

Nous sommes descendus

Vous êtes né

Ils sont entrés

SPECIAL PASSÉ COMPOSÉ

• If the direct object comes in front of the past participle – even if the verb is one that uses AVOIR, we make the past participle agree with the subject.

➢C’est la lettre que ma tante a écrite.➢Ce sont les garçons que nous avons vus.

L’IMPARFAIT• The other past tense we learned is far less complicated. It is l’imparfait.

It talks about actions that were begun and or repeatedly happened in the past.

• It is frequently used to narrate in the past. Frequently, it is used to talk about:

➢Age➢Appearance➢Weather➢Date➢Locations➢Time

LES FORMES

verb present tense'nous' form

imparfaitstem

-er verbs: parler nous parlons parl--ir verbs: finir nous finissons finiss--re verbs: descendre nous descendons descend-faire nous faisons fais-prendre nous prenons pren-partir nous partons part-être nous sommes ét-

The stem of the imparfait is the first person plural (nous) form of the present tense, minus the -ons. The imparfait stem is regular for all verbs except être:

THE ENDINGS

• To the stem, add the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, and -aient. Note that -ais, -ais, -ait, and -aient are all pronounced alike. That means that the singular forms and 3rd person plural (the boot) all sound the same!

Je parlais

Tu parlais

Elle parlait

Nous parlions

Vous parliez

Ils parlaient

LE FUTUR

The future tense consists of a 'future stem', generally the same as the infinitive, plus an ending depending on the subject. Here is the verb donner with all its future tense forms:

Subject Stem Ending Form Meaning

je donner- -ai je donneraiI'll give, I'll be giving

tu donner- -as tu donnerasyou'll give, you'll be giving

il donner- -a il donneraI'll give, I'll be giving

nous donner- -ons nous donneronswe'll give, we'll be giving

vous donner- -ez vous donnerezyou'll give, you'll be giving

ils donner- -ont ils donnerontthey'll give, they'll be giving

MORE FUTUR

• Similarly, finir gives je finirai etc. Verbs that end in -re remove the -e of the infinitive before adding the future tense endings: je vendrai, je mettrai, je boirai.

• These verbs have irregular future stems

Être Ser- Avoir Aur-

Venir Viendr- Voir Verr-

Aller Ir- Faire Fer-

Pouvoir Pourr- Savoir Saur-

Vouloir Voudr- Pleuvoir Pleuvr-

Falloir Faudr Mourir Mourr-

LE CONDITIONNEL• The conditional is formed by adding the IMPERFECT TENSE ENDINGS to

the INFINITIVE FORM.

Verb Future stem Conditional form English translation

donner(to) give donner- je donneraistu donneraisil donneraitnous donnerionsvous donneriezils donneraient

I'd giveyou'd giveetc

boire(to) drink boir- je boiraistu boiraisil boiraitnous boirionsvous boiriezils boiraient

I'd drinkyou'd drinketc

venir(to) come viendr- je viendraistu viendraisil viendraitnous viendrionsvous viendriezils viendraient

I'd comeyou'd comeetc

PRONOUNSDirect object Indirect object Reflexive

Me Me Me

Te Te Te

Le, la, l’ Lui Se

Nous Nous Nous

Vous Vous Vous

Les Leur Se

The DO answers the question WHO? Or WHAT? After the verb in your sentence.

The IO answers the question TO WHOM or FOR WHOM after the verb in your sentence.

The reflexive pronoun comes in front of a reflexive verb (je m’appelle).

PRONOUN PLACEMENT

• If you have ONE verb in the sentence, the pronoun will go in front of that verb.

➢J’achète la voiture. Je l’achète.

➢If you have an affirmative command (telling someone to do something), hook the pronoun on to the end of the verb.

➢ Achète la voiture! Achète-la!

➢If you have a negative command (telling someone NOT to do something), the pronouns will go in front of the verb.

➢ N’achète pas la voiture! Ne l’achète pas!

Y / EN

• The object pronoun Y will replace à, sur, sous, chez, etc and a place. ➢ Je vais à Paris. J’y vais.

• The object pronoun EN will replace the partitive article, quantities, etc.➢Nous avons trois chiens. Nous en avons trois.

LES ADJECTIFS

• Remember that adjectives change forms according to gender / number. Go back to Les Sentiments page 1A to review several irregular adjective patterns we have learned.

• Keep in mind about placement – the adjective in French generally goes behind the noun. Some will go in front (BAGS – Beauty, Age, Gender, Size) + Good and Bad always go in front.

➢C’est un petit garçon.➢C’est une belle fille.➢Ce sont des bons libres.➢Ce sont des mauvaises classes.

QUI / QUE / DONT

• These are relative pronouns that will be used to join clauses like “that” or “which” or “who” in English. The “next Word” (after the need for relative pronoun) can be a big clue to help us figure these out.

• Qui will come in front of a VERB only.➢C’est mon père qui a préparé le repas.➢Ce sont les voitures qui coûtent beaucoup.

• Que will come in front of a SUBJECT PRONOUN Or NOUN only.➢C’est le livre que mon prof a lu.➢Voici les garçons que nous avons connus.➢(Do you remember why we need “connus” on the last one?)

DONT

• Dont will be used when the verb used WOULD have been followed by DE.➢Especially you will use this with: avoir envie DE; avoir besoin DE…parler DE➢La fille dont tu parles est ma copine.➢Le café dont ils ont envie est dans ce café.➢Les cahiers dont les étudiants ont besoin sont chez le prof.➢If the verb would need to be followed by DE to complete it’s thought, use

DONT. ➢In all of those examples you can see the verb would have needed to

be tu parles de….ils ont envie de….les étudiants ont besoin de….so we have to use DONT.

CE QUI, CE QUE, CE DONT

• We will follow the same basic rules for these, except now, NOTHING SPECIFIC is going to be referred to in the first clause.

➢C’est exactement ce dont j’ai envie. (That’s exactly what I want. WHAT? Nothing specific is referred to. Use CE DONT.)

➢Voici ce que j’ai fait. (Here is what I did. WHAT? Nothing specific is referred to. Use CE QUE.)

➢Voilà ce qui est dans mon sac. (There is what’s in my bag. WHAT? Nothing specific is referred to. Use CE QUI.)

LES ADVERBES

• Generally we will take the adjective in the feminine form and add – ment to it to make the adverb. The next slide shows others that are very commonly used in French.

• Adverbs are placed directly before the adjective or adverb that they modify.

• Adverbs are usually placed immediately after the conjugated verb. If the verb is negative, the adverb is placed after the negation.

• The adverb in French usually follows the conjugated verb. Thus, in all compound tenses (i.e. tenses where an auxiliary is required, such as the passé composé), adverbs are placed right after the auxiliary and just before the past participle.

PLUS AVEC LES ADVERBESmanner   bien, well   mal, badly   vite, quickly

time 

souvent, often 

quelquefois, sometimes 

toujours, always

    jamais, never   tôt, early   tard, late

    bientôt, soon   aujourd'hui, today   hier, yesterday

    maintenant, now   déjà, already   demain, tomorrow

place   dedans, inside   dehors, outside   ici, here

  

là, there 

partout, everywhere 

quelque part, somewhere

quantity or degree   beaucoup, a lot   très, very   trop, too much

    assez, enough   peu, little, not much   peut-être, maybe

sequence   d'abord, at first   puis, then, next   alors, then, so

    donc, thus   enfin, finally    

L’IMPÉRATIF (COMMANDS)

finir  'to finish'

present imperative translation

tu finis finis finish (you, familiar)

nous finissons

finissons let's finish

vous finissez finissez finish

There are three forms of the imperative: tu, nous and vous. For all verbs, the imperative is formed by taking the corresponding forms of the regular present tense, but without subject pronouns. The lack of a subject pronoun is what identifies the imperative mood.

PLUS AVEC L’IMPÉRATIF• The tu form is used to give an order to a child or when the speaker is on

familiar terms with the person addressed. The vous form is used to give an order to a group of people or to address one person in the vous form. The nous form is used to give an order that involves oneself as well as others, though it often expresses a suggestion as its translation (Let's ... ) indicates.

• Drop the final s in the tu forms of the imperative for -er verbs, including aller, and -ir verbs like ouvrir and other verbs whose present indicative form of tu ends in -es:

Present Imperative Translation

Tu regardes Regarde! Watch, look at

Tu ouvres Ouvre Open

Tu vas Va go

REMEMBER – WITH COMMANDS

• We will hook on pronouns to affirmative commands.

• We will put pronouns in front of negative commands.➢Watch it – regarde-le!➢Give me – Donne-moi!➢Go there- Allez-y➢Don’t watch it – Ne le regarde pas.➢Don’t give me. Ne me donne pas!➢Don’t go there. N’y allez pas!

• Go through your lesson material to find these irregular verb forms.

Avoir Être Savoir vouloir

QUEL VS. LEQUEL

• Remember that these have to agree in gender / number with the nouns they either modify or replace.

➢Quel livre? Quelle voiture? Quels libres? Quelles voitures?

• LEQUEL (and other forms) are the PRONOUNS. They cannot be followed by a NOUN. They replace a NOUN since that is the function of a pronoun.

HISTOIRE & CULTURE

• Your exam also has history and cultural material from the five units.

• Please be sure to go back through this material to practice and review.

• Let me know what questions you have.