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French Grammar
Whether you're just starting to learn French or are trying to master the finer points of French grammar, you can find some help here.
Verbs
Tense
The Present & Infinitive
In French, the simple present will always be used:
Je lis de la philosophie.
If you wish to emphasize that you are right in the middle of doing something in French use the phrase 'en train de':
Je ne peux venir. Je suis en train de peindre ma maison.
The simple present in French is also used to express actions that you are doing in the near future:
Je pars demain à la guerre.
Infinitive: The infinitive form is totally without tense. The infinitive is the non conjugated form of the verb. When two verbs are used together, the first verb marks the tense and the second will be in the infinitive form: Il commence à travaille
The Past
The passé composé is used to report activities as they are completed: Elle a donné un coup de pied dans le ballon. Le camion a heurté l'arbre. Il a mangé une groseille.
The passé simple is used instead of the passé composé in formal writing. Le Français fit ce que qu'en toute occasion font les français, il se mit à rire.
Future & Conditional
In French you can use aller plus a verb instead of the future. Ils vont appeller nos parents.
Technically the conditional is a mood, not a tense. The conditional expresses the hypothetic and the possible. Si vous nettoyez votre chambre, votre colocataire serait plus gentil avec vous.
To express uncertainty: Il semblerait que des extraterrestres leurs ont rendu visite.
Pronouns
Subject Pronouns: Singular: Je, tu, elle/il/on Plural: nous, vous, elles/ ils
Impersonal Subjects: An impersonal subject is used primarily in expressions of weather and time. In these expressions the subject doesn't do anything, it represents, you might say, the way things are- the universe at the present moment. The verb of an impersonal subject is always in the third person.
Time: Il is the impersonal subject of time expressions. Quelle heure est-il? Il est 4 heures.
Weather: Il is used for weather expressions. Il pleut.
Adverbs
Adjectives modify nouns. The adverb is the catch all term that is used to refer to phrases or words that modify everything else. Following is an adverb modifying an adjective: Ils sont trop sophistiqués.
and an adverb modifing an entire sentence: Heureusement, malgré que je suis pauvre, j'ai de la nourriture, de l'eau, et un abri.
More than anything else, by modifying a verb, adverbs tell us how something is done. Such adverbs are called ‘manner adverbs’: Ils s'embrassent passionnément.
Negations
A verb is negated by placing "ne" after the subject and usually "pas" after the verb. Je ne veux pas être un numéro.Ne becomes n' before a vowel. In compound tenses pas follows the auxiliary. La France a perdu une bataille! Mais la France n'a pas perdu la guerre! Appel du général de Gaulle France has lost a battle!
Placing ne pas before an infinitive negates it. L'enfer est de ne pas aimer.
In casual speech, the ne is often omitted. Je sais pas.
Articles
In French, nouns are usually preceded by articles.
Indefinite Articles
The indefinite article, un/une is used when referring to a single instance that is a part of a group that consists of many entities.
un oiseau a bird
un acteur an actor
une actrice an actress
une blatte a cockroach
Plural Indefinite Articles: The plural indefinite article, des, is used when referring to more than a single entity. It is not used, however, when general statements are made about a group, statements that are meant to refer to all the entities that make up that group. This is the role of the definite article as we shall soon see. Je vois des blattes partout.
Definite Articles
The definite articles are le, la, les. This includes times when a group of nouns is referred to in its entirety. For example when blanket statements are made about all cockroaches, all humans, or all cars. Les blattes vivent dans les murs et se reproduisent prodigieusement.
And when a noun is referred to in a general sense (for example a statement that refers not to a particular war but to war in general). La guerre est horrible.
Adjectives
French adjectives agree with the noun they describe, that's to say they reflect it's gender and number.
Adjective Construction
Feminine adjectives are normally created by appending an e to the end of the masculine adjective.
C'est un petit garçon. It is a small boy.
C'est une petite fille. It is a small girl.
Feminine adjectives aren't, however, all created the same way; they are a diverse lot. Some feminine adjectives have doubled final consonants, others are exact replicas of the masculine adjective (sameness), some undergo bizarre metamorphoses that make them little resemble their masculine counterparts (oddball adjectives).
Plural adjectives are formed by appending an s to the end of a masculine or feminine adjective.
Les lits bleus sont là-bas. (lit is masculine)
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