French Grammar For Dummies^®

French Grammar For Dummies®

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013933935

ISBN 978-1-118-50251-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-50248-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-50250-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-50324-9 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Véronique Mazet, PhD, is a professor of French, adjunct, at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. She’s the author of two other French grammar books: Correct Your French Blunders and Advanced French Grammar (both published by McGraw-Hill).

Dedication

To my students of all ages: Thanks for believing in the beauty of the French language, and thanks for trusting me.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Thanks to my agent, Grace Freedson, for calling me, and to my husband, for his super support.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We're proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites

Senior Project Editor: Georgette Beatty

Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis

Copy Editor: Caitlin Copple

Assistant Editor: David Lutton

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Technical Editors: Eric Laird, Jessica Sturm

Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistant: Alexa Koschier

Cover Photo: © James Gately/iStockphoto.com

Composition Services

Senior Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees

Layout and Graphics: Carrie A. Cesavice, Joyce Haughey, Erin Zeltner

Proofreader: The Well-Chosen Word

Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

David Palmer, Associate Publisher

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Ideas, needs, and feelings are expressed with words. If you want to express yourself in any language, you need to know the right words, but words alone are not enough. If I say dehors (outside) to you, you can’t guess if I want you to go outside, look outside, or something else. I need to add a verb like allez (go) and use it in the correct way to make my meaning clear.

In order to put words together in a coherent way, you need grammar. Unlike the English language, in which you can often string words together with minimum linking, French requires more formal structure. In this book I show you how the parts of French grammar work together so you can express what you need, how you feel, and even what you think, in French.

About This Book

French Grammar For Dummies tackles specific French grammar topics in detail, with plenty of examples and practice problems. An answer key at the end of each chapter allows you to check your work.

I start you off with basic French grammar on nouns, articles, adjectives, numbers, dates, and times. Then you move to verbs so you can build simple sentences in the present tense. From that point, you find out how to embellish simple French sentences with more detailed phrasing that makes you sound like a native speaker, thanks to adverbs, prepositional phrases, and pronouns. Then you’re ready to move in time with different verb tenses, like the past and the future.

You don’t have to read this book from cover to cover; you can simply read the sections or chapters that interest you. Put the book away until you need it again — it’ll be ready and waiting for you!

Conventions Used in This Book

I use the following conventions to make this book easier for you to navigate:

French words and sentences appear in boldface.

English equivalents in italics follow French words and sentences.

I usually present the English equivalent of French expressions, which is not always the literal translation. For example, you can translate the French phrase de rien literally as of nothing, but in English, the correct equivalent is you’re welcome. This book usually gives you the you’re welcome version of the translation, but in some spots, I provide the literal translation as well.

An answer key at the end of every chapter provides the correct answers to all the practice questions in the chapter.

To make verbs stand out, I usually present verb conjugations in tables like this one:

aimer (to like, to love)

j’aime	nous aimons
tu aimes	vous aimez
il/elle/on aime	ils/elles aiment

The top of the table notes a French verb and its English translation, followed by six verb forms that vary according to who or what is performing the action: I; you (singular informal); he, she, or one; we; you (singular formal or plural formal and informal); and they (masculine and feminine plural).

Note: This book doesn’t feature pronunciations after French text (with the exception of Chapter 2, which is about sounding out French words). It concentrates on grammar and written communication. Be sure to check out a French dictionary for any pronunciation questions you have.

What You’re Not to Read

If you don’t have a lot time, or if you need more help with certain grammatical topics, you can skip around to stuff that most interests you. For instance, if you’re already familiar with the gender of nouns but would like to put them in action with verbs, skip directly to Chapter 6.

If you know right away what an exercise wants you to do, you can skip the examples and just dive into the exercise questions themselves. Also, if I present several examples to illustrate a particular grammar rule and you understand the rule after reading the first example, you don’t need to bother with the rest of them. After all, this book is here to help you go at your own pace.

Foolish Assumptions

As I wrote this book, I made the following assumptions about you, dear reader:

You want to be able to communicate more creatively in French, especially in writing — even if you already have a background in French and can carry on a conversation.

You want to practice French grammar so you can be sure you can retain your newly acquired knowledge.

You love French and find grammar fascinating . . . maybe?

How This Book Is Organized

French Grammar For Dummies is divided into six parts. The following sections introduce the parts and their contents.

Part I: Getting Started with French Grammar

This part is for beginners, or those of you who want a brief refresher on French basics. Here you find out how to pronounce French words; handle gender and number with nouns, articles, and adjectives; practice counting and telling time; and brush up on dates, days of the week, and months of the year.

Part II: Constructing Sentences, Saying No, and Asking Questions

In this part you find out how to put together a subject and a verb in the present tense to create a basic sentence, express reflexive or mutual actions with pronominal verbs like se lever (to get up) and se parler (to talk to each other), say no using words like jamais (never) and rien (nothing), and ask questions.

Part III: Beefing Up Your Sentences

In this part, I explain how to make sentences more informative by adding adverbs and prepositional phrases. You discover how to compare all kinds of things and how to replace nouns with pronouns to avoid repetition. And you find out how to use gerunds to explain how something is done and use the passive to insist on the doing rather than the doer of an action.

Part IV: Talking about the Past or Future

In these chapters I show you how you can move a sentence in time by changing the conjugation of the verb from present tense to past tense and future tense. French has many more verb tenses than this book covers, but I limit the tenses to the ones that you’re the most likely to use daily. Here I focus on the present perfect, the imperfect, and the future.

Part V: Expressing Conditions, Subjectivity, and Orders

In this part, I present the conditional, the subjunctive, and the imperative.

Conditional statements go something like this: Je viendrais avec toi si j’avais le temps. (I would come with you if I had time.) The conditional allows you to express a daydream, a wish, or a hypothetical situation.

The subjunctive and its triggers allow you to express surprise, fear, or joy at something. For example: Nous sommes contents que vous veniez nous voir. (We are happy that you’re coming to see us.)

The imperative is what you need to give orders or forbid things, just like signs you see in a park: Ne marchez pas sur la pelouse. (Don’t walk on the grass.)

As a bonus in this part, I explain how to use the auxiliary verbs avoir (to have) and être (to be) to form tenses called compound tenses like the pluperfect, the future perfect, and the past conditional.

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Every For Dummies book has a Part of Tens — why break with tradition? In this part, you find ten typical French grammar mistakes (and how to avoid them) and a list of ten French idioms to help you sound like a native French speaker.

Icons Used in This Book

The following icons make certain kinds of information easier for you to find.

This icon points out information that you should recall long after you finish reading this book. If you read anything here, it should be the text marked with this icon.

This icon highlights pointers for understanding French grammar quickly and more easily.

This icon points to the pitfalls of French grammar — beware!

This icon highlights practice problems that you can use to sharpen your French grammar skills.

Where to Go from Here

Beginners and anyone else who wants a refresher on French grammar basics can start with Chapter 2, on sounding out French words, or Chapter 5 on numbers, dates, and times. Chapters 3 and 4 help you make sure your nouns, articles, and adjectives all agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (one or more than one). If you’re ready to start composing sentences, jump to Chapter 6, where you’ll find out how to put subjects and verbs together.

Otherwise, feel free to dive in wherever you’d like. Every chapter is a stand-alone module. The more modules you complete, the more fluent you’ll become in French grammar. Bonne chance (good luck)!

Part I

Getting Started with French Grammar

Visit www.dummies.com for great (and free!) Dummies content online.

In this part . . .

Discover how to sound out French words.

Get the scoop on nouns, including their gender and the articles to use with them.

Match adjectives to the nouns they describe and place them properly in sentences.

Start counting with cardinal and ordinal numbers, and then talk about dates and times.

Chapter 1

French Grammar in a Nutshell

In This Chapter

Getting to know French parts of speech

Building and embellishing sentences

Moving through verb tenses and moods

French grammar is somewhat complex, and this book gives you plenty of material to dig into, little by little. I start you off easy in this chapter, providing an overview of what’s to come so you’ll feel a little more familiar with the topics throughout the book. If you take the time to read this chapter, you get a good grammar primer to help you through the journey you’re about to embark on.

The Parts of Speech

Learning a language is easier if you know what it’s made of. To grasp the fundamentals of any language, your native language as well as French, you need to recognize the parts of speech, the various types of words that compose a language and how they work. The following sections give you the scoop.

Nouns

You should know three essential things about a French nom (noun):

It refers to people, places, things, or concepts.

It has a gender (masculine, he, or feminine, she), and a number (singular or plural). You need to know the noun’s characteristics to make other elements of a sentence match it. That’s called agreement in gender and number.

It can have different roles (called functions) in a sentence:

• It can be the subject of the verb, as the noun professeur in this sentence: Le professeur parle. (The professor speaks.)

• It can be the object of the verb, as the noun lune in: Nous regardons la lune. (We watch the moon.)

See Chapter 3 for full details on French nouns.

Articles

An article (un article) is a small but essential little word that introduces a noun and takes its gender and number. Articles come in three types:

The definite articles: le, la, l’, and les (the). For example: les enfants (the children).

The indefinite articles: un and une (a/an), des (some), and de and d’ (no/not any). For example: un chat (a cat).

The partitive articles: du, de la, de l’, and des (some). For example, de l’eau (some water).

Chapter 3 covers these articles in more detail and explains how to choose the correct article for any sentence.

Adjectives

An adjective adds some color to a noun. For example: un étudiant sérieux (a hard-working student). To use les adjectifs correctly in French, you need to know a couple of things:

An adjective is a chameleon; it changes to match the noun it describes. It can be masculine singular, masculine plural, feminine singular, or feminine plural. Matching an adjective to the noun it describes is called the agreement of the adjective.

Most French adjectives are placed after a noun, not before like in English. For example you say une voiture rouge (a red car). Rouge (red) goes after voiture (car).

Get the lowdown on adjectives in Chapter 4.

Verbs

Verbs (les verbes) are the core element of a sentence because they provide essential information. They take many different forms to do so. They indicate:

What action is being performed, through the choice of the infinitive

Who performs it, through the choice of the subject

When it is performed, through the choice of the tense

Identifying the infinitive

The infinitive is like the name of the verb. It also tells you the type of a verb: regular verbs are grouped into three types, according to the ending of their infinitive. They are:

Verbs ending in -er, like parler (to talk)

Verbs ending in -ir, like finir (to finish)

Verbs ending in -re, like vendre (to sell)

And then there are the irregular verbs, like avoir (to have), aller (to go), faire (to do, to make), and être (to be), to name only a few. These verbs follow different patterns when they’re ­conjugated (changed to reflect the subject and tense). (See the later section “Starting with a conjugated verb” for more information.)

Establishing subject-verb agreement

To start putting a verb into action (to conjugate it) you need a subject (who or what is doing the action). In French, you always say who the subject is, except in commands (English is the same way).

Each subject corresponds to a matching form of the verb. These differences in the forms happen at the end of the verb itself. For example, you say tu chantes (you [singular informal] sing) but nous chantons (we sing), changing the form of the verb on the ending, according to the subject.

Moving an action in time

An action can be expressed in a variety of tenses, such as the past tense, future tense, conditional tense, and many more. Here are some examples of different tenses for parler (to speak):

Present: nous parlons (we speak/are speaking)

Imperfect: nous parlions (we used to speak)

Future: nous parlerons (we will speak)

Tenses come in two types: simple tenses and compound tenses.

A simple tense is a one-word verb form, like vous parlez (you speak).

A compound tense involves two words, like tu as parlé (you spoke).

Some tenses express a mood, like the conditional and the subjunctive. But to simplify, you can just look at those so-called moods as other tenses. See the later section “Many Tenses and Moods” for more information.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions (les conjonctions) are small invariable words used to link parts of a sentence or just words. For instance, in Tu sors ou tu rentres? (Are you going out or are you coming in?), ou (or) is a conjunction.

Adverbs

An adverb (un adverbe) is a little word that can modify a verb (usually), an adjective, or another adverb by telling you how the action in question is done: slowly, quickly, seriously (lentement, vite, sérieusement). Here’s an example of what adverbs can do to a sentence:

Without adverbs: Julie parle et Paul écoute. (Julie talks and Paul listens.)

With adverbs: Julie parle lentement et Paul écoute attentivement. (Julie talks slowly and Paul listens attentively.)

Get the scoop on adverbs in Chapter 10.

Prepositions

A préposition (preposition) is a little word placed between a verb and a noun or between two nouns to indicate a relationship of space/direction, time, or manner. A preposition introduces a prepositional phrase that adds information to the sentence, as in Nous allons au cinéma (We go to the movies). In this example, au is the preposition.

A French preposition keeps its meaning, no matter what surrounds it, unlike English prepositions that can adopt a different meaning with different verbs. For instance, the English preposition after indicates time — unless you join it to the verb to look, and to look after has nothing to do with time!

Check out Chapter 11 for help with using prepositions.

Pronouns

A pronoun (un pronom) can replace a noun when you want to avoid repetition. A pronoun is also a chameleon word that must match not only the gender (most of the time) and number of the noun it replaces but also its function in the sentence: subject or object. Here’s a list of all the pronoun types you may come across in this book:

The subject pronouns precede a conjugated verb, like this: tu parles (you speak) and nous écoutons (we listen). They are je (I), tu (you [singular informal), il (he), elle (she), on (one), nous (we), vous (you [singular formal or plural formal and informal), ils (they, masculine), and elles (they, feminine).

The direct object pronouns replace nouns that are the direct object of the verb. For example: je l’ai vu (I saw it/him). The DOPs are: me (me), te (you), le (him/it), la (her/it), l’ (him/her/it before a vowel), nous (us), vous (you), and les (them).

The indirect object pronouns replace nouns that are indirect objects of the verb. For example: tu lui parles (you speak to him/her). They are: me (to me), te (to you), lui (to him/her/it), nous (to us), vous (to you), and leur (to them).

The direct object y replaces a noun that indicated a place (most of the time). For example: elle y va (she’s going there). Y is alone in its kind.

The object pronoun en replaces a noun that was the object of the verb and indicated a quantity. For example: tu en manges beaucoup (you eat a lot of it). En is also one of a kind.

The stress pronouns replace nouns that refer to people, after certain prepositions. For example: viens avec moi (come with me). They are: moi (me), toi (you), lui (him/it), elle (her/it), nous (us), vous (you), eux (them, masculine), and elles (them, feminine).

The reflexive pronouns help conjugate pronominal verbs that express an action done to oneself. For example: elle se regarde dans le miroir (she looks at herself in the mirror). The reflexive pronouns are: me (myself), te (yourself), se (himself/herself/itself), nous (ourselves), vous (yourselves), and se (themselves).

Chapter 13 has more information on most of these pronouns; in addition, check out Chapter 6 for details on subject pronouns and Chapter 7 for details on reflexive pronouns.

The Basics of Composing Sentences

After you know the parts of speech in French, you can put them together to compose a sentence. The following sections explain how to start with a verb and then add embellishment.

Starting with a conjugated verb

To function properly in a sentence, a verb needs to be conjugated, which means:

Matching the subject in person (first, second, or third) and number (plural or singular)

Expressing when the action takes place through the use of a tense (now, in the past, in the future, and so on)

To do either one of those two operations, you need to know the pattern of conjugation for your verb. It is usually made up of a stem and an ending. Here’s an example: To get the present tense pattern of a regular verb with an -er infinitive, drop the -er and replace it with the following endings that correspond to the subjects:

For je, add -e to the stem.

For tu, add -es to the stem.

For il/elle/on, add -e to the stem.

For nous, add -ons to the stem.

For vous, add -ez to the stem.

For ils/elles, add -ent to the stem.

Here they are for the verb danser (to dance).

danser (to dance)

je danse	nous dansons
tu danses	vous dansez
il/elle/on danse	ils/elles dansent

All regular -er verbs follow this pattern for the present tense, so if you memorize it, you’ve mastered about 80 percent of French present tense conjugation, because -er verbs count for over 80 percent of French verbs. For regular -ir and -re verbs, the endings to use for the present tense are different but their stem is formed the same way, by dropping the infinitive endings -ir and -re. (Check out Chapter 6 for the scoop on the present tense.) Other tenses, like the present perfect, the imperfect, and the future, use different stems and endings but also follow conjugation patterns. Parts IV and V talk about the conjugation patterns of other tenses in detail.

Adding details

You can develop your sentences by adding as much information as you want. Saying les enfants chantent (the kids sing) is a good start on conveying information, but it’s lacking in detail, don’t you think? What are they singing? Where? And when exactly do they sing?

To say what they sing, use a direct object like une chanson de Noël (a Christmas carol) and place it after the verb, like this: Les enfants chantent une chanson de Noël. (The kids sing a Christmas carol.)

To say where they sing, use a prepositional phrase like à l’école (at school), or an adverb like ici (here): Les enfants chantent une chanson de Noël à l’école. (The kids sing a Christmas carol at school.)

To say when they sing, use a prepositional phrase like après le goûter (after the afternoon snack), or an adverb like maintenant (now), like this: Les enfants chantent une chanson de Noël à l’école, après le goûter. (The kids sing a Christmas carol at school after the afternoon snack.)

You can also beef up the nouns with adjectives, but make sure they match the nouns they describe in gender and number. For example: Les petits enfants chantent une jolie chanson de Noël à l’école, après le bon goûter. (The little kids sing a pretty Christmas carol at school after the good afternoon snack.)

Fun Stuff You Can Do with Your Sentences

You can jazz up your French sentences in a few more ways. You can make them negative, turn them around to ask questions, and compare all their elements.

Going negative

To make a negative sentence in French, you don’t need to change or add anything to the verb (like I just did in English with don’t). All you need are two little negative words: ne and pas (which together mean not) in basic negations, or a more specific one, like jamais (never), rien (nothing), personne (no one), or nulle part (nowhere) instead of pas. Here are a few examples that illustrate where these words go in the sentence.

Pierre n’écoute pas le prof. (Pierre doesn’t listen to the teacher.)

Tu ne prends jamais le bus. (You never take the bus.)

Elle ne fait rien. (She doesn’t do anything.)

Nous n’irons nulle part pour les vacances. (We will not go anywhere for the holidays.)

Chapter 8 has more information about negative words and expressions.

Asking questions

Like in English, you can ask a simple yes-no question like Aimez-vous les huitres? (Do you like oysters?). If you need more information, use question words like quand (when), qui (who), où (where), pourquoi (why), comment (how), or qu’est-ce que (what).

Both types of questions can be phrased in two ways:

Inverting the normal word order of subject-verb to verb-subject (called inversion), as in Aimez-vous les huitres? (Do you like oysters?) which doesn’t exist in English, as opposed to Vous aimez les huitres (You like oysters).

Keeping the normal word order and using the tag est-ce que at the beginning of the question or right after the question word, if there is one. For example: Est-ce que vous parlez français? (Do you speak French?) or Où est-ce que vous parlez français? (Where do you speak French?)

Check out Chapter 9 for more on handling questions.

Making comparisons

French makes the same kinds of comparisons that English does.

Comparative of superiority: For example, Il est plus grand que moi. (He is taller [more tall] than me.)

Comparative of inferiority: For example, Il est moins intéressant que toi. (He is less interesting than you.)

Comparative of equality: For example, Il est aussi grand que moi. (He is as tall as me.)

Flip to Chapter 12 for more about making comparisons.

Many Tenses and Moods

When you need to move beyond the present, you need new tenses! French has about 18 tenses/moods to choose from. In this book I focus only on the ones you will use the most: present, imperfect, future, conditional, subjunctive, and imperative for the simple tenses; and the present perfect, pluperfect, future perfect, and past conditional for the compound tenses.

The past

To express a past action, French has two main tenses to choose from. The passé composé (present perfect) names past actions that occurred, and the imparfait (imperfect) describes what it was like when the past action occurred. The imparfait also describes how things used to be, in your childhood for example, without focusing on a specific date. Here they are in action:

Passé composé: Naming a past action: Hier nous sommes allés au ciné. (Yesterday we went to the movies.)

Imparfait: What it was like when something happened: Quand je suis sorti ce matin, il faisait beau. (When I went out this morning, the weather was nice.)

Imparfait: How things used to be: Quand nous étions petits, nous jouions au parc. (When we were little, we used to play in the park.)

Head to Chapter 15 for more about the present perfect and Chapter 16 for more about the imperfect.

The future

The future tense (le futur) describes what will probably happen down the road, like Je finirai ça plus tard. (I will finish this later.)

To describe a future event that is certain to happen, and is almost imminent, French uses the futur proche (immediate future). For example: Il est 6h30, elle va préparer le diner. (It’s 6:30; she’s going to prepare dinner.)

The future is probably the easiest tense to conjugate because its stem is the infinitive. The future endings are: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont. Here’s the complete conjugation of a regular -er verb in the future.

manger (to eat)

je mangerai	nous mangerons
tu mangeras	vous mangerez
il/elle/on mangera	ils/elles mangeront

Chapter 17 has what you need to know about the future tense.

The conditional

The conditional is a simple tense, and its stem is derived from the infinitive, like the future tense (see the preceding section), so it’s a fairly easy one to conjugate, too. The conditional endings are: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, and -aient.

French uses le conditionnel (the conditional) to express:

Daydreams/hypothetical situations, in combination with the imperfect (see the earlier section “The past” for details). For example: S’il pleuvait, je resterais à la maison. (If it were raining, I would stay home.)

Friendly advice, using the verb devoir (must). For example: Tu devrais manger moins de sucre. (You should eat less sugar.)

Polite requests, using the verb pouvoir (can). For example: Pourriez-vous m’indiquer la poste s’il vous plait? (Could you please show me the post office?)

Wishes, using the verb vouloir (want) or aimer (like). For example: Nous aimerions gagner le loto. (We would like to win the lottery.)

The future in a past context. For example: Sherlock pensait qu’il découvrirait l’assassin. (Sherlock thought he would discover the murderer.)

Check out more of the conditional in Chapter 18.

The subjunctive

Le subjonctif (the subjunctive) is commonly used in French to say that you want someone to do something, that you’re happy or sad that something is happening, or that you fear something may happen. The subjunctive may seem difficult to native English speakers because it pretty much doesn’t exist in English. Here are some examples of the subjonctif:

Pierre veut que vous partiez. (Pierre wants you to leave.)

Il faut que tu prennes une décision. (It’s necessary that you make a decision.)

Les enfants sont contents que l’école finisse. (The children are happy that school is over.)

A sentence with a verb in subjunctive begins with a trigger phrase and has two different subjects.

In the three preceding examples, veut que, Il faut que, and sont contents que are examples of triggers for the subjunctive. There are quite a few different triggers, and I give you a long list of the most useful ones in Chapter 19.

The three preceding examples are sentences with two clauses (parts) and two different subjects: Pierre and vous in the first example; il and tu in the second, and les enfants and l’école in the third.

Chapter 19 has the full scoop on the subjunctive.

The imperative

Use the imperative to tell one or several persons what to do or what not to do. It is not a regular tense, because the subject is not expressed, and it has only three forms that are borrowed almost exactly from the present tense conjugation for most verbs. (For details and exceptions flip to Chapter 20.)

For example, here are the three imperative forms for -er verbs:

From the present tense tu form (you [singular]) of parler: Parle! (Speak!)

From the present tense nous (we) form: Parlons! (Let’s speak!)

From the present tense vous form (that is, the plural you): Parlez! (Speak!)

The negative commands are formed the same way. You just add ne before the imperative and pas after it, like this:

From the affirmative command parle (speak) to ne parle pas (don’t speak).

From the affirmative command parlons (let’s speak) to ne parlons pas! (let’s not speak).

From the affirmative command parlez (speak) to ne parlez pas (don’t speak).

Compound tenses

French compound tenses are two-word verb forms that always express an action that is more past than the main action. For instance, in He had already gotten up when his alarm finally went off, the pluperfect verb phrase is had gotten up. French has several compound tenses, and the most commonly used are: the present perfect, which I discuss earlier in this chapter, the pluperfect, the future perfect, and the past conditional.

A French compound tense is formed by putting together a conjugated form of one of the two auxiliary verbs (also called helper verbs) — être (to be) and avoir (to have) — and the past participle of the main verb. (Chapter 15 has full details on how to form past participles.)

English and French compound tenses are different in their form (English may use three-word forms) and in their usage. They occur more strictly and frequently in French. Here are some examples of compound tenses in French, with nonliteral English translations:

The pluperfect: Il était déjà allé à la boulangerie. (He had already gone to the bread shop.)

The future perfect: Je m’amuserai quand j’aurai fini mon travail. (I will play when I am finished with my work.)

The past conditional: Si elle avait su, elle aurait choisi l’autre solution. (If she had known, she would have chosen the other solution.)

See Chapter 21 for full details on compound tenses.