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G: Standard Negation

In order to say that one did not do something, the ne ... pas construction must be used. The ne is placed before the verb, while the pas is placed after.

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Formation and Rules

• Simple negation is done by wrapping ne...pas around the verb.
  • Je ne vole pas. - I do not steal.
• In a perfect tense, ne...pas wraps around the auxillary verb, not the participle.
  • Je n'ai pas volé. - I have not stolen.
• When an infinitive and conjugated verb are together, ne...pas usually wraps around the conjugated verb.
  • Je ne veux pas voler. - I do not want to steal.
• ne pas can also go directly in front of the infinitive for a different meaning.
  • Je veux ne pas voler. - I want not to steal.
• ne goes before any pronoun relating to the verb it affects.
  • Je ne le vole pas. - I am not stealing it.

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Examples

Il est avocat. Il n'est pas avocat.	He is a lawyer. He is not a lawyer.
Nous faisons nos devoirs. Nous ne faisons pas nos devoirs.	We are doing our homework. We are not doing our homework.
Je joue du piano. Je ne joue pas du piano.	I play the piano. I do not play the piano.
Vous vendez votre voiture. Vous ne vendez pas votre voiture.|| You sell your car. You do not sell your car.

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Negation of Indefinite Articles

The indefinite articles un, une, and des change to de (or d’) when negating a sentence.

• J'ai un livre. - I have a book.
• Je n'ai pas de livre. - I don't have any book.
• J'ai des livres. - I have some books.
• Je n'ai pas de livres. - I don't have any books.

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Examples

Il est belge.. Il n'est pas belge.	He is Belgian. He is not Belgian.
Nous lisons un livre. Nous ne lisons pas de livre.	We read a book. We do not read a book.
Je mange une cerise. Je ne mange pas de cerise.	I eat a cherry. I do not eat a cherry.

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G: Contractions

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V: Weather - Le tempsref|temps

General		Cloudy Weather
|sun||le nuage Il y a des nuages. .	cloud It's cloudy. lit: There are some clouds.
le ciel	sky	nuageux(-euse)	cloudy
		couvert(e)(s)	overcast, lit: covered
Warm Weather		l'éclaircie (f)	clearing, break (in clouds)
Il fait beau	It's nice.	Cold and Windy Weather
|Il fait chaud.	It's warm.	Il fait froid.	It's cold.
Le ciel est dégagé. Le ciel se dégage.	The sky is clear. lit: The sky is freed. The sky is clearing up.	le vent Il fait du vent. Le vent souffle.	wind It's windy. The wind blows.
Le soleil brille.	The sun is shining.	la rafale	gust of wind
Rainy Weather		Snowy Weather
la brume	fog, haze, mist	l'hiver (m)	winter
le brouillard	fog	la neige Il neige.	snow It's snowing.
la bruine	drizzle	la grêle Il tombe de la grêle. .	hail It's hailing. lit: It falls of the hail.
|une goutte de pluie	a drop of rain	Extreme weather
la pluie La pluie tombe.	rain The rain falls.	un orage orageux(-euse) Il y a un orage!	a storm stormy There's a storm!
Il pleut. il a plu. Il va pleuvoir.	It's raining. It rained. It's going to rain.	l'éclair (m) la foudre	flash (of lightning) lightning
pluvieux(-euse) Le temps est pluvieux. .	rainy It's raining. lit: The weather is rainy.	la tempête	storm, tempest
de gros nuages noirs.	large black clouds	agité(e)(s)	stormy, agitated
l'averse (f)	downpour	le tonnerre	thunder

note|temps Le temps means both the weather and the time.

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G: Aller

The verb aller is translated to to go. It is irregularly conjugated (it does not count as a regular -er verb).

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Formation

In the present indicative, aller is conjugated as follows:

Singular			Plural
first person	je vais	jeuh vay	I go	nouszallons	nouzah lohn	we go
second person	tu vas	too vah	you go	vouszallez	vouzah lay	you go
third person	il va	eel vah	he goes	ils vont	eel vohn	they go (masc. or mized)
	elle va	ell vah	she goes
	on va	ohn vah	one goes	elles vont	ell vohn	they go (fem.)

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Usage

There is no present progressive tense in French, so aller in the present indicative is used to express both I go and I am going.

Aller must be used with a place and cannot stand alone.

The preposition à, meaning in, at, or to, is used, followed by the place.

• Tu vas a l'école? - You're going to school.

Remember that à le contracts to au and à les contracts to aux.

• Je vais au stade. - I'm going to the stadium.

Instead of a preposition and place, you can use the pronoun y, meaning there. Y comes before the verb. Remember that aller must be used with a place (there or a name) when indicating that you are going somewhere, even if a place wouldn't normally be given in English.

• J'y vais. - I'm going there.
• Tu y vas. - You're going there.
• Nous y allons. - We're going there.

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Futur Proche

The structure aller + infinitive is used to say that something is going to happen in the near future.

• Il va pleuvoir demain. - It's going to rain tomorrow.
• Il va faire froid. - It's going to be cold.

Remember that the negative goes around the conjugated verb.

• Il ne va pas pleuvoir demain. - It's not going to rain tomorrow.

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Idioms

• Allons-y - ahlonzee - Let's go! (impératif)
• Ça va? - How are you? (lit: It goes?)
• On y va! - Let's get going!
• On y va? - Should we go?

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Liaison

Usually, whenever a vowel sound comes after ...ons or ...ez, the usually unpronounced s and z change to a sharp z sound and link to the next syllable. (This process is called liaison.) However, since allons and allez begins with vowels, nous allons is pronounced nyoozahloh and vous allez is pronounced voozahlay. In order to have a pleasing and clean sound, two liaisons should not go consecutively. There is therefore no liaison in allons à when it comes right after nous and allez à when it comes after vous.

• In the phrase Vous allez à l'école?, vous allez à is pronounced vouzahlay ah.
• In the phrase vous et Marie allez à l'école?", allez à is pronounced ahlayzah''.

For learning French Category Uncategorized Level Unspecified Second language English Created Apr 08, 2008 15:27 Views 844 Share:

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