French Notes

Round 1 – Placement of adverbs

Adverbs always follow the verbs that they modify.  For composed tenses (like passé composé), the adverb follows the past participle.

Elle a couru lentement.

Ce monsieur a exprimé ouvertement ses sentiments.

* the exception to this rule is the following list of adverbs.  In the composed tenses (passé composé), they follow the auxiliary verb.

bien, déjà, tant, trop, assez, peu, encore, vite, vraiment, beaucoup, toujours, tellement, bientôt, souvent, mal, autant, presque, enfin, à peine

Sophie est déjà sortie.

J’ai trop parlé.

Round 2 – Formation of Adverbs

To change adjectives to adverbs

a.   (for the majority of adjectives)  1. take the feminine form of the adjective (doux becomes douce, lent becomes lente, franc becomes franche)              2.  add ment   – doucement, lentement, heureusement, franchement

b. for an adjective where the masculine form ends in i, é, or u, don’t change to feminine, but just add the ment – poli becomes poliment, vrai becomes vraiment, absolu becomes absolument, etc.

c. if an adjective ends in ‘ant’ or ‘ent’, one changes the ending to ‘amment’ or ’emment’.

puissant becomes puissamment

courant becomes couramment

évident becomes évidemment

d.  and as always there are the irrregular adverbs ….

Please excuse the format.  I’m just trying to make sure that I get the info out.

1.  Venir de is in the Enir verbs post in French 1.

2. travelling to a place

a.  to / at / in / around a continent or a feminine country, use EN

b.  to / at / in / around a masculine country, use AU

c.  to / at / in / around a city, use à

d.  to / at / in / around the U.S. or Holland, use AUX   aux Etats-Unis, aux Pays Bas

3.  Methods of Transportation

a.  when using machinery, use ‘en’ – en voiture, en train, en métro, etc.

b.  when self powered, use à – à pied, à bicyclette

4.  Which one??  When one is asking which one, one is referring to an already mentioned noun.  The ‘which one’ has to match the antecedent (already mentioned noun) in gender and number.

This book is published by Gallimard Jeunesse.  It’s good for demonstration of reflexive verbs, the verb descendre, faire idioms, répondre à, and the uses of prendre.

Je me réveille.  Je prends mon petit déjeuner. Je me lave les dents.  Papa se rase.  Je descends l’escalier.  Je fais la fête.  Je joue au ballon.  Je fais du vélo.  Je pleure.  Je prends l’autobus.  Je caresse mon chat.  Je réponds au téléphone.  J’ouvre le réfrigérateur.  Je prends mon bain.  Papa me fait des guilis.  Je m’endors.

Qui and Que are both relative pronouns that mean which / that / who / whom when joining 2 phrases.  Keep in mind that pronouns replace nouns so there is a noun to which they refer.  There was a long grammatical explanation in class, but the Reader’s Digest version of it is …

“qui is followed by a verb or verb phrase, and que is followed by a noun.”

Je parle à un employé qui travaille à la poste.

Je parle à l’employé que je connais.

La dame qui travaille ici est très sympathique.

Le magasin que vous cherchez est à deux rues d’ici.

J’ai lu la lettre qui est sur la table.

Aujourd’hui j’ai reçu une carte postale qui est très jolie.

Le facteur m’a donné les lettres que Martin m’a envoyées.

*keep in mind that when the direct object comes before the past participle (those awful rules about the past participles), that the past participle matches the direct object in number and gender – add an e if the direct object is feminine, add an s if the direct object is plural.*

1.  To state a period of time that something has been happening, in French, one uses the structure,

“Il y a time que rest of sentence in present tense”  OR “ça fait time que rest of sentence in present tense”.

We’ve lived here for 5 months = Il y a 5 mois que nous habitons ici.

OR

ça fait 5 mois que nous habitons ici.

They’ve been waiting for 45 minutes = Il y a 45 minutes qu’ils attendent.

OR

ça fait 45 minutes qu’ils attendent.

One can also say

Ils attendent depuis 45 minutes.

Ils attendent il y a 45 minutes.

2.  To state that something happened a time ago, one uses the same structure as above, but in passé composé.

Sophie came back 2 hours ago = Il y a 2 heures que Sophie est revenue.

OR

ça fait 2 heures que Sophie est revenue.

My dad built the house 25 years ago.     ça fait 25 ans que mon père a bâti la maison.

OR

Il y a 25 ans que mon père a bâti la maison.

One can also say

Mon père a bâti la maison il y a 25 ans.

This isn’t a pretty chart, but I haven’t been able to fit a pretty chart within the parameters of the wordpress page. Here is the word order for all the pronouns in passé composé. Basically it’s the same word order as in present tense or with two verb phrases, but the pronouns and negation all go around the auxiliary verb.

**when the direct object or direct object pronoun comes before the verb, one adds an e or a s to the past participle to match the past participle to the DIRECT OBJECT. Not necessarily noticeable in spoken language, but good and impressive when you get it right in written language.**

SUBJECT … NE … REFLEXIVE … IOP … DOP … IOP … Y … EN … AUX VERB … PAS … PAST PARTICIPLE … rest of sentence

* reflexive pronouns are me, te, se, nous, vous, se
*first iop is me, te, nous, vous
*dop is me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les
* second iop is lui, leur
* pas list is pas, rien, jamais, plus, pas encore, guère, etc.
* remember that personne and que come after the past participle

Examples

nous l’avons lu – we read it
je lui ai parlé – I talked to her
est-ce que tu leur as rendu visite?
Elle lui a télephoné
Ils les ont appelés

Reflexives use être as the auxiliary verb in passé composé.

1. The word order is
Subject … ne … reflexive pronoun … auxiliary verb … pas … past participle … rest of sentence

2. If there is a body part mentioned, leave the past participle alone. If no body part, then match the past participle to the subject in gender and number. Add an e if the subject is feminine and a s if the subject is plural.

Je me suis brossé les dents.
Elles se sont dépêchées.
Ils se sont amusés.
Sophie s’est lavé les mains.

There are a bunch of negation terms in French. 

The original for negation is here (https://tiffanyendres.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/negation-2/).  Review it for terms.  This post is how to use them in the passé composé.  The main thing is just where to put the ‘ne … pas’ – the order of the words within the sentence.   All of the negation terms follow the same word order except for a few exceptions (listed below)

 the word order for negation in passé composé

        subject      ne     (avoir or être)     pas       past participle    …   rest of sentence

       Je n’ai pas vendu mon camion – I didn’t sell my car

       Elle n’a rien dit – She didn’t say anything

      Ils ne sont pas encore arrivées – They haven’t arrived yet

     Je n’ai guère fini mes devoirs avant le commencement de la classe – I barely finished my homework before the start of class

       Tu n’as jamais entendu cette chanson – You’ve never heard this song

     word order with personne, que, aucun,nulle part, non plus, and plus (de stuff)

      Tu n’as vu personne – You didn’t see anyone, you saw no one

     Personne n’a parlé – No one spoke

      Je n’ai parlé à personne – I didn’t speak to anyone, I spoke to no one

     Ils n’ont mangé que le gâteau – They only ate the cake

     La robe n’a coûté que $20 – The dress only cost $20

Ils n’ont visité aucun musée – They didn’t visit a single museum

Elle ne l’a vu nulle part –  She didn’t see him anywhere

Il n’a plus eu d’argent – He didn’t get any more money

For double negatives

Just plug in the negation terms where they go.

Je n’ai rien dit à personne. – I didn’t say anything to anyone.  OR I said nothing to no one.

Personne ne l’a vu nulle part.  – No one saw him/her/it anywhere

Je n’ai plus rien demandé à personne. – I didn’t ask anything more of anyone.

For personne and rien as subjects

the word order is personne/rien ne verb rest of sentence

Personne n’a aimé le film – No one liked the movie

Personne n’a rien dit – No one said anything.

Rien d’intéressant n’est arrivé – Nothing interesting happened.

“Je n’ai jamais eu le temps de lire, mais rien, jamais, n’a pu m’empêcher de finir un roman que j’aimais”.

The one thing about vandertramp verbs is that one does them with one’s entire body.  One arrives, one leaves, one passes, one is born, one dies, one falls, one goes, one enters, etc.  with one’s entire body.  That’s the beauty of the vandertramp verbs – there’s a sense of logic to them.

BUT … what happens to the verbs that mean two things? 

Sortir means to go out AND to get something out

Rentrer means to go in, to return home AND to put in or to get in

Descendre means to go down, to descend AND to get something down

Passer means to pass by something AND to pass something

Monter means to go up, to climb AND to put something up

When one is doing the first meaning of the verb (the whole body meaning), one uses the être construction in the passé composé.  When one is doing the second meaning of the verb (where you’re doing the action to something else), one uses the avoir construction in  the passé composé.

Examples

     Elle est montée dans l’ascenseur – She went up in the elevator

     Elle a monté ses bagages – She picked up, put up her bags

     Elle est sortie de l’hôtel – She left from the hotel

     Elle a sorti sa valise du compartiment – She took out her suitcase from the compartment

      Elle est descendue du train  – She got down, she descended from the train

     Elle a descendu son sac à dos – She got down her backpack

     Nous sommes rentrés à la maison – We came back home

     Nous avons rentré la voiture au garage – We put the car in the garage