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French Notes

These fixed verbs in French do not change like regular verbs. The document lists common fixed verbs such as être, avoir, aller, and faire and provides their conjugations. It also discusses regular -er, -ir, and -re verbs and how their endings change in the present tense. Finally, it covers topics such as object pronouns, the passé composé, adverbs, reflexive/reciprocal verbs, and ways to make verbs negative in French.

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910 views

French Notes

These fixed verbs in French do not change like regular verbs. The document lists common fixed verbs such as être, avoir, aller, and faire and provides their conjugations. It also discusses regular -er, -ir, and -re verbs and how their endings change in the present tense. Finally, it covers topics such as object pronouns, the passé composé, adverbs, reflexive/reciprocal verbs, and ways to make verbs negative in French.

Uploaded by

Luna Dolly
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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These are fixed verbs; they don’t change like the other verbs

do. They’re very important to know for basic French. Unlike


regular verbs you can’t just change out the ending these
verbs have an ending that doesn’t change.

Être – to be Avoir – to have

Je suis Je J’ai
Tu es Tu as
Il est Il a
Elle est Elle a
On est On a
Nou sommes Nous avons
s Vous avez
Vous êtes Ils ont
Ils sont Elles ont
Elles sont

Aller – to go Faire – to do/make

Je vais Je fais
Tu vas Tu Fais
Il va Il fait
Elle va Elle fait
On va On fait
Nous allons Nous faisons
Vous allez Vous faites
Ils vont Ils font
Elles vont Elles font
These are regular verbs, they are er, ir and re. You can use
any word that ends in any of these letters and replace the
word by taking away the last two letters and replacing it with
the appropriate ending. The words being used on this are just
examples.

Regular - er Regular - ir
Regarder – to watch Finir – to finish
Je regarde Je finis
Tu regardes Tu finis
Il regarde Il finit
Elle regarde Elle finit
On regarde On finit
Nous regardons Nou finissons
Vous regardez s
Ils regardent Vous finissez
Elles regardent Ils finissent
Elles finissent

Reguar – re
Vendre – to sell
Je vends
Tu vends
Il vend
Elle vend
On vend
Nous vendons
Vous vendez
Ils vendent
Elles vendent
OBJECT PRONOUNS
An Object Pronoun replaces/stands for an object or person
which is the target of a verb.
In English, we have him, her, it, them, me, yous
These are Direct Object Pronouns
In French, these are : Je me, Tu te, Il le, Elle la, Nous nous,
Vous vous, Ils/Elles les.
*Je t’aime is a good structure to remember this structure*
These are Direct Object Pronouns as there is nothing
between the verb and the object; it acts directly on it.

In contrast, Indirect Object Pronouns have a word between


the verb and the object.
In English, this is usually to/à in French
In French, they are : me – to me, te – to you, lui – to
him/her, nous – to us, vous – to yous, leur – to them
Eg. Je donne 5€ à Luc – I gave 5€ to Luc
Je lui donne 5€ - I gave 5€ to him

If there are 2 verbs, the object pronoun goes before the


infinitive verb or the verb in dictionary form.
Eg. Je vais donner les billets à Xavier
I’m going to give the tickets to Xavier
Je vais lui donner les billets
I am going to give the tickets to him
y…en
‘y’ generally replaces à + a place. It usually translates as
“there”. It takes the same sort of position in a sentence as
other similar pronouns.
Eg. Tu vas à Paris cette année ?
Are you going to Paris this year?
Oui, j’y vais en juin
Yes, I am going there in June
It’s the same ‘y’ and in “il y a” (There is/are).
In the Passé Composé
J’y allé(e) hier – I went there yesterday
The ‘y’ goes before the être or avoir

‘en’ replaces de + a noun.


It again takes the same position within a sentence
Eg. Tu bois du café ? – do you drink coffee ?
Oui, j’en bois trop – yes, I drink too much of it
Passé Composé
The passé composé (past tense) is usually formed by using
the present tense of avoir or être respectively, in the
appropriate form in combination with the past participle of
the verb you are using
The past participle of regular verbs is formed as follows:
er - é
re - u
ir - i
eg. Y’all (have) bought – Vous avez acheté
We forgot – On a oublié
You didn’t buy the eggs ? – tu n’as pas acheté d’œufs

When the past participle is negative not that the ne __ pas


goes around the avoir/être not the verb.
Passé Composé – Irregular and être
Most irregular verbs will conjugate with avoir. The most
important irregular verb at the moment are:
avoir - eu
être - été
faire - fait
prendre - pris
mettre - mis
dire - dit
pouvoir - pu
vouloir - voulu
devoir - dû
écrire - ecrit

*NOTE* all these irregular verbs use avoir to put them in


the past tense.

Roughly 16 verbs go with être rather than avoir. A major


difference about these verbs is that they must agree in
number and gender. Either ‘e’ for female and or ‘s’ for plural.
aller - allé mourir - mort
entre - entré revenir - revenu
arriver - arrivé retourner - retourné
monter - monté rester - resté
naître - né tomber - tombé
devenir - devenu rentrer - rentré
venir - venu
sortir - sorti
partir - parti
descendre - descendu
Adverbs
An adverb adds to the verb ; it gives us more information on
how an action was completed.
In English, it’s usually formed by adding ‘ly’ to the
adjective (eg. Quick – quickly, passionate –
passionately).
In French, it’s generally formed by adding ‘ment’ to the
feminine form of the adjective (eg. Rapide –
rapidement, lent – lentement)
In the present tense: Elle parle lentement
In the passé composé : Elle a vite commencé
Adverbs of doubt or Adverbs of time
affirmation toujours - always
apparement - apparently souvent - often
peut- être - perhaps quelquefois - sometimes
probablement - probably rarement - rarely
volontiers - willingly jamais - never
vraiment - really dêjà - already
vraisemblablement – in all désormais - henceforth
likelyhood donc - thus
Adverbs of place alors - then
autour - around auparavant - beforehand
dedans - inside
dehors - outise
ailleurs - elsewhere
d’ailleurs - moreover
Reflexive/Reciprocal verbs
Reflexive verbs reflect the action back on the subject. They
are actions that we do to ourselves (eg. “I wash myself”)
Note: Some verbs that are reflexive in French do not have a
“myself” etc. in English (eg “je me lève – I get (myself) up”)

Reciprocal verbs are formed the same way but translate as


“each other”.
They involve the use of an extra pronoun between the
subject and the verb to stand for “myself”, “herself” etc

je me + verb
tu te + verb
il se + verb
elle se + verb
on se + verb
nous nous + verb
vous vous + verb
ils se + verb
elles se + verb
Negative
We are very familiar with using “ne __ pas” to make a verb
negative.
There are, in fact, a number of constructions of negativity:

ne __ point – not at all


ne __ rien – nothing
ne __ jamais – never
ne __ guére – hardly/scarcely
ne __ personne – nobody
ne __ plus – no longer (time)
ne __ que – only (often used in tests)
ne (verb) ni (noun) ni (noun) – neither/nor (at least 2)

Remember that in spoken (casual) French, the “ne” is often


dropped.

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