spanish grammar

FRENCH GRAMMAR TIPS
One of the main impulses behind the earworms approach is to really get your brain used to the
linguistic patterns, even the melody, of the target language. We do this by offering the
language in the form of the target language, spoken by native speakers, with a direct literal
translation as well as a correct English interpretation, and by breaking a sentence down so that
you understand all its constituent elements. In this way you intuitively learn about the structure,
i.e. the grammar, of the language.
As an inquisitive language student, however, you will no doubt be searching for ‘the rules’ that
these patterns are based on which will give you the tools to construct strings of vocabulary
yourself. So here we have provided comments on the grammatical elements to help you to
‘decode’ the rules, gain a more complete picture, and to construct your own word groups.
The tips given here relate directly to the grammatical themes embedded in earworms French
Volumes 1 and 2.
1) ‘You’ is not just ‘you’ in French
Depending on whether talking to a close friend or in a more formal boss-employee situation, or whether
the ‘you’ is the object of the sentence or not, there are different words for ‘you’.
The formal ‘you’ = ‘Vous’ is pretty straightforward. Verbs usually take on the ending ‘ez’, e.g.:
You speak
=
You go
=
You have
=
You can
=
You could
=
You want
=
You come from =
Vous parlez
Vous allez
Vous avez
Vous pouvez
Vous pourriez
Vous voulez
Vous venez de
Exceptions: you are = vous êtes, you do = vous faites.
The informal ‘you’, reserved for friends and family, is slightly more complicated. There are three words
for this : tu, te and toi.
‘toi’ is typically used in expressions with prepositions like: for you = pour toi, with you = avec toi or the
expression ‘I’m fine and you?’ = « Je vais bien, et toi ? »
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The difference between ‘tu’ and ‘te’ needs a little grammatical explanation:
In the sentence ‘She likes you.’ we call ‘She’ the ‘subject’ (the acting person) and
‘you’ the ‘object’ (the person being acted upon).
Likewise ‘You like her.’ ‘You’ = subject and ‘her’ = object.
French has a different ‘you’ for the ‘subject’ and ‘object’ of a sentence:
‘tu’ is the ‘subject you’ (at the beginning of the sentence) and ‘te’ is the ‘object you’ (at the end).
Examples:
You leave tomorrow. = Tu pars demain.
(‘You’ at the beginning)
You are glad to see me? = Tu es heureux de me voir?
But with ‘you’ at the end ...
I’m glad to see you. = Je suis heureux de te voir.
Formally (with ‘vous’) this would be : Je suis heureux de vous voir.
2) Linguistic gender of nouns – feminine beer and masculine coffee!
For traditional rather than any logical reasons, things are grouped into masculine or feminine in French.
‘Un’ is the masculine and ‘une’ the feminine version of the English ‘a’.
There are four words for ‘the’:
1. masculine ‘le’ (e.g. le vin = the wine)
2. feminine ‘la’ (e.g. la voiture = the car)
3. plural ‘les’ (e.g. les voitures = the cars)
4. l’ : This is simply a convenient shortening of ‘le’ and ‘la’ with words beginning with vowel sounds (a, e,
i, o, u); e.g. l’éléphant, l’aéroport, l’autobus, l’addition, l’hôtel (Hotel begins with ‘H’ but it’s a silent H.)
Notice to make a plural usually add an ‘s’ pretty much like in English (although it is not pronounced):
the room / the rooms = la chambre / les chambres
the passport / the passports = le passeport / les passeports
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Remembering the gender
The best advice on learning whether a noun is le or la, un or une is to learn them as a child would – by
ear! By listening repeatedly, the nouns with their respective article burn themselves into your long term
memory.
Another interesting technique for remembering the gender of a noun, pioneered by Kevin Crocombe at
www.200-words-a-day.com is to visualise the object with a man or a woman.
So you visualise a man drinking ‘un café’ to know that café is masculine. Visualise a woman drinking
beer to remember that it is ‘une bière’.
Gender is also apparent through the words ‘my’, ‘your’, ‘our’ etc.:
My = mon (masc.), ma (fem.), mes (plural)
E.g. my bag/case = mon bagage, my room = ma chambre, my bags/luggage = mes bagages.
Now just for fun, after listening to the earworms French Vol. 1 + 2 a few times, test whether you now
know the articles which go with these nouns:
café, thé, bière, eau, bouteille, vin, carafe, maison, boisson, vin, pichet, pain, salade, table,
dessert, addition, centre-ville, aéroport, hôtel, reste, voiture, paire de chaussures, prix, banque,
supermarché, poste, bon restaurant, ticket de bus, billet de train, chambre, toilettes, petit-déjeuner,
problème‚ television, frigidaire, appareil photo, passeport, portefeuille, maux, coups de soleil,
moustiques, glace, cognac, moment, vol, voyage, spécialités, salle à manger, semaine, rouge (vin),
rosé, lettre, nouveau, soupe, steak, femme, mari, fils, fille.
3) Adjectives – before or after the noun?
Adjectives (descriptive words) like ‘big’ (grand/grande) or ‘good’ (bon/bonne), red (rouge) or ‘interesting’
(intéressant/intéressante) sometimes come before and sometimes after the noun:
(notice there are feminine and masculine versions)
The general rule is that: 1. colours, 2. adjectives of nationality and 3. long adjectives come after the
noun. So for example ‘a red mill’ is ‘un moulin rouge’, a French car is ‘une voiture française’, and an
interesting book is ‘un livre intéressant’.
More examples:
1. Colours:
vin rouge / blanc = red / white wine
tableau noir = black board
les cheveux blonds = blond hair
Mont Blanc = White Mountain
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2. Adjectives of nationality:
une actrice américaine = an American actress
un vin italien = an Italian wine
la langue française = the French language
un livre anglais = an English book
3. Long adjectives:
mon restaurant préféré = my favourit restaurant
des spécialités locales = some local specialities
une question difficile = a difficult question
une personne extravagante = an extravagant person
un climat tropical = a tropical climate
Adjectives before the noun:
Short and frequently used adjectives like the ones below, come before the noun.
big / large = grand, grande. E.g. le grand prix (the big prize) / un grand lit (a big bed)
small / little = petit, petite. E.g. un petit peu (a little bit) / une petite ville (a little town)
good = bon, bonne. E.g. Un bon weekend ! (Have a nice weekend!) / Bonne nuit ! (Good night!)
first = premier, première. E.g. le premier train (the first train) / la première fois (the first time) / ma
première visite (my first visit)
last = dernier, dernière. E.g. le dernier train (the last train) / la dernière fois (the last time)
young = jeune. E.g. un jeune homme (a young man) / une jeune femme (a young woman)
beautiful or nice = beau/bel, belle. E.g. un beau paysage (a beautiful landscape) / un bel appartement (a
beautiful appartment), une belle voiture (a beautiful car)
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4) Verbs
Here we look at some of the most important verbs: ‘have’, ‘can’, ‘want’, ‘speak’, be (am, are)
The verb ‘have’ (with: I, you, we)
I have
je ai / j’ai
tu as
you have (informal)
you have (formal/plural) vous avez
we have
nous avons
(question: As-tu ... ?
= Have you ...?)
(question: Avez-vous ... ? = Have you ...?)
(question: Avons-nous ... ? = Have we ...?)
Another way of asking questions is by using ‘Est-ce que’. This has a similar function to ‘Do’ or ‘Does’ in
English questions:
Do you have …? = Est-ce que vous avez … ?
Or informally :
Do you have …? = Est-ce que tu as … ?
The use of the French ‘on’ to replace ‘you’ and ‘we’
In English we sometimes use the word ‘one’ or ‘you’ or ‘we’ meaning ‘people’, e.g.:
To keep in good health, you should do regular sport.
To keep in good health, we should do regular sport.
To keep in good health, one should do regular sport.
The French use ‘on’ (similar to ‘one’) for this:
Example 1. (translating the above)
Pour rester en bonne santé, on devrait faire du sport régulièrement.
Example 2.
How does one say ‘Excuse me.’ in French? = Comment dit-on ‘Excuse me.’ en français ?
‘on’ is also used to replace ‘we’ = ‘nous’ in everyday spoken French:
On va au cinéma (We're going to the cinema.)
Quand est-ce qu'on mange ? (When do we eat?)
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The negative
To make a negative add ‘ne’ in front of the verb and ‘pas’ after the verb.
Examples:
I have = j’ai
I don’t have = je n’ai pas, e.g. ‘Je n’ai pas trop faim.’
we have = nous avons
we don’t have = nous n’avons pas, e.g. ‘Nous n’avons pas le temps.’
Note: In colloquial French, one can also ommit the ‘ne’. Which makes life easier for us!
I have = j’ai
I don’t have = j'ai pas (J’ai pas trop faim.)
Summary:
Statement
Negative
Question
You have ...
You don’t have...
Do you have...?
Vous avez ...
Vous n’avez pas …
or colloquially:
Vous avez pas …
Est-ce que vous avez … ?
Avez-vous ... ?
The verb ‘want’ (with: I, you, we)
I want
you want (formal/plural)
you want (informal)
we want
je veux
vous voulez
tu veux
nous voulons
(question: Voulez-vous ? = Do you want?)
(question: Veux-tu ?
= Do you want?)
(question: Voulons-nous ? = Do we want?)
For the Negative just add ‘ne … pas’!
I don’t want to leave = Je ne veux pas partir.
The verb ‘speak’ (with: I, you, we)
I speak
you speak (formal/plural)
you speak (informal)
we speak
je parle
vous parlez
tu parles
nous parlons
(question: Parlez-vous ? = Do you speak?)
(question: Parles-tu ?
= Do you speak?)
(question: Parlons-nous ? = Do we speak?)
Negative: I don’t speak Chinese = Je ne parle pas chinois.
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The verb ‘can’ (with: I, you, we)
I can
you can (informal)
you can (plural /formal)
we can
je peux
tu peux
(question: Peux-tu ?
= Can you?)
vous pouvez
(question: Pouvez-vouz ? = Can you?)
nous pouvons (question: Pouvons-nous ? = Can we?)
Negative:
I can’t come tomorrow = Je ne peux pas venir demain.
‘Do …?’ and ‘Does …?’ (it, they):
The ‘do’ and ‘does’ in questions can be represented by the expression ‘Est-ce que … ?’
(or ‘Est-ce qu … ?’) in French.
Do you have a table for two? = Est-ce que vous avez une table pour deux ? Alternatively you can also
leave the ‘Est-ce que … ?’ out. So: Vous avez une table pour deux ?
How much does that cost? = Combien est-ce que ça coûte ? Alternatively you can also leave the ‘estce que’ out. So: Combien ça coûte ?
It costs 10 euros = Il/Elle coûte dix euros.
That costs 10 euros = Ça coûte dix euros.
Does it cost 10 euros? = Est-ce qu’il coûte 10 euros?
Does that cost 10 euros? = Est-ce que ça coûte dix euros ? Alternatively you can also leave the
‘Est-ce que’ out. So: Ça coûte dix euros ?
Plural :
They cost 20 euros = Ils/Elles coûtent 20 euros.
Do they cost 20 euros? = Est-ce qu’ils coûtent 20 euros ? Alternatively you can also leave the
‘Est-ce que’ out. So: Ils coûtent 20 euros ?
Do they have?
they have … = ils ont ...
Do they have fish? = Est-ce qu’ils ont du poisson ? Alternatively you can also leave the
‘Est-ce qu’ ’ out. So: Ils ont du poisson ? Of course you can also ask: Ont-ils du poisson ?
What sort of fish do they have? = Quelle sorte de poisson ont-ils ? (Vol 2. track 9)
or
What sort of fish do they have? = Quelle sorte de poisson est-ce qu’ils ont ?
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The verb ‘be’ (I am, you are, we are)
I am
je suis
tu es
(question: Es-tu ... ?
= Are you ...?)
you are (informal)
you are (formal/plural) vous êtes
(question: Êtes-vous ... ?
= Are you ...?)
we are
nous sommes (question: Sommes-nous ... ? = Are we ...?)
5) Comparatives
more slowly – bigger – later – more interesting, etc.
Comparatives are pretty simple in French. You only have to add 'plus' to the adjective or adverb.
E.g.:
slowly = lentement
more slowly = plus lentement
big = grand
bigger = plus grand
late = tard
later = plus tard
interesting = intéressant
more interesting = plus intéressant
expensive = cher
more expensive = plus cher
less expensive = moins cher
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earworms Rapid French Vol. 1
earworms Rapid French Vol. 2
earworms Rapid French Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 are your survival kit of immediately useful words and phrases
for your visit abroad.
Listen a few times to be able to ask for a table in a restaurant, order food and drink, take a taxi, rent a
car, buy tickets, deal with money, numbers, times and days, ask for directions, deal with typical
problems, hold a simple conversation and more.
Try the demos - experience something 'a little different'. After a few listenings, foreign words will be
popping out of your memory …
... when you least expect them!
Read what other learners have said about how effective learning with earworms is and download a free
Sample album:
www.earwormslearning.com/set_reviews.php
Play a sample:
Click here
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