cours du 1er mai

Today we looked at:

I- Conjugaisons.

There are 3 groups of verbs:

First group finishes with "er" manger, chanter, aimer etc."

note: there is only one verb finishing with er that doesn't belong to the first group but to the third one, it's "aller" (to go)- we'll have a look at it next week.

Second group verbs finish with "ir" (and for the "nous" present form finish with "issons", we'l speak about it again) : finir, agir etc.

Third group is for all the other verbs really.... finishing with dre, oir, etc. and even some verbs finishing with ir and aller. Prendre, croire, partir, etc.

 

Tenses...

The are organised in 'mood'

Indicatif is the mood that places verbs in time. There are simple tenses (présent, imparfait, passé simple and futur) and verbes composés, composed with être (to be) and avoir (to have) plus the verb itself (passé composé, plus que parfait, passé antérieur ans futur antérieur)

 

                  _ imparfait je prenais mon bain_

                          (Background past)                                 

_________x____________________________________x___________________________            x_________________________x_________________________x__________________________________

      plus-que-parfait                              passé-composé                                       présent                     Futur antérieur                        Futur

(before another past action )  (&passé simple but less used nowdays     j'écris un roman.         before another futur action  

j'avais éteint la radio,                    Precise moment in the past)                                                            J'aurai rangé la maison.......   quand il arrivera

                                                    quand le téléphone a sonné.         

 

 

the others moods are:

Conditionnel : the equivalent of 'would' in english : J'aimerais une baguette / I would like a baguette

Infinitif: the form found in dictionary : manger, prendre, finir etc...

Participe: présent : indicate an action taking place same time as another one : Je travaille en chantant (I work and sing at the same time).

                   passé (we actually haven't spoken about this one): form of the verb used in the 'temps composés" of the indicatif: j'ai mangé les cacahuettes (I                      ate the peanuts).

II- Asking a yes/no question:

Statement :

J'habite à Auckland

The question can be asked 3 ways:

1. Habites-tu à Auckland?

2. Tu habites à Auckland? 5tone of the voice, up at the end of the sentence indicates it's a question)

3. Est-ce que tu habites à Auckland?

Note/ if followed by a vowel, 'est-ce que' becomes 'est-ce qu' : Est-ce qu'il habite à Paris?

 

Before the name of a town : à ; je vais à Milan (I'm going to Milan), j'habite à Berlin (I live in Berlin), elle part à New-York (she leaves to go to New-York).

Before the name of a country, if the country is féminine (la France, la Nouvelle-Zélande): en: j'habite en France. If the country is masculin (le Portugal, le Japon): tu habites au Japon