French Courses in Brussels

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To conjugate

You have to know for each verb the bases of the infinitive, of the "Indicatif présent" and the past participle.

After you will just have to study a few irregular bases for the "indicatif futur simple" and the "subjonctif présent" and it will be all.  You will master the French conjugaison.

There are four main types of French verbs.

Regular verbs with only one base.
The majority of the French verbs and nearly all the -er verbs belong to this category.
To find the regular base, take the infinitive, take off the symbol of the infinitive (-er/-ir/-re/-oir) and here is the base.

By example, for the verb "to speak" : parler
the regular base is parl- for all the persons

Verbs with two bases.
A base for the three singular persons (je, tu, il/elle/on)
another for the three plural persons (nous, vous, ils/elles)

By example, for the verb "to speak" : partir
the singular base is par-
the plural base is part-

But also the verbs :

dormir (dor-/dorm-)
servir (ser-/serv-)
sortir (sor-/sort-)
battre (bat-/batt-)
mettre (met-/mett-)
connaître (connaî-/connaiss)
lire (li-/lis-)
écrire (écri-/écriv-)
conduire (condui-/conduis-)
plaire (plai-/plais-)
suivre (sui-/suiv-)
vivre (vi-/viv-)
craindre (crain-/craign-)
peindre (pein-/peign-), etc.

As you may notice, the plural bases are very often regular!

A lot of the verbs of this category are verbs in -ir of the "finir" type
(the dictionary will tell you the type of -ir infinitive)
For singular persons : base + i- : fin-i-
For plural persons : base + iss- : fin-iss-

Verbs with three bases.
A base for the three singular persons (je, tu, il/elle/on)
another (generally the regular form) for the first two plural persons (nous, vous)
another for the third plural person (ils/elles)

By example, for the verb "to receve" :
recevoir (regular base from the infinitive : recev-)
(je, tu, il/elle/on) reçoi-
(nous, vous) recev-
(ils/elles) reçoiv-

But also the verbs :
venir (vien-/ven-/vienn-)
tenir (tien-/ten-/tienn-)
voir (voi-/voy-/voi-)
croire (croi-/croy-/croi-)
prendre (prend-/pren-/prenn-)
boire (boi-/buv-/boiv-)
devoir (doi-/dev-/doiv-)
pouvoir (peu-/pouv-/peuv-)
vouloir (veu-/voul-/veul-), etc.

As you may notice, the "nous" and "vous" bases are generally regular!

Very irregular verbs (just a few) : avoir, être, etc.


Enter a French infinitive and get the conjugaison.

http://www.leconjugueur.com/frconjonline.php

http://www.pomme.ualberta.ca/devoir/

Focus mainly on the bases of the "indicatif présent".  They will give you the "indicatif imparfait", the "subjonctif présent" and the "impératif présent"

The infinitive will give you the "indicatif futur simple" and the "conditionnel présent"

The past participle will give you all the "composed* tenses" (*auxiliary verb avoir or être + past participle) : "indicatif passé composé", "indicatif plus-que-parfait", "indicatif futur antérieur", etc.

Masculine or feminine?

You think that you have a fifty-fifty chance and that French is definitively "une loterie".
Wrong.  By learning 40 word endings, you can correctly identify the gender of 75% of French nouns with an accuracy of close to 95%.  (Thank you to Mr John Walker and his "Truc des genres" !)

http://www.fourmilab.ch/francais/gender.html

http://www.nks.kent.sch.uk/departments/languages/french/year12-13/lesgenres.htm

http://www.bertrandboutin.ca/Folder_151_Grammaire/E_b_genre.htm

Somes exercices online?

http://www.languageguide.org/francais/grammar/gender/trial.html

FAQ

On the Net

Banque de dépannage linguistique (Québec)
http://66.46.185.79/gabarit_bdl.asp?Th=1&Th_id=9&niveau=


Académie française (France)
http://www.academie-francaise.fr/langue/index.html
On the left, under "Quelle langue pour demain?", click on "Questions courantes"

Books

Joseph HANSE, Dictionnaire des difficultés de la langue française,

Jean GIRODET, Dictionnaire des pièges et difficultés de la langue française, Paris, Editions Bordas, 2004
(ISBN 2-04-729949-7)