Posted by Chester Morton / Thursday, 9 February 2017 / No comments
The verbs ÊTRE and avoir
The Verb :
The
verb in French is the most important element of a statement or question,
since it conveys so much information: the person, the action or state, and the
time of the action.
An infinitive
is the unconjugated form of the verb. For example, to be is an
English infinitive. French infinitives are single words; they do not contain the
element to. Conjugations are the verb forms that belong to
particular subjects. I am and he is are conjugations of the
English infinitive to be.
THE VERBS ÊTRE
(TO BE) AND AVOIR (TO HAVE)
Être (to be)
and avoir (to have) are the most common French verbs. It makes
sense to learn them fi rst. You will find être and avoir everywhere:
in descriptions, in idiomatic expressions, as linking verbs, and as helping
(auxiliary) verbs in compound tenses. Like many common French verbs, être and
avoir are irregular—with special conjugation patterns. You will
begin to learn regular verbs in the next section
Je suis
américain. I am American.
Nous avons
deux enfants. We have two children
Être and
Subject Pronouns
All verb
conjugations in French have six “persons.” Three are singular, corresponding to:
I, you (familiar), and he/she/it/one.
Three are plural, corresponding to: we, you (pol. singular,
and fam. or pol. plural), and they. The verb être has six
different conjugated forms:
Present
Tense of être (to
be)
SINGULAR PLURAL
1st Person
je suis I am 1st Person nous sommes we are
2nd Person
tu es you are (fam.) 2nd Person vous êtes you
are (pol. s.;
fam./pol.
pl.)
3rd Person
il est he/it is 3rd
Person ils sont they (m.
pl.) are
elle est she/it is elles sont
they (f. pl.) are
on est one is, we/they
are
Subject
Pronouns
As in
English, conjugated forms of French verbs are preceded by one of the following:
•
A common noun (a person, animal, place, thing, or idea)
•
A proper noun (a name)
•
Or a subject pronoun (a word used in place of a noun)
Subject
Pronouns
PERSON SINGULAR PLURAL
1st je/j’ I
nous we
2nd tu you (fam.)
vous you (pol. s.; fam./pol.
pl.)
3rd il he/it (m.)
ils they (m.
pl. or mixed)
elle she/it
(f.) elles they (f.
pl.)
on one/we/they
Gender
and Number
Remember
that all French nouns have gender and number: Every noun is either masculine or
feminine (le livre, la table), and either singular or plural (l’hôtel
[m.], les hôtels).
The
subject pronoun of a conjugated verb corresponds to the gender and number of
the noun (a person or thing) that it replaces.
La table est dans
le salon. The table is in the living room.
Elle (La
table) est dans le salon. It is in the living room.
Context
will help you determine the person or object the subject pronoun refers to.
Uses
of Subject Pronouns
Conjugated
verb forms in French are always preceded by a noun or a subject pronoun.
Verb
Forms Without Subjects
Verb
infinitives, commands (or imperatives; covered in Chapter 11), and present
participles (Chapter 12) do not include a noun subject or a subject pronoun.
•
To avoid repetition, the subject pronoun often replaces a noun.
Richard est en ville. Richard
is downtown.
Il est au cinéma. He is at the movies.
Mes soeurs sont en voyage. My
sisters are on a trip.
Elles sont à Lille. They’re
in Lille.
•
Je (I). In French, je is capitalized only when it begins a
sentence. Like
the
defi nite articles le and la, je drops (elides) the letter
-e before a vowel sound. It is replaced by an apostrophe and closed up
to the conjugated
verb.
Je suis content;
j’ai un nouveau travail.
I am happy;
I have a new job.
•
Tu and vous (you). Tu (with its verb form) is
always singular. It is used to speak to one person who is a friend or relative,
to a child, or to a pet. Vous is used to speak to someone you don’t know
well or to anyone with whom you have a relationship of respect, for example,
strangers, new acquaintances,
salespeople, or professionals. The plural of both tu and vous is vous
(with its conjugated verb form).
Sylvie,
tu es étudiante? Sylvie,
are you a student?
Pardon,
Madame, vous êtes Excuse
me, Ma’am, are you
la
mère de Sylvie? Sylvie’s
mother?
Attention
les enfants! Vous Children!
Are you ready?
êtes
prêts?
