In our last lesson, we discussed the word tout (all) as an adjective in the constructions tout + noun versus tout + determiner + noun, and we learned that tout, like all adjectives, agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies. In this lesson, we'll explore tout as an adverb. And in the process, we'll discover how this strange adverb sometimes goes rogue and starts behaving like an adjective! So, buckle up!
Before we examine the quirks and tricks of adverbial tout, let's look at tout as a regular adverb, a word that is typically invariable (never changes form). Indeed, tout always stays the same in front of another adverb. The construction tout + adverb is equivalent to très (very) + adverb:
Et voilà. Allez, mélange tout doucement.
And there we are. Go on, mix very slowly.
Caption 40, Delphine et Automne Le gâteau au yaourt - Part 1
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Delphine could have said this instead:
Voilà. Allez, mélange très doucement.
And there we are. Go on, mix very slowly.
Tout also combines well with adverbs like simplement: tout simplement (quite simply).
Alors tout simplement parce que ça fait maintenant dix ans qu'on travaille à notre compte.
So quite simply because it has now been ten years since we've been self-employed.
Caption 22, Alsace 20 Grain de Sel: le titre de Maître Restaurateur, c'est quoi?
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The adverb tout can also modify an adjective to mean "all" or "very," as in "to the full extent." Again, tout behaves like a typical adverb and does not change. In his song "Cha Cha du Marin," singer Cré Tonnerre describes a sailor in a happy mood, using the construction tout + singular masculine adjectives:
Tout heureux, tout amoureux, tout bleu comme le ciel bleu
All happy, all in love, all blue as the blue sky
Caption 26, Cré Tonnerre Cha Cha du Marin
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Did you notice that all the t’s are sounded except the last one? That's because it's necessary to employ liaison in constructions like tout heureux (all happy) and tout amoureux (all/totally in love).
But when the adverb tout appears before a feminine adjective, the liaison becomes a bit more dangerous (or at least trickier). If the feminine adjective (singular or plural) starts with a vowel, as in excitée (excited), tout does not change:
J'étais tout excitée d'avoir ce privilège.
I was all excited to have that privilege.
Caption 16, Melissa Mars From Paris with Love
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Tout also stays the same before a feminine adjective starting with a mute h (since a word beginning with a mute h behaves like a word beginning with a vowel, in the sense that it allows a liaison to occur):
Elle est tout heureuse.
She is very happy.
Elles sont tout heureuses.
They are very happy.
But wait, there is another type of h in French! Unlike the mute h, the aspirated h acts like a consonant. Therefore, no liaison is possible, which would make the second t in tout silent. Tout agrees in number and gender before a feminine adjective beginning with an aspirated h. In the example below, toute agrees with the feminine adjective honteuse (ashamed):
Elle est toute honteuse.
She is very ashamed.
In the same sentence in the plural form, toutes takes -es just like the feminine plural adjective it modifies:
Elles sont toutes honteuses.
They are very ashamed.
Just as adverbial tout agrees with a feminine adjective starting with an aspirated h, tout also agrees with a feminine adjective starting with a consonant:
Et puis après, je me retrouve toute seule...
and then after, I find myself all alone...
Caption 29, Amal et Caroline Pourquoi tu n'es pas venue à mon anniversaire ?
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Elles peuvent fonctionner toutes seules.
They can operate on their own.
Caption 66, Lionel & Lahlou La grève
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However, there is sometimes ambiguity in the feminine plural form. In some cases, you will need context to determine whether toutes is acting as an adverb (meaning "very," modifying the adjective) or as an adjective (meaning "all," modifying the subject):
Elles sont toutes tristes.
They are very sad./All of them are sad.
Elles sont toutes honteuses.
They are very ashamed./All of them are ashamed.
On the other hand, there is no ambiguity with the construction tout + plural feminine noun beginning with a vowel or mute h (e.g. tout heureuses). This tout can only act as an adverb, meaning "very":
Elles sont tout heureuses.
They are very happy.
Likewise, toutes heureuses can only mean "(they are) all happy." Rather than an adverb, toutes in this case is an adjective of quantity that modifies the subject elles:
Elles sont toutes heureuses.
All of them are happy.
Now let's recap the rules of the construction tout + feminine adjective (singular and plural):
Agreement
When tout is before a feminine adjective starting with a consonant:
When tout is before a feminine adjective starting with an aspirated h:
No Agreement
When tout is before a feminine adjective starting with a vowel:
When tout is before a feminine adjective starting with a mute h:
(And don’t forget that adverbial tout does not take agreement before ANY masculine adjective.)
Toute la leçon est terminée! (The whole lesson is over!) This may be a lot to take in, but keep in mind that exceptions are few. Tout only changes before feminine adjectives and only in limited situations. And don’t forget: L’équipe de Yabla est tout heureuse de vous aider! (The Yabla team is very happy to help you!)
In addition to le passé composé (perfect or compound past tense), you can also use l'imparfait (imperfect tense) to talk about things that occurred in the past. So, when should you choose l'imparfait over le passé composé? Let's explore both tenses.
Before we embark on the specific uses of l'imparfait, let's find out how to form this past tense. Just take the nous (we) form of the present tense, as in nous faisons (we do/are doing), remove the -ons, and add the ending -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, or -aient. So, nous faisons (we do/are doing) becomes nous faisions (we were doing/used to do). Margaux and Manon will show you how to conjugate the rest of the verb faire in the imparfait:
Je faisais... Tu faisais. Il ou elle faisait.
I was doing... You were doing. He or she was doing.
Nous faisions. Vous faisiez.
We were doing. You [pl. or formal] were doing.
Ils ou elles faisaient.
They [masc.] or they [fem.] were doing.
Captions 31-33, Margaux et Manon - Conjugaison du verbe faire
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Now that you know how to form the imperfect tense, let's discuss how to use it. Usually, l'imparfait indicates ongoing actions in the past that have a stronger connection to the present than le passé composé, which describes a completed action. In his conversation with Lea in the video below, Lionel uses the imperfect form tu me parlais (you were telling me) as a subtle cue that he wants to hear more about the animals in the park. It's an invitation to Lea to elaborate:
Tu me parlais aussi tout à l'heure de la
You were also telling me earlier about the
présence d'animaux dans ces parcs.
presence of animals in these parks.
Caption 43, Lea & Lionel L - Le parc de Bercy - Part 2
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If Lionel wanted to say something like “you already told me earlier” and then changed the subject, he would have used passé composé:
Ah oui, tu m’en as déjà parlé tout à l’heure.
Oh yes, you already told me about that earlier.
But l'imparfait is not only used to evoke an ongoing action drifting into the present. It's also the ideal tense for talking about things you used to do or describing repeated actions. In the following video, Claire remembers how elle allait (she used to go) to the park with her daughter:
Oh, j'y allais beaucoup avec ma fille, il y a quelques années.
Oh, I used to go there a lot with my daughter a few years ago.
Caption 47, Claire et Philippe - La campagne
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L'imparfait is very helpful for setting a background and creating a mood. In his poem "Barbara," Jacques Prévert sets the scene by describing the incessant rain in the city of Brest, which was destroyed during the Second World War:
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest ce jour-là
It was raining nonstop in Brest that day
Caption 2, Le saviez-vous? - "Barbara" de Jacques Prévert
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Later on, the poet uses the imparfait again to describe the romantic encounter that follows:
Tu souriais
You were smiling
Et moi je souriais de même
And I smiled back
Captions 9-10, Le saviez-vous? - "Barbara" de Jacques Prévert
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(Note that we used the perfect tense in English for je souriais [I smiled]. The French imparfait does not always correspond to the English imperfect, as we'll discuss further below.)
Prévert then adds more to the background: a man who s’abritait (was taking shelter) under a porch and interrupted the scene with a shout. Whereas the imparfait is used for background or habitual actions, single actions interrupting an ongoing action are usually expressed in passé composé:
Un homme sous un porche s'abritait
A man was taking shelter under a porch
Et il a crié ton nom
And he shouted your name
Captions 17-18, Le saviez-vous? - "Barbara" de Jacques Prévert
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While all verbs can be conjugated in both the passé composé and the imparfait, certain verbs by their very nature express a state of mind, an attitude, a condition, or a desire, thus lending themselves better to the use of the imparfait. These verbs include avoir (to have), croire (to believe), désirer (to desire), espérer (to hope), être (to be), penser (to think), pouvoir (to be able to), savoir (to know), vouloir (to want). Note that some of these verbs don’t usually take the imperfect in English. For example, we can say on savait, but we don’t really say “we were knowing” in English. In the video below, on ne savait pas translates as "we didn't know":
On ne savait pas que le marché de Noël ouvrait aujourd'hui
We didn't know that the Christmas market was opening today
Caption 8, Alsace 20 - Ouverture du marché de Noël de Colmar
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In another example using the verb penser (to think), the imperfect form is necessary for expressing repetition in French, but not in English:
Je pensais souvent à toi.
I often thought of you.
Caption 38, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Ma femme est-elle réellement morte ?
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However, just like in English, when referring to a completed action, we switch to passé composé in French. In the example below, the action was completed hier (yesterday), hence the use of the perfect tense (j’ai pensé). So, paying attention to adverbs in French can help you choose the correct tense:
J’ai pensé à toi hier.
I thought of you yesterday.
In some rare cases, a verb's meaning can change depending on what tense it's in. For example, the verb connaître (to know) usually means “to know” in the imparfait but "to meet" in the passé composé:
Je l'avais fréquenté pendant plusieurs années et je le connaissais.
I had socialized with him for several years, and I knew him.
Caption 63, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mes parents se préparent à la fin du monde
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J'ai connu Gérard y a une dizaine d'années.
I met Gérard about ten years ago.
Caption 39, Le Jour où tout a basculé - J'ai escroqué mon assurance !
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In the first example, the speaker uses the imparfait to describe an old acquaintance she has known for a long time—something in the past that has an effect on the present. In the second example, we're dealing with a singular event that can't be repeated, when the speaker first met Gérard. So the passé composé is in order here.
Sometimes certain grammatical structures dictate which tense you should use. For example, to describe hypothetical situations, we use the construction si + imparfait. Zaz uses this construction throughout her song "Si" (If):
Si j'étais l'amie du bon Dieu
If I were the good Lord's friend
Caption 1, Zaz - Si
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Now that you’re familiar with the imparfait and passé composé, why not write your own story in the past tense using both forms? Yabla videos are at your disposal for inspiration.
French verbs take on many endings, which can be a challenge to a new learner. Not to mention that some irregular verbs bear little resemblance to their original infinitive forms when conjugated. And a small group of verbs have unique characteristics that may surprise you. So let’s take a tour of these weird and wonderful things called verbs.
Did you know that the shortest conjugated verb in French is only one letter long, a, as in il/elle a (he/she has)?
Et il a des révélations à lui faire.
And he has some revelations to make to him.
Caption 2, Le Jour où tout a basculé À la recherche de mon père - Part 9
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Speaking of short verbs, a few irregular past participles ending in -u are extremely short and depart from their infinitive forms. And to make matters worse, they look very similar. The past participles of savoir, croire, pouvoir, boire, voir, and devoir are su, cru, pu, bu, vu, and dû (known, believed, was able to, drank, must have):
Ce que j'ai pu constater...
What I was able to observe...
Caption 23, Alphabétisation des filles au Sénégal
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Just a quick reminder that past participles sometimes have to agree in gender and number with their objects, which means they take on additional endings. In the following example, vu becomes vus to agree with the masculine plural object, les gens:
...et les gens qu'elles avaient vus là-bas.
...and the people they had seen there.
Caption 21, Contes de fées La petite sirène - Part 1
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Verbs ending in -ut or -it, as in fut (was) and fit (did), are often the mark of the passé simple or past historic, which is a tense used in fairy tales and other literary or historical works:
La première chose qu'elle vit fut un grand bateau.
The first thing she saw was a large boat.
Caption 25, Contes de fées La petite sirène - Part 1
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Although the past historic is little used, you may come across it from time to time, so it is worth familiarizing yourself with its endings at least. Be aware, though, that some verbs in the past historic look the same as other verbs in the present tense. For example, elle vit (she saw) is a past historic form of voir, but elle vit (she lives) is also a present tense form of vivre:
Mais heureusement ton frère, bon, qui vit à Montréal...
But luckily your brother, well, who lives in Montreal...
Caption 36, Elisa et sa maman La technologie
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And sometimes, a verb conjugated in the same tense can have two different meanings, as in je suis (I am/I follow), which is the first-person singular present of both être (to be) and suivre (to follow). Usually, context is enough to guide you, but it could also be a trick question in an exam! In the video below, the poor koala is having an identity crisis:
Quoi? Je ne suis pas un koala? Mais alors, qui suis-je?
What? I'm not a koala? But then, who am I?
Caption 8, Les zooriginaux 3 Qui suis-je? - Part 1
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And here, you have both meanings of suis within the same caption:
Je suis bien d'accord, ils ne servent à rien. Allez, suis-moi.
I totally agree, they are of no use. Come on, follow me.
Caption 14, Les zooriginaux 2 Tel père tel fils - Part 4
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Speaking of present-tense tricks, the verbs vaincre (to defeat, vanquish) and convaincre (to convince) are the only verbs in the French language that have endings in -c and -cs: je convaincs (I convince), tu convaincs (you convince), il convainc (he convinces). This little nugget of knowledge might come in handy while playing Scrabble, but not so much in conversation.
The past participles of vaincre and convaincre are more straightforward: vaincu, convaincu:
Alors, te voici convaincu? Ne cherche pas ailleurs!
So, are you convinced? Don't look elsewhere!
Caption 10, Il était une fois: L’Espace 3. La planète verte - Part 4
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One verb that draws attention to itself not for its unique present-tense ending but for its unusual infinitive form is the verb se fiche (to not give a damn). Normally it should come with an -r at the end, like all infinitives, but many grammarians, including those at Larousse, make a case for se fiche as the infinitive. In any event, it makes for a vigorous debate among scholars and grammarians. As for most people, ils s’en fichent (they could care less) and use the more regular infinitive version, se ficher.
Se fiche is most often a conjugated form of the present tense. In the following example, it takes on a different meaning: "kid" or "get a rise out of":
On se fiche de nous ou quoi?
Are you kidding us or what?
Caption 5, Actus Quartier Devant la SNCF
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Finally, some verb tenses have very exotic endings, even to the average French speaker! Endings such as -inssent, -assent, and -ussent, as in qu’ils vinssent/fassent/fussent (that they came/did/were) belong to the imperfect subjunctive, a tense that's hardly ever used. Most French speakers use the present subjunctive even when referring to the past:
Je voulais que tu viennes.
I wanted you to come.
Very few would use the imperfect subjunctive, unless perhaps for a humorous effect:
Je voulais que tu vinsses.
I wanted you to come.
While the imperfect subjunctive is a literary verb form, the present subjunctive is not, and is often used in casual conversation. For example, you will need the present subjunctive to say something as simple as “I’ve got to go":
Merci de m'avoir regardée sur Yabla. Maintenant faut que j'y aille.
Thanks for watching me on Yabla. I gotta go now.
Caption 39, B-Girl Frak Limoges
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Vaille que vaille (come what may), don’t hesitate to explore more wondrous verb oddities in your Yabla wanderings by taking full advantage of our videos and lessons. Thank you for reading. Maintenant il faut que nous y allions! Au revoir!
Memorizing the gender of nouns referring to things is one of the most difficult parts of learning French, as assigning gender to an object or concept is unfamiliar to native English speakers. Is there any logic to this process? In many cases, it seems arbitrary, and there’s no way of guessing. Fortunately, some categories of nouns do follow logical rules.
For example, it is indeed possible to identify the gender of a country based on its ending. La France is a feminine noun because it ends in e. (Note that we say la France even though it’s a proper noun. Unlike in English, all names of countries are preceded by an article in French.)
Le nom de la France vient du mot "Franc"
The name of France comes from the word "Franc" [Frank]
Caption 3, Le saviez-vous? D'où vient le nom de la France?
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That said, there are always exceptions. Even though it also ends in an e, le Mexique (Mexico) is masculine:
Maintenant avec leur aide, partons sur-le-champ conquérir le Mexique!
Now with their aid, let's leave at once to conquer Mexico!
Caption 29, Il était une fois: Les Amériques 9. Cortés et les Aztèques - Part 8
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But as for countries that don’t end in an e, it’s easy! They are automatically masculine: le Canada, le Japon, le Luxembourg (Canada, Japan, Luxembourg).
Pierre Trudeau, Premier Ministre du Canada, a dit que c'était une loi de fou.
Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, said it was a crazy law.
Caption 28, Le Québec parle aux Français - Part 3
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What about cities? Do they follow the same rule as countries? Not exactly. The Académie Française (the official French language watchdog, if you will) doesn’t give a definite answer, noting that people tend to prefer masculine although feminine is often used in literary contexts.
In the video below, we can tell that Paris is masculine because of the masculine past participle traversé (intersected):
Car Paris était traversé à l'époque par un aqueduc
For Paris was intersected at the time by an aqueduct
Caption 39, Voyage dans Paris Le Treizième arrondissement de Paris - Part 2
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French speakers often get around the gender ambiguity by using the expression c’est (it’s), which always requires a masculine agreement. Instead of saying Paris est belle or Paris est beau (Paris is beautiful), Sophie uses the phrase c’est + masculine to describe Paris:
C'est beau Paris comme ça.
Paris is beautiful like this.
Caption 1, Sophie et Patrice Paris, c'est gris
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The gender of languages is much more clear-cut. All languages are masculine, from le français (French) to le thaï (Thai):
Je crois que le français est une langue géniale.
I believe that French is a great language.
Caption 11, Allons en France Pourquoi apprendre le français?
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Note, however, that if you say "the French language" or "the Thai language" instead of just "French" or "Thai," you have to use the feminine, because the word langue (language) is feminine: la langue française, la langue thaïe.
Most foreign words are also masculine, in particular sports names and terms borrowed from English. It’s a simple matter of putting a masculine article like le (the) in front of the loanword:
Il aime le football.
He likes soccer.
Caption 33, Lionel L Les liaisons et le h aspiré
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On the other hand, native French sports terms are either masculine or feminine. For example, we have two words for “bicycle”: le vélo, which is masculine, and la bicyclette, which is feminine.
Tu peux faire du vélo
You can ride a bike
Caption 31, Amal et Caroline Le Parc de la Villette
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Most inanimate nouns follow no predictable pattern when it comes to gender. When we talk about feelings, for example, we say le bonheur (happiness) but la joie (joy):
Y a de la joie. On est avec les petits.
There's good cheer. We are with the little ones.
Caption 45, Actu Vingtième Fête du quartier Python-Duvernois
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C'est quand le bonheur?
When is happiness?
Caption 9, Cali C'est quand le bonheur
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To complicate things further, some words take both genders, and their meaning changes depending on whether they're masculine or feminine (we discuss this at length in our lesson One Word, Two Genders). For example, un livre is "a book," but une livre is "a pound":
L'extérieur d'un livre s'appelle la couverture.
The outside of a book is called the cover.
Caption 4, Manon et Clémentine Vocabulaire du livre
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Une livre équivaut à environ quatre cent cinquante-quatre grammes.
One pound is equal to around four hundred fifty-four grams.
And there is a small group of noun pairs that have slightly different meanings in the masculine and feminine that aren't conveyed in English. For example, the words an and année both mean "year," but the masculine an emphasizes a point in time or a unit of time, while the feminine année stresses duration:
Un manuscrit de mille deux cents ans
A one thousand two hundred year old manuscript
Caption 9, Télé Lyon Métropole Un manuscrit vieux de 1200 ans découvert à Lyon
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Ça fait des années et des années qu'ils cherchent à être logés.
For years and years they've sought housing.
Captions 35-36, Actus Quartier Devant la SNCF
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Whether you’ve been studying French pendant des années (for years) or you’ve only just begun, with practice, remembering the gender of nouns will become easier. Thank you for reading the final lesson of this series!
Like many other types of nouns, nouns referring to animals often have both male and female versions, and sometimes even separate names for each gender. Many of them, however, are exclusively masculine or feminine, as we'll see in this lesson.
Nouns referring to animals work in a comparable way to those referring to people. The most common way to feminize a noun is to add an -e at the end, and, in many cases, double the final consonant, as in un chien/une chienne (a male dog/a female dog). Note that whenever you double a final consonant, the normally silent consonant (like the -n in chien) becomes pronounced, as you can hear in the example below:
Certains noms masculins vont doubler leur consonne finale. Un chien donne... -une chienne, deux "n", "e". Et un chat donne une chatte, deux "t", "e".
Some masculine nouns will double their final consonant. "Un chien" [dog] gives... -"une chienne," two "n's," "e." And "un chat" [a cat] gives "une chatte," two "t's," "e."
Captions 25-27, Manon et Simon - Le masculin et le féminin
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On a side note, you may want to exercise caution when using the words chatte and chienne, as they can both be offensive terms referring to women.
Here is another example of a noun that changes spelling and pronunciation in the feminine form. The word for "lion" follows the same pattern as chien/chienne:
Tu as vu? Le papa lion et la maman lionne se suivent partout.
Did you see? The dad lion and the mom lioness follow each other everywhere.
Caption 23, Les zooriginaux - Léa jacta est - Part 1
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On the other hand, some animal nouns ending in -n don’t double their final consonant in the feminine, as in un lapin/une lapine (male/female rabbit), but the change in pronunciation still applies. Pay attention to the nasal -in sound in this fairy tale video:
Il y attrapa un beau lapin gras et le mit dans sa bourse.
He caught a nice fat rabbit there and put it in his purse.
Caption 25, Contes de fées - Le chat botté - Part 1
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Likewise, un renard (a fox), with a silent d, doesn’t have a double consonant in the feminine, but the d will be pronounced: une renarde.
Le renard femelle adulte s’appelle la renarde.
An adult female fox is called a vixen.
Sometimes, in addition to the -e ending, there are some unexpected spelling changes in the feminine, as in un loup/une louve (male/female wolf):
Par exemple, un loup donne... -une louve.
For example, "un loup" [a male wolf] gives... -"une louve" [a female wolf].
Caption 53, Manon et Simon - Le masculin et le féminin
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As in un prince (a prince) and une princesse (a princess), some animal nouns take the suffix -esse in the feminine:
Un âne? -Une ânesse. -Bien!
"Un âne" [a donkey]? -"Une ânesse" [a jenny]. -Good!
Caption 41, Manon et Simon - Le masculin et le féminin
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In short, there are diverse ways to feminize an animal noun. However, many animals have separate names for male and female specimens, as in English. For example: une vache/un taureau (a cow/a bull).
Et là on voit déjà si c'est une vache ou des taureaux [sic: un taureau]? -Là, c'est une femelle.
And can we already tell here if it's a cow or a bull? -Here, it's a female.
Caption 43, Lionel à la ferme
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Male and female animal names can be quite specialized and hard to remember. If you don’t know the special name for a female animal, you can do what Automne does in the video below and refer to her as, for example, la maman cochon (the mommy pig) or le cochon femelle (the female pig) instead of the more technical term la truie (the sow). (The term cochonne actually exists, but usually it means something entirely different! It’s a way of insulting a sloppy human, or "a pig"—une cochonne for females and un cochon for males.)
Y a même le bébé de la maman cochon.
There's even the mommy pig's baby.
Caption 56, Lionel et Automne - Playmobil
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Fortunately, there is no need to be technical in everyday situations. If gender is not important or unknown, we tend to use the generic masculine, like the couple does in the video below:
Premièrement, le chat met des poils partout.
First, the cat sheds fur everywhere.
Caption 8, Marie & Jeremy - Le chat
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In fact, most nouns referring to animals don’t have feminine and masculine versions—they only come in one gender, assigned arbitrarily regardless of the sex of the animal. In this case, you will need to memorize the gender of the animal along with its name as there is no logic or way of guessing.
For example, some insects, like une mouche (a fly), are always feminine. Some rodents are feminine, as in une souris (a mouse), while others are masculine, as in un écureuil (a squirrel). Some snakes are masculine, as in un serpent (a snake), or feminine, as in une vipère (a viper). Some birds are feminine, as in une hirondelle (a swallow), and some are masculine, as in un perroquet (a parrot).
In the video below, apart from le lion, all the names of the endangered species—la panthère (panther), la girafe (giraffe), l'autruche (ostrich), and l'hyène (hyena)—are feminine in gender, but don't necessarily refer to individual females:
Certaines espèces ont quasiment disparu, telles que la panthère, autruche, hyène, girafe et lion.
Some species have almost disappeared, such as the panther, ostrich, hyena, giraffe, and lion.
Captions 27-30, Nader Fakhry - À la recherche des derniers éléphants - Part 1
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As these nouns only have one grammatical gender, you will need to specify the sex of the animal with the term mâle (male) or femelle (female). In the documentary below, the speaker refers to une panthère femelle (a female panther):
Malgré la présence d'une panthère femelle juste à côté...
Despite the presence of a female panther right next door...
Caption 20, Le Journal - Espèces en voie de disparition
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There you have it! We’ve explored some of the grammatical quirks and intricacies of the animal kingdom. Remember that not all animal names have a masculine and feminine counterpart, but only a single grammatical gender just like nouns referring to objects, which will be the topic of our next lesson. So stay tuned!
In our previous lesson on present participles, we discussed how they can be used as verbs or as adjectives. In this lesson, we’ll focus on present participles used as verbs, known as le gérondif.
Basically, the gérondif is the construction "en + present participle," as in en faisant (while doing). Like all present participles used as verbs, present participles in the gérondif don’t take agreement.
In addition, the gérondif construction "en + present particple" never changes in French, but it will translate differently in English depending on context and function.
The gérondif usually indicates simultaneity and causation, and can be translated as "while x-ing," "by x-ing," or "as x."
When the gérondif is used to emphasize two actions taking place at about the same time, it usually translates as "while x-ing," as in en attendant (while waiting):
Bon... en attendant que notre pâte lève, on s'attaque au bredele?
Good... while waiting for our dough to rise, shall we tackle the bredele?
Caption 35, Alsace 20 - Grain de Sel: le Lycée hôtelier Alexandre Dumas
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En attendant can also be used on its own as an idiomatic expression ("in the meantime/meanwhile"):
En attendant, les communes doivent payer des ramassages quotidiens
In the meantime, towns must pay for daily collection
Caption 31, Le Journal - Marée verte en Bretagne
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The construction "en + present participle" can also be equivalent to "as + verb" in English when indicating simultaneity:
Mais... en partant, elle m'a donné son numéro de téléphone.
But... as she left, she gave me her phone number.
Captions 35-36, Extr@ - Ep. 6 - Le jour du loto - Part 3
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To further emphasize simultaneity between two actions or to indicate opposing actions in French, you can use the construction "tout en + present participle" (all while x-ing), as in tout en parlant (all while speaking). This construction is especially useful when you're talking about multitasking:
Je joue sur mon téléphone et parle avec mes amis tout en regardant la télé.
I play on my phone and talk to my friends, all while watching TV.
The gérondif can also indicate a means to achieve something, equivalent to the construction "by x-ing" in English:
Parents, veuillez surveiller bien vos enfants en leur apprenant à respecter les animaux.
Parents, please supervise your children well by teaching them to respect the animals.
Caption 12, Voyage en France - Chantilly - Part 3
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The gérondif can also describe the way an action is performed:
Est-elle rentrée en chantant?
Did she come in singing?
Caption 58, Le saviez-vous? - Les différentes négations - Part 3
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Here, the translation is straightforward. En chantant simply means "singing."
However, when that sentence is put in the negative form, you must use the infinitive and not the present participle. As Patricia explains in her video, en chantant (singing) becomes sans chanter (without singing). The preposition sans (without) must be followed by the infinitive:
Non, elle est rentrée sans chanter.
No, she came in without singing [she didn't come in singing].
Caption 59, Le saviez-vous? - Les différentes négations - Part 3
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The present participle is much more prevalent in English, whereas French favors the infinitive instead. In English you can follow a conjugated verb by an infinitive or a present participle. In French, it’s preferable to use the infinitive. For example, when talking about something you like doing or like to do, you cannot say j’aime faisant (I like doing). You have to say j’aime faire (I like to do):
J’aime faire des dessins.
I like drawing./I like to draw.
Similarly, when a person witnesses someone doing something, it’s better to use the infinitive after a conjugated verb:
Je les ai vues chanter.
I saw them sing./I saw them singing.
Another word of caution: the present participle is never used to form a progressive tense, simply because there is no such tense in French. You must use the present indicative instead. For example, "I am thinking" (present progressive) and "I think" (present indicative) both translate as je pense.
The construction je suis pensant, the literal translation of "I am thinking," simply does not exist! The only option is the present indicative: je pense (I think).
If you really want to emphasize an action in progress in French, you can use the expression être en train de (to be in the process/in the middle of):
On est en train de réchauffer la pâte en fin de compte.
We are in the process of warming up the dough in the end.
Caption 12, Cap 24 Alessandro di Sarno se met au point de croix
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To sum up, French uses the infinitive in many instances where English uses the present participle, and the gérondif construction "en + present participle" can take various forms in English.
There you have it for present participles! En passant (incidentally), we hope this lesson will be useful to you!
You know all about past participles from our lessons on the passé composé, but are you familiar with present participles?
Participles are verb forms that come in two tenses, past and present. For example, the past participle of manger (to eat) is mangé (eaten) and its present participle is mangeant (eating).
Present participles introduce a dependent clause indicating an action or state related to a main verb. You can recognize a present participle by its -ant ending (corresponding to -ing in English). For example: penser > pensant (think > thinking). To form a present participle, take the nous (we) form of the present tense—e.g., pensons (we think)—drop the -ons ending and replace it with -ant: pensant (thinking).
Fortunately, this rule has very few exceptions. There are only three irregular present participles in French: sachant (knowing), ayant (having), and étant (being).
Sachant and ayant are not derived from the nous form of the present indicative (savons and avons), but rather from the present subjunctive (sachons and ayons):
Sachant que le but c'est de créer de la magie
Knowing that the goal is to create magic
Caption 11, Alsace 20 - Grand sapin de Strasbourg: tout un art pour le décorer!
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Moi-même, quoique ayant un problème de dos
Myself, despite having a problem with my back
Caption 28, Bicloune - Magasin de vélos à Paris
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Interestingly, the word savant does exist in French. Un savant is a scholar or scientist, or a savant, someone with extraordinary mental ability. And of course there's the word avant (before), which isn't related to avoir.
Étant (being) isn't derived from the present indicative or the present subjunctive, but from the infinitive, être (to be):
Mais écoute, Nicolas, mon épouse étant originaire de Dinsheim
Well listen, Nicolas, my wife, being a native of Dinsheim
Caption 6, Alsace 20 - Grain de Sel: à l'Anatable à Dinsheim
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In addition to being two irregular present participles, ayant (having) and étant (being) can also act as auxiliary verbs, combined with a past participle, as in ayant vu (having seen) and étant né (being born). In this case, the past participle follows the same agreement rules as in the passé composé. See our lessons on past participle agreement with avoir and with être for more on that.
A present participle is often equivalent to the construction "qui/que (who/that/which) + verb." For example:
Le public était habitué à ces jeunes filles en tutu, faisant des pointes.
The public was used to these girls in tutus, dancing on pointe.
Captions 11-12, d'Art d'Art - "La petite danseuse de 14 ans" - Degas
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Instead of faisant des pointes (dancing on pointe), the speaker could have said:
Le public était habitué à ces jeunes filles en tutu qui faisaient des pointes.
The public was used to these girls in tutus who danced on pointe.
Here is another example of a present participle that could be replaced with the construction qui + verbe:
La nuit, le bâtiment se reflète sur la mer, attirant encore plus de tourisme
At night, the building is reflected on the sea, attracting even more tourism
Captions 38-39, Le saviez-vous? - Le casino ou la guerre
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La nuit, le bâtiment se reflète sur la mer, qui attire encore plus de tourisme
At night, the building is reflected on the sea, which attracts even more tourism
Attirant (attracting/appealing) is an example of a present participle that can be used as an adjective, in which case it's subject to adjective agreement rules. Here's an example of attirant used as an adjective:
Bémol: En quatre ans les graphismes évoluent. Neutros sera-t-il encore attirant?
A drawback: In four years, graphics will have evolved. Will Neutros still be appealing?
Caption 18, Le Mans TV - Apprendre la sexualité par Neutros!
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Here, attirant agrees with the proper masculine noun Neutros, so it doesn't change. However, if it were used in a sentence with a plural feminine subject, we would have to add -es to it:
Les célébrités sont souvent très attirantes.
Celebrities are often very attractive.
If you're not sure whether a word ending in -ant is an adjective or a present participle, sometimes its spelling can give you a clue. For example, the word for "tiring" in French is fatigant when used as an adjective and fatiguant, with a -u, when used as a present participle (Both fatigant and fatiguant sound the same.)
Des fois c'est vrai que c'est assez fatigant quoi
Sometimes it's true that it's quite tiring, you know
Caption 104, Miniji Michel
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On doit éviter les activités fatiguant les yeux.
You should avoid activities that tire out your eyes.
Besides the u, how do we know that we're dealing with a present participle, not an adjective, in the second example, and therefore don't need to make an agreement? First of all, we could easily replace fatiguant with qui fatiguent les yeux (that tire out/are tiring for the eyes). Second, we can see that les yeux is the direct object of fatiguant. Only verbs take direct objects, not adjectives.
If we were to rewrite the sentence using the adjective, it would be:
On doit éviter les activités fatigantes pour les yeux.
You should avoid activities that are tiring for your eyes.
Besides dropping the u, we add -es to the adjective to agree with the feminine plural noun activités. And we add pour (for) before les yeux, which no longer acts as a direct object.
We hope this lesson was intéressante (interesting) and not too fatigante (tiring), as we have another passionnante (exciting) lesson in store for you! We’ll be discussing a special kind of present participle known as the gerund.
En attendant (in the meantime), have fun watching some more Yabla videos!
A reflexive verb generally refers to an action that reflects back on the subject (something you do to yourself or to each other). You will recognize a reflexive verb in the dictionary by the reflexive pronoun se (oneself) preceding the infinitive, as in se laver (to wash oneself).
Reflexive verbs usually agree… with themselves! That is, the past participle agrees in gender and number with both the subject (such as je) and the object (such as me) at the same time. For example:
Ce matin, je me suis réveillée avec le coq.
This morning, I woke up with the rooster.
Caption 6, Le saviez-vous? - Les expressions du poulailler
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In the example above, we assume that the subject pronoun je and the reflexive pronoun me are referring to Patricia, the speaker, so the past participle réveillé (woke up) takes an -e at the end to become feminine.
On the other hand, in the example below, the husband wakes up his wife. In this case, the verb réveiller (to wake [someone] up) is no longer reflexive.
Il a même réveillé sa femme qui dormait.
He even woke up his wife, who was sleeping.
Caption 52, Dao Evolution - Noël pour les sans-abris
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In this case, you use the auxiliary avoir (to have) because he isn't waking up himself—he's waking up his wife.
Many reflexive verbs like se réveiller can also be non-reflexive (without the se). The verb dire (to say, to tell), for instance, can be used both ways:
C'est ce que je me suis dit.
That's what I told myself.
Caption 52, Claire et Philippe Je suis en retard
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C'est ce que j'ai dit à ma sœur.
That's what I said to my sister.
The verb se dire also belongs to a category of reflexive verbs whose past participles never require agreement. We call these verbs intransitive, because their reflexive pronouns act as indirect objects, not direct objects. You can tell that a reflexive verb is intransitive because its non-reflexive form is usually followed by the preposition à (to). For example: se parler (to speak to each other, to speak to oneself), parler à quelqu’un (to speak to someone). For a complete list of these verbs, click here.
When a reflexive verb is intransitive, the se acts as an indirect object pronoun and thus indicates that the verb doesn’t require agreement:
Ils se sont parlé tous les jours.
They spoke to each other every day.
When a reflexive verb, whether transitive or intransitive, is followed by a direct object, the past participle also doesn't agree:
Ils se sont lavé les mains.
They washed their hands.
Because there's already a direct object in this sentence (les mains), the reflexive pronoun se is “demoted” from its direct object status and acts as an indirect object. And since the direct object is placed after the verb, no agreement is necessary.
However, if the verb is not followed by a direct object, the past participle agrees with the subject and the reflexive pronoun, as we discussed earlier:
Ils se sont lavés.
They washed (themselves).
On the other hand, if a reflexive verb is followed by an indirect object, agreement does occur:
Mes grand-parents, ils se sont beaucoup occupés de moi.
My grandparents, they looked after me a lot.
Caption 28, Le Jour où tout a basculé Mon père n'est pas mort - Part 2
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You add an -s at the end of occupé (looked after) to agree with ils (they, masculine plural). The indirect object de moi (after me) doesn’t affect anything.
That about does it for our suite of lessons on the passé composé! It’s a lot to take in, so in case you’re not quite "in agreement" with all these rules yet, here is a summary:
• Verbs conjugated with the auxiliary avoir (to have) don't agree in gender and number with the subject, unless a direct object appears before the verb.
• Non-reflexive verbs conjugated with the auxiliary être (to be) always agree with the subject.
• Reflexive verbs are conjugated with être and usually agree with the subject, unless the verb is intransitive or a direct object appears after the verb.
Before we embark on agreement rules, let’s find out which verbs are conjugated with être (to be) rather than avoir (to have) in the passé composé. Strictly speaking, only a limited number of verbs use the auxiliary être in the passé composé. These verbs are encapsulated in the popular mnemonic device known as DR. & MRS. VANDERTRAMP:
Devenir, Revenir, Monter, Rester, Sortir, Venir, Aller, Naître, Descendre, Entrer, Rentrer, Tomber, Retourner, Arriver, Mourir, Partir (to become, to come back, to go up, to remain, to go out, to come, to go, to be born, to go down, to enter, to go back in, to fall, to retrun, to arrive, to die, to leave)
The basic agreement rule for these verbs conjugated with être is that they must agree in gender and number with the subject. Patricia conjugated a few of these verbs and explained how they work in her video, Le saviez-vous? - Exception dans les verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé:
Et lorsque l'on dit: "elles sont tombées",
And when we say, "they fell,"
on mettra "es" à la fin de "tombé"
we'll put "es" at the end of "tombé"
car "elles" sont des sujets féminins et pluriels.
because "elles" [they] are feminine and plural subjects.
Captions 55-57, Le saviez-vous? - Exception dans les verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé
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Knowing that the pronoun elles (they) is feminine plural makes the agreement with the past participle tombé quite straightforward, but when faced with non-gender-specific pronouns such as tu (singular you) or je (I), you need to know from context who the subject pronoun stands for.
In the example below, we need to know who je (I) represents to establish the gender of the subject. In this case, we know from the video that the speaker is male, so the past participle doesn’t change. (A past participle is considered masculine singular by default.)
Je suis allé en Grèce pour la première fois.
I went [masculine singular] to Greece for the first time.
Caption 10, Alex Terrier - "Roundtrip" et ses inspirations
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If the speaker had been female, it would have been:
Je suis allée en Grèce pour la première fois.
I went [feminine singular] to Greece for the first time.
And if the speaker had been a woman talking about herself and her girlfriends, it would have been:
Nous sommes allées en Grèce pour la première fois.
We went [feminine plural] to Greece for the first time.
When a plural subject involves individuals of all genders, you can be faced with a dilemma. What should you do in this case? The convention is that the masculine supersedes the feminine—even though it refers to a mixture of genders, the past participle becomes masculine plural:
Les enfants sont partis en même temps.
The kids left at the same time.
Nowadays, however, that convention often comes across as sexist. So you'll often see past participles stylized like parti(e)s or parti·e·s to be more inclusive:
Les enfants sont parti(e)s en même temps. / Les enfants sont parti·e·s en même temps.
The kids left at the same time.
There's another category of être verbs that also agree in gender and number with the subject, but in a slightly different way. These verbs are called reflexive or pronominal verbs, which we will discuss in the next lesson.
In our first four lessons on the passé composé, we focused on the conjugation of all three major verb groups:
First-group or -er verbs: past participle -é
Second-group or -ir verbs: past participle -i
Third-group or -re, -oir, and irregular -ir verbs: past participle -u
In addition to having different endings, past participles have one more trick up their sleeves… agreement! Verbs from all three groups can take masculine, feminine, and plural endings. All verbs in the past tense have past participles that follow two sets of agreement rules depending on which auxiliary they take. Verbs conjugated with the auxiliary avoir (to have) will follow one set of rules, and those that go with être (to be) will follow another. In this lesson, we'll focus on verbs conjugated with avoir.
If a direct object comes before the verb, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object. If the direct object comes after the verb, no agreement is necessary.
In the example below, the direct object mes clés (my keys) comes after the past participle vu (seen), so no agreement is necessary.
As-tu vu mes clés quelque part?
Have you seen my keys somewhere?
Caption 68, Le saviez-vous? - Les différentes négations
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A direct object answers the question “what”: Have you seen what? Mes clés (my keys).
But in the answer to that question, the direct object pronoun comes before the verb and thus has to agree with the past participle.
Non, je ne les ai vues nulle part.
No, I haven't seen them anywhere.
Caption 69, Le saviez-vous? - Les différentes négations
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Les (them), standing for les clés (the keys), comes before the past participle vu (seen). So, agreement is necessary, and vu becomes vues to agree with the feminine plural noun clés. You just add -es to make vu feminine and plural, as you would do with an adjective agreement.
Note that, unlike in English, direct (and indirect) object pronouns are always placed before the verb in French. So be on the lookout for pronouns in compound tenses!
In the passé composé, only direct object pronouns such as la (her, it) agree with the past participle, whereas indirect ones such as lui (to him, to her) do not. So make sure you know the difference between a direct and indirect object pronoun!
When a verb is normally followed by the preposition à (to) as in téléphoner à (to call/telephone), it takes an indirect object, which you can replace with an indirect object pronoun such as lui (to him, to her).
Et ta sœur, tu lui as téléphoné pour son anniversaire?
And your sister, did you call her for her birthday?
No agreement is necessary because lui (to her) is an indirect object pronoun, so you don’t need to add an -e to téléphoné even though the pronoun is feminine.
You might be tempted to say tu l'as téléphonée, but in French we say "to call/telephone to someone." It goes to show you can’t always rely on English to decide whether a verb takes an indirect object or not.
Recognizing and knowing when to use a direct and indirect object will come in handy when you use a combination of direct and indirect object pronouns before a past participle. You will be able to tell which pronoun agrees with the verb. In the example below, the direct object pronoun la (it) is followed by the indirect pronoun lui (to her) in the phrase la lui a donnée (gave it to her). (The direct object pronoun always comes first.)
Et la bague pour sa petite amie? Il la lui a donnée hier.
And the ring for his girlfriend? He gave it to her yesterday.
The past participle becomes donnée (gave) with an -e at the end to agree with the direct object pronoun la (it), which stands for the feminine singular noun la bague (the ring).
The same agreement rules apply when we use the relative pronoun que (that) instead of a direct object pronoun:
La bague qu’il lui a offerte est très jolie.
The ring that he gave her is very pretty.
Que (that) is the relative pronoun that stands for la bague (the ring), which agrees with offerte (gave, offered). Don’t forget to pronounce the “t” in offerte! And note that the relative pronoun que is not optional in French, unlike "that" in English.
Now let's see what happens when you add another complication to the scenario… an infinitive! This rule is what the French might call un casse-tête (a brainteaser or a headache), so buckle up!
When a past participle is followed by an infinitive verb, as in entendu chanter (heard singing), the past participle agrees with the direct object if the direct object performs the action expressed by the infinitive. Or looking at it from an English speaker’s perspective, a past participle followed by an infinitive in French is the equivalent of “to see/hear somebody do/doing something." French uses an infinitive for the second verb.
C’est la chanteuse que j’ai entendue chanter hier.
She’s the singer whom I heard sing/singing yesterday.
What I heard was la chanteuse (the singer) chanter (singing). La chanteuse performs the action of the infinitive chanter. So the past participle entendue has to agree with chanteuse.
On the other hand, when you see or hear something being done, the past participle doesn’t change. In this type of sentence construction, the infinitive in French is the equivalent of a passive verb in English:
C'est la chanson que j'ai entendu chanter.
It's the song that I heard being sung.
A song can’t do its own singing, so the direct object la chanson (the song) is clearly not performing the action of the infinitive chanter, which is then translated in the passive voice (sung) in English. In this case, no agreement rule applies.
Stay tuned for our next lesson, which will focus on agreement in verbs conjugated with être in the passé composé.
In Part 3, we explored the passé composé of third-group verbs whose infinitives end in -ir with a present participle ending in -ant. In this lesson, we will discuss the remaining third-group verbs, whose infinitives end in -oir, like vouloir (to want), and verbs ending in -re, like comprendre (to understand).
Like irregular -ir verbs mentioned in our previous lesson, most -oir and -re verbs also have a past participle ending in -u, but, of course, there are a few exceptions which we’ll discuss further on.
First, let’s take a look at third-group verbs with an infinitive ending in -oir, which have a regular past participle ending in -u, as in voulu (wanted):
Hier, j'ai voulu me rendre au travail.
Yesterday, I wanted to get to work.
Caption 16, Amal et Caroline - Jurons
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The past participle voulu (wanted) is built on the regular infinitive stem voul- to which you add the ending -u.
The verb falloir (to have to) works in much the same way, with a regular past participle fallu (had to):
Il a fallu que je fouille pour apprendre la vérité!
I had to search to find out the truth!
Caption 18, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Nos bébés ont été échangés...
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It’s worth noting that falloir (to have to) is an impersonal verb that only exists in the third person. It simply expresses a need or necessity.
So far so good, but as always, there are exceptions. Verbs like savoir (to know) have an irregular past participle that is not built on a regular stem. Its past participle is su (known):
Non mais j'ai toujours su que j'avais du goût.
No, but I always knew that I had taste.
Caption 52, Elisa et Mashal - Les fringues
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Other verbs also have very short past participles of just one syllable. Pouvoir (to be able to) becomes pu (was able to) in the past tense:
Et elle a pu rentrer
And she was able to get in
Caption 45, Amal et Caroline - Quartier du Louvre
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The same thing happens with devoir (to have to), which becomes dû (had to):
Et en fait, ils ont dû tout simplement arrêter
And in fact, they simply had to stop
Caption 34, Lionel L - Le "Canard" a 100 ans
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Did you notice the circumflex accent in ils ont dû (they had to)? This tiny accent is the only thing that differentiates dû from the indefinite article du (some). Accents sometimes make a big difference!
So, to sum up, the past participles of savoir, pouvoir, and devoir are su, pu, and dû (don’t forget the circumflex!).
Now let’s look at some -re verbs with a regular past participle, more specifically verbs that end in -endre, like vendre (to sell), which becomes vendu (sold):
Et donc, euh... la propriétaire a vendu son appartement.
And so, uh... the landlady sold her apartment.
Caption 103, Actus Quartier - Devant la SNCF
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Verbs like descendre (to go down) and défendre (to defend) have past participles that rhyme with vendu (sold): descendu (went down), défendu (defended).
dont le niveau était descendu de cent mètres.
the level of which had dropped one hundred meters.
Caption 32, Il était une fois: Les Amériques - 1. Les premiers Américains
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But this isn't the case for all verbs ending in -endre. Some of these have an irregular past participle that ends in -is instead of -u. For example, prendre (to take) becomes pris (take) in the past tense:
Pourquoi est-ce que tu n'as pas pris le bon train vers, euh... Versailles
Why didn't you take the right train toward, uh... Versailles
Caption 37, Claire et Philippe - Je suis en retard
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Incidentally, all the derivatives of prendre, like apprendre (to learn), surprendre (to surprise), reprendre (to take back) follow the same pattern. Just take out the ending -prendre and tack on -pris to form the past participles appris (learned), surpris (surprised), repris (took back), etc.
Similarly, the past participle of mettre (to put) is mis (put), and its derivatives follow the sampe pattern: promettre (to promise) > promis (promised), admettre (to admit) > admis (admitted). The past participle of promettre is easy to remember, since promis is close to “promise” in English.
Les syndicats ont promis d'intensifier la mobilisation jusqu'à mardi prochain
The unions have promised to intensify their mobilization until next Tuesday
Caption 23, Le Journal - Grève de l'EDF à Lille
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Finally, another subgroup of verbs whose infinitives end in -ire, like dire (to say, tell), tend to have a past participle ending in -it or -is, like dit (said, told):
Comme je vous l'ai dit...
As I've told you...
Caption 41, Adrien - Rue des Martyrs
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Comme nous l'avons dit, irregular verbs are legion in the passé composé. The world of verbs is filled with surprises and peculiarities. To help you master these verbs, click here for a list of common irregular third-group verbs.
In Part 2, we explored the passé composé of second-group verbs, or verbs whose infinitives end in -ir. In this lesson, we’ll discuss irregular -ir verbs, which belong to the third group.
As mentioned in our previous lesson, -ir verbs are classified, in addition to their infinitive endings, according to their present participles (equivalent to the -ing ending of a verb in English). So, all -ir verbs with a present participle ending in -issant (such as finir > finissant [finishing]) belong to the second group and have a past participle ending in -i.
On the other hand, most irregular -ir verbs have a present participle ending in -ant and a past participle ending in -u.
For example, tenir (to keep, hold) becomes tenant (keeping, holding) and tenu (kept, held):
en tenant la poêle de la main droite
while holding the pan with the right hand
Caption 33, Le saviez-vous? - La tradition de la Chandeleur
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Mais elle a également tenu sa promesse.
But she has also kept her promise.
Caption 33, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mon père s'oppose à ma passion
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It’s a good idea to learn the derivatives of a verb, as they usually share the same conjugation rules. All verbs ending in -tenir will work the same way. So, obtenir (to obtain) and retenir (to retain) also have a past participle ending in -u: obtenu, retenu.
The same applies to all the derivatives of venir (to come), such as devenir (to become) and prévenir (to warn):
Et il a prévenu les flics.
And he called the cops.
Caption 32, Le Jour où tout a basculé - À la recherche de mon père
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Having said that… there’s an oddball bunch of -ir verbs that have a present participle ending in -ant and a past participle ending in -i, not -u.
For example, partir (to leave) becomes partant and parti:
Mais... en partant,
But... as she left,
elle m'a donné son numéro de téléphone.
she gave me her phone number.
Captions 35-36, Extr@ - Ep. 6 - Le jour du loto
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Leurs parents sont partis vivre en Australie il y a une dizaine d'années
Their parents went to live in Australia around ten years ago
Caption 10, Le Jour où tout a basculé - À la recherche de mon passé
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And sortir (to go out) becomes sortant and sorti:
Drôles d'étudiants que ceux-là,
Strange students they are,
habitant l'hôtel et sortant en robe longue et nœud papillon.
living in a hotel and going out in long dresses and bow ties.
Caption 12, Le Journal - L'Institut du goût
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Le mec, il est sorti
The guy went out
Caption 3, Sophie et Patrice - La révolution est-elle en cours?
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Note that partir and sortir are also part of a small group of verbs that require the auxiliary être (to be) in the passé composé, which we will discuss in a future lesson.
Finally, there is a minority of -ir verbs that are quite irregular and unpredictable, with a past participle ending in -ert.
For example, the past participle of ouvrir (to open) is actually ouvert, not ouvri as its stem would suggest!
...qui a ouvert ses portes récemment à Mittelhausbergen
that recently opened its doors in Mittelhausbergen
Caption 3, Alsace 20 - Mangez bien, mangez alsacien!
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Again, to make it easier for yourself, learn how to conjugate ouvrir along with its derivatives, like découvrir (to discover), recouvrir (to cover up), couvrir (to cover), whose past participles all end in -ouvert. That will save you a lot of trouble. Speaking of trouble, the group of Canadians in the example below suffered a lot because of English…
Moi j'ai souffert beaucoup dans mon enfance de l'anglais ici.
I suffered a lot in my childhood with English here.
Caption 19, Le Québec parle - aux Français
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We hope that vous n’avez pas trop souffert (you didn’t suffer too much) learning about irregular -ir verbs in the passé composé, because we have another round of third-group verbs waiting to be discovered (découvert) in our next lesson!
In our previous lesson, we covered the passé composé of first-group verbs, or -er verbs. In this lesson, we’ll explore second-group verbs, or verbs whose infinitives end in -ir.
To make it easier to conjugate verbs, French grammarians divided them into three groups according to their infinitive endings. This broad classification also helps you determine their past participles, so it is worth noting which group a verb belongs to.
First-group or -er verbs: past participle -é
Second-group or -ir verbs: past participle -i
Third-group or -re, -oir, and irregular -ir verbs: past participle -u
Regular -ir verbs belong to the second-largest group of verbs in French. Regular verbs follow a predictable pattern, making them easier to conjugate than irregular verbs, which have their quirks.
Second-group -ir verbs follow the same basic rules as -er verbs in the passé composé, combining the auxiliaries avoir or être with the past participle.
The main difference is that the past participle of regular -ir verbs ends in -i instead of -é.
For example, to form the past participle of finir (to finish), take out the r in finir and voilà! You have the past participle fini!
Après la mort de papa,
After dad's death,
elle a fini ses études
she finished her studies
Captions 7-8, Le Jour où tout a basculé - Mon père n'est pas mort
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Interestingly, the expression finir par in the passé composé doesn’t mean to finish something. Instead, it describes an outcome, something that eventually happened or ended up happening:
Elle a gagné et j'ai fini par être chanteuse
It won and I ended up being a singer
Caption 13, Watt’s In - Indila : Dernière Danse Interview Exlu
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In any case, finir is a typical second-group verb that is handy to know, as you will be able to use it as a model to conjugate other similar verbs, like choisir (to choose):
Nous avons choisi de passer une semaine sur place à Aulnay.
We chose to spend a week on-site in Aulnay.
Caption 9, Banlieues françaises - jeunes et policiers, l'impossible réconciliation?
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When describing where you grew up, you'll use the passé composé of the verb grandir:
J'ai grandi là.
I grew up here.
Caption 34, Actu Vingtième - Fête du quartier Python-Duvernois
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As you can see, conjugating second-group verbs in the passé composé is quite straightforward since they are regular verbs.
Another thing worth noting is that in addition to being recognizable by their past participles, second-group verbs can also be classified by their present participles, which end in -issant: finissant (finishing), choisissant (choosing), grandissant (growing up), etc. This information will prove useful when you learn about irregular -ir verbs belonging to the third group.
So, nous n'avons pas encore fini (we haven't finished yet), as there are more -ir verbs in store for you to explore in another lesson! For now, have a look at some of Patricia's videos on second-group verbs: Les verbes du 2ème groupe, Les verbes du 2ème groupe les plus utilisés. And for a list of common second-group verbs, click here.
When talking about things that happened in the past in French, you will most likely use the compound tense known as the passé composé.
It’s called a compound tense because it’s made of two parts, an auxiliary and a past participle.
In the example below, ai (have) is the auxiliary and pensé (thought) is the past participle. Together, they make up the passé composé.
J'ai pensé à vous hier.
I thought of you yesterday.
Caption 5, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif
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In this lesson we will focus on conjugating verbs ending in -er (also known as first-group verbs) in the infinitive form or dictionary form, since they are the most common verbs.
To make up the passé composé, you conjugate the auxiliaries avoir (to have) or être (to be) in the present tense and add the past participle of the main verb. Most verbs take the auxiliary avoir and only a few take the auxiliary être, which we'll explore in a future lesson.
Les auxiliaires "être" et "avoir"
The auxiliaries "être" and "avoir"
sont utilisés pour conjuguer les formes composées.
are used to conjugate compound forms.
Caption 9, Manon et Clémentine - Conjugaison du verbe être
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Par exemple, le verbe "manger" avec "avoir". J'ai mangé une pomme.
For example, the verb "manger" [to eat] with "avoir." I ate an apple.
Caption 10, Manon et Clémentine - Conjugaison du verbe être
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The passé composé is the equivalent of the simple past (I did) and the present perfect (I have done).
So, for example, j’ai pensé can be translated as "I thought" or "I have thought" depending on the context. In any case, the auxiliary avoir cannot be dropped in French, as we do with "have" in English.
In her lesson on the passé composé, Patricia explains how to form a past participle:
Et le participe passé, c'est très simple.
And the past participle is very simple.
Il suffit de remplacer "er" par "é".
You just have to replace "er" with "é".
Captions 30-31, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif
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The -er ending that Patricia mentions is the ending of an infinitive verb, which will become a past participle ending in -é (don't forget the accent mark!). For example, take out the -er ending of préparer (to prepare) and replace it with -é to make up the past participle préparé (prepared). Note that préparer and préparé sound the same, as the -r ending of the infinitive form is always silent.
Et donc j'ai préparé une leçon très utile pour vous.
And so I prepared a very useful lesson for you.
Caption 7, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif
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Here's a final example of the passé composé:
Ils ont cuisiné hier, tous ensemble.
They cooked yesterday, all together.
Caption 51, Le saviez-vous? - Conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe au passé composé de l’indicatif
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Remember that you will need to be familiar with the present tense of avoir in order to form the passé composé.
For a complete conjugation of cuisiner (to cook) in the passé composé, check out Patricia’s lesson.
So far, we’ve focused on conjugating first-group, -er verbs, but there are many more to explore! We'll see you for another round of verbs in a future lesson!
In her video on the famous French writer Victor Hugo, Patricia recites an excerpt from Hugo's poem "À l'Arc de Triomphe," a tribute to the city of Paris. The title of the poem means "At the Arc de Triomphe," but in another context à l'Arc de Triomphe could also mean "to the Arc de Triomphe." "At" and "to" are the most common meanings of the preposition à. But as we see several times in this video, à can also mean "from" when paired with certain verbs:
Cette science universelle
This universal science
Qu'il emprunte à tous les humains;
That it borrows from all humans;
Captions 46-47, Le saviez-vous? - La poésie de Victor Hugo
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Puis il rejette aux peuples blêmes
Then it rejects from pallid people
Leurs sceptres et leurs diadèmes,
Their scepters and their diadems,
Captions 48-49, Le saviez-vous? - La poésie de Victor Hugo
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À tout peuple, heureux, brave ou sage,
From all people, happy, brave, or wise,
Il prend ses lois, ses dieux, ses mœurs.
It takes their laws, their gods, their customs.
Captions 42-43, Le saviez-vous? - La poésie de Victor Hugo
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The verbal phrases here are emprunter quelque chose à quelqu'un (to borrow something from someone), prendre quelque chose à quelqu'un (to take something from someone), and rejeter quelque chose à quelqu'un (to reject something from someone). Though de is the more general equivalent of "from," you can't use de in verbal phrases like these–you have to use à.
The indirect object of these phrases (that is, what follows the à) is usually a person: "to x something from (à) someone."
Cacher (to hide) and voler (to steal) are two other common verbs that take à instead of de:
Je vais cacher les cadeaux de Noël à mes enfants.
I'm going to hide the Christmas gifts from my kids.
Marc a volé de l'argent à Sophie.
Marc stole money from Sophie.
Another very common verb with à is acheter (to buy). Be careful with this one though: acheter quelque chose à quelqu'un can either mean "to buy something from somebody" or "to buy something for somebody." You'll need to figure out the meaning from context:
Marc a acheté une bague au bijoutier.
Marc bought a ring from the jeweler.
Marc a acheté une bague à Sophie.
Marc bought a ring for Sophie.
But with other verbs—such as permettre à (to enable/allow), rappeler à (to remind), and coûter à (to cost)—the à doesn't translate to anything at all:
De permettre à quarante mille femmes et jeunes filles au Sénégal,
To enable forty thousand women and young girls in Senegal,
euh... d'être alphabétisées.
uh... to become literate.
Captions 3-4, Alphabétisation - des filles au Sénégal
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Rappeler effectivement aux gens que ça reste des produits de confiserie, c'est pas une mauvaise mesure.
Indeed, to remind people that these are still sweets, it's not a bad idea.
Caption 14, Le Journal - Publicité anti-calories
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Et la différence, cela ne coûte quasiment rien à Martine.
And the difference costs Martine practically nothing.
Caption 57, Alsace 20 - Alsace: les plus belles déco de Noël!
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There are a good number of other verb phrases with à where the à means "from" or just isn't translated. Here are some of the more common ones:
arracher à (to remove from)
commander à (to order)
défendre à (to forbid/ban)
demander à (to ask)
enlever à (to take away from)
épargner à (to spare)
éviter à (to save/spare)
garantir à (to guarantee)
pardonner à (to forgive)
refuser à (to refuse/deny)
souhaiter à (to wish)
French singer-songwriter Zaz uses the verb essayer (to try) a few times in her interview on Watt's In, and it's conjugated in two different ways:
Enfin j'essaie toujours de faire du mieux possible.
Well, I always try to do the best I can.
Caption 72, Watt’s In - Zaz : On Ira Interview Exclu
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Mais au moins tu essayes...
But at least you try...
Caption 77, Watt’s In - Zaz : On Ira Interview Exclu
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Why do we have j'essaie (with an i) and tu essayes (with a y)? The answer is that the spelling of many conjugations of essayer is variable. Here's the verb in the present indicative:
j'essaie or j'essaye (I try)
tu essaies or tu essayes (you try [singular])
il/elle essaie or il/elle essaye (he/she tries)
nous essayons (we try)
vous essayez (you try [formal/plural])
ils/elles essaient or ils/elles essayent (they try)
Whether you spell the variable forms with an i or a y is completely up to you (except for nous essayons and vous essayez, which you must spell with a y). However, there's a bit of a catch: the pronunciation of the verb changes depending on which spelling you use. You can hear the difference in the two captions above: Zaz pronounces the -aie of essaie as a short "e" (as in mai, "May"), and the -ayes of essayes as a longer "e" (as in pareil, "same"). That's how we knew to spell them the way we did.
In fact, pretty much all verbs ending in -ayer follow this pattern. Listen to Patricia demonstrate the difference between je paie and je paye (I pay) here:
Petite particularité pour le verbe "payer": on peut dire "je paie avec ce billet" ou "je paye avec ce billet".
A small particularity for the verb "to pay": you can say "I pay with this bill" or "I pay with this bill."
Captions 31-34, Le saviez-vous? - Les verbes du 1er groupe les plus utilisés
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Variable spellings don't only occur in the present indicative form of -ayer verbs. You'll also come across them in the future (e.g. vous paierez/payerez, "you will pay"), in the present subjunctive (qu'ils essaient/essayent, "that they try"), in the present conditional (tu paierais/payerais, "you would pay"), and in the imperative (essaie/essaye, "try!").
Some other common verbs that follow this pattern are balayer (to sweep), bégayer (to stutter), délayer (to mix, dilute), effrayer (to frighten), égayer (to cheer up), and rayer (to scratch, cross out).
See this WordReference page for a full conjugation of essayer and other verbs like it.
In Part 2 of her lesson on negation, Patricia explains three common negative constructions: rien ne... (nothing), ne... aucun(e) (not any), and ne... nulle part (nowhere). In a few of her examples, she uses the pronoun en, which some beginners might not be familiar with:
Veux-tu quelques pommes? Non, je n'en veux aucune.
Do you want some apples? No, I don't want any.
Captions 41-42, Le saviez-vous? - Les différentes négations - Part 2
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As-tu quelques stylos à me passer? -Non, je n'ai aucun stylo. Je n'en ai aucun.
Do you have some pens to give me? -No, I don't have any pens. I don't have any.
Captions 53, 57-58, Le saviez-vous? - Les différentes négations - Part 2
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In English, we know that the "any" of "I don't want any" and "I don't have any" refers back to "apples" and "pens," respectively. But in French, we can't just say je ne veux aucune and je n'ai aucun. We need to add en to refer back to the objects in question—quelques pommes and quelques stylos.
To make this clearer, let's simplify these sentences by making them affirmative:
Veux-tu quelques pommes? -Oui, j'en veux.
Do you want some apples? -Yes, I want some.
As-tu quelques stylos à me passer? -Oui, j'en ai.
Do you have some pens to give me? -Yes, I have some.
Just as it would be incorrect to respond to the English questions with "yes, I want" and "yes, I have," in French you wouldn't say oui, je veux or oui, j'ai. You need to specify what you're referring to. So you add "some"/en. As you can see, while "some" is placed right after the verb, en is placed right before.
Though the examples above use quelques (some), the general rule for en is that it replaces de + a noun. In fact, we can rewrite these sentences using des instead of quelques without changing their meaning:
Veux-tu des pommes? -Non, je n'en veux aucune.
Do you want some apples? -No, I don't want any.
As-tu des stylos à me passer? -Non, je n'en ai aucun.
Do you have some pens to give me? -No, I don't have any.
There's also an example of en replacing de + a noun later on in the video:
Y a-t-il de la neige partout? Non, il n'y en a nulle part.
Is there snow everywhere? No, there's not any anywhere.
Captions 71-72, Le saviez-vous? - Les différentes négations - Part 2
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If you want to avoid using en for now, you can simply include the object you're referring to in the sentence:
Y a-t-il de la neige partout? -Non, il n'y a pas de neige nulle part.
Is there snow everywhere? -No, there's no snow anywhere.
Veux-tu quelques/des pommes? -Non, je ne veux pas de pomme.
Do you want some apples? -No, I don't want any apples.
As-tu quelques/des stylos à me passer? -Non, je n'ai aucun stylo [or: je n'ai pas de stylo].
Do you have some pens to give me? -No, I don't have any pens.
For an in-depth look at negation in French, be sure to check out the rest of Patricia's videos on the subject.
Pouvoir is an elementary French verb meaning "to be able to." It's an irregular verb, which means it's not conjugated like most other verbs ending in -ir. In this lesson, we'll be focusing on the first-person present indicative form of pouvoir, which has two variants: je peux and je puis (I can). How do we know which one to use?
Je peux is by far the more common of the two:
Qu'est-ce que je peux faire différemment?
What can I do differently?
Caption 21, Actus Quartier - Manif anti-nucléaire à Bastille
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Puis is actually an archaic conjugation of pouvoir that nowadays is only used in specific, mostly formal contexts. One of them is inversion, when the pronoun and verb switch places:
Que puis-je faire? Puis-je voir ces hommes?
What can I do? May I see these men?
Caption 8, Il était une fois... L’Espace - 3. La planète verte - Part 6
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You would never say que peux-je faire or peux-je voir ces hommes. If you're inverting the first-person present indicative form of pouvoir, you need to use puis. But you could easily rephrase these questions with peux using the constructions est-ce que or qu'est-ce que:
Qu'est-ce que je peux faire? Est-ce que je peux voir ces hommes?
You're more likely to hear qu'est-ce que je peux or est-ce que je peux than puis-je in everyday speech. Je puis isn't used very often, though it can be found in a few set formal expressions, usually beginning with si:
Si je puis me permettre, essayez ces lunettes
If I may, try these glasses...
Caption 19, Cap 24 - Paris : Alessandro fait les Puces! - Part 2
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C'est un petit peu notre... notre crédo si je puis dire.
It's a little bit like our... our credo, if I may say so.
Caption 18, Télé Lyon Métropole - L'opéra Carmen dans un... boulodrome!
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As a less formal alternative to puis-je (and slightly more formal than je peux), use the conditional form je pourrais:
Alors je pourrais essayer la nuit, Monsieur Watt?
Then I could try at night, Mister Watt?
Caption 2, Il était une fois - Les découvreurs - 13. Stephenson - Part 3
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And don't forget that puis is also an adverb meaning "then":
Puis y en a qui donnent beaucoup moins.
Then there are some who give a lot less.
Caption 42, Actus Quartier - Repair Café
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