Lesson 16

Vocabulary

* For those who still don’t know, you’re using the Russian course, that is why you see words like Russian, Moscow etc. The audio cannot be changed, that is why the text cannot be changed either (at least, for now). Enjoy the course!

Exercise 1. Listen to the recording of the dialogue several times. Fill in the blanks in the sentences by recalling what you have heard:

1. Est-ce que vous ?
2. Non, je parle russe.
3. français ?
4. Oui, je Française.
5. Vous cherchez ?
6. où est la Tour Eiffel ?
7. La Tour Eiffel devant vous, Monsieur.

8. C’est grande tour !
9. Elle est comme une montagne !
10. C’est grande dame de Paris !
11. Et il y a une excellente vue .
12. Montez et regardez .
13. visite !
14. Merci , Madame.

Grammar

Negative Verb Forms

The negative form of verbs is formed with two negative particles: ne is before the verb and pas is after the verb, for example:

Je ne parle pas anglais. — I don’t speak English.
Monsieur ne fume pas. — The gentleman doesn’t smoke.
La montre ne marche pas. — The watch doesn’t work.
Tu ne travailles pas jeudi. — You don’t work on Thursday.

Let’s list all the negative forms of the verb parler in the present tense:

If a verb starts in a vowel or silent h, the particle ne loses the vowel and the letter e is replaced by the sign ’ (apostrophe), and the particle itself merges with the verb, e.g:

However, this change does not apply to verbs beginning with *h, e.g. *heurter — to hit: je ne heurte pas [ʒənəœrtpa] — I don’t hit.

In the expression c’est, which you already know (see lesson 13), the form с’ restores the lost vowel in the negation and the pronoun ce is used in its full form, compare:

Exercise 2. Put the verbs in the negative form.

Example: Il parle allemand. — Il ne parle pas allemand.

General Question

I. A general question to a sentence where the subject is expressed by a personal pronoun can be constructed in different ways:

1. with intonation. Compare:
   

   Vous habitez	à Londres.	— You live in London. (statement)

   Vous habitez à Londres ?	— (Do) you live in London? (question)

2. by reversing the word order, putting the verb in the first place and the pronoun as the subject in the second place. When the word order is reversed, a dash is put between the verb and the pronoun. Compare:

   Vous habitez à Londres. — Habitez-vous à Londres ?

3. with the interrogative expression est-ce que, after which the entire narrative sentence is reproduced, including the direct word order. Compare:

   Vous habitez à Londres. — Est-ce que vous habitez à Londres ?

II. If you need to ask a general question to a sentence where the subject is a noun, use the following construction:

Let’s look at the examples:

Note that the unstressed personal pronoun here is written with the verb separated by a hyphen: habitent-ils. There is also -t- with two hyphens between a verb ending in a vowel or silent -e and the pronoun il or elle; it is added for euphony: va-t-elle, habite-t-il.

Look at how the question is asked when you are addressing someone:

Remember: When you change the word order in general questions, the silent consonants at the end of verbs become pronounceable before the pronouns that begin with a vowel. For example:

Habitent-ils ? [abitil]
Peut-elle ? [pøtɛl]

III. A general question to a sentence beginning with c’est can be constructed by reversing the word order, in this case, the form с’ restores its vowel, and the expression takes the following form: est-ce. It is pronounced as [ɛs]. Compare:

Exercise 3. Ask the interlocutor again, constructing the question in different ways.

Imperative Mood

Both in English and in French when expressing a request, order, advice, etc. verbs are used in the imperative mood. However, there is only one form in English, namely, the form of the 2^nd person for both singular and plural, for example: Look! (Regarde !, sing., Regardez !, pl.). While in French there are two forms for the the 2^nd person and one form for the 1^st person plural, e.g.: Regardons ! (Let’s have a look! / Let’s see).

Now remember the endings of verbs of the first group in the imperative mood:

The negative form of the imperative mood is formed according to the general rule: first the negative particle ne, then the verb, then the negative particle pas:

As in English, personal pronouns are not used with French verbs in the imperative mood.

Exercise 4. Translate into French:

Feminine Indefinite Article une.

Feminine Definite Article la

As in English, French uses articles. The only difference is that French distinguishes a masculine and a feminine article.

Let’s have a look at feminine articles in singular form.

C’est une tour. — This is a tower.
C’est une ville. — This is a city.
C’est une montagne. — This is a mountain.

As you can see, une — is the feminine indefinite article, like a/an in English.

The rules for usage of articles are almost the same as in English. Indefinite article is used when the object is one of many. For example, C’est une tour (This is a tower), the speaker indicates that this tower is one of many towers, it could be the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of London or any other tower.

The indefinite article can also be used to express one single object because it is derived from the Latin numeral “one”, e.g.:

Voilà une étudiante et trois étudiants. — Here is one female student and three male students.

Finally, the indefinite article comes before nouns denoting such objects or circumstances that were not mentioned before and are unknown to the interlocutors, for example:

Robert parle à une dame. — Robert is talking to a lady.

If an object or circumstance has been previously mentioned or is generally known, nouns are used with the definite article, in particular, the singular feminine article la, for example:

C’est une montagne. La montagne est grande. — This is a mountain. The mountain is tall.
C’est la Tour Eiffel. — This is the Eiffel Tower.

When a noun is preceded by an adjective, the article comes before the adjective:

C’est une grande tour. — This is a large tower.
La Tour Eiffel est la grande dame de Paris. — The Eiffel Tower is the great lady of Paris.

Note that before words beginning with a vowel or silent h, the article la takes the form l’ and is written together with the following word, for example: l’entrée (the entrance), l’eau (the water), l’Europe (Europe), l’habitude (the habit). However, the above change does not apply to words beginning with *h, for example: *haut — le haut (the top).

Exercise 5. Translate with the help of your dictionary:

Gender of Adjectives in Singular

Adjectives in French agree with nouns in number and gender. Let’s start with adjectives in singular number and see how they change in gender.

Most often, French feminine adjectives are formed by adding the ending -e to a masculine adjective. The following changes take place:

1. If a masculine adjective ends in silent -s after a vowel, then this -s is pronounced as [z] in its feminine counterpart , for example: français [frãsɛ] (French, masc.) — française [frãsɛ:z] (French, fem.).
2. Masculine adjectives that end in -on [ɔ̃] double n and add the ending -e, for example: bon [bɔ̃] (good, masc.) — bonne [bɔn] (good, fem.).

If a masculine adjective ends in -e, then its feminine form is exactly the same as the masculine form, for example: russe [rys] (Russian, masc.) — russe [rys] (Russian, fem.).

Masculine adjectives that end in other vowel letters also add the ending -e in writing, but it is not pronounced in speech, and so, the masculine and the feminine forms sound the same, for example: bleu [blø] (blue, m.) — bleue [blø] (blue, f.).

Some adjectives form irregular feminine forms. Also there are irregular masculine forms that are used before words beginning with a vowel or silent h (but not *h). Memorize such adjectives:

Exercise 6. Write out the feminine nouns, pronouns, and adjectives from the dialogue.

Preposition de

As you already know, in French, relations between words are expressed through prepositions, as in English. The preposition de is similar to both English “of” and “from” (but has other meanings as well). Compare:

La Tour Eiffel est la grande dame de Paris. — The Eiffel Tower is the great lady of Paris.

Exercise 7. Let’s see how you have learned the vocabulary and grammar of this lesson. Translate into French:

Mastering the language subtleties

If you approach someone with a question or a request, don’t forget to use one of the politeness formulas:

Don’t forget to thank the person you’re talking to: