Sommaire

Bonjour à tous,

J'ai appris français sur Duolingo.com pour presque trois mois maintenant. Je me sens comfortable à lire mais pas parler, écrire ou écouter. J'espère que ce groupe m'aide. Je visite Europe en octobre et j'espère dire quelques phrases françaises. Il y a quelques choses que je dois travailler. Je ne peux pas dire des mots avec le son <<r>>, comme <<quatre>>, <<triste>>, et <<livre>>. Mon but ultime est de dire Harry Potter en français.

Mauvais vs Mal

http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/mauvais-mal.htm

passé composé (PC)/present perfect.

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/fr/Verbs%3A-Compound-Past

http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/etre-versus-avoir-french-auxiliary-verbs-past-tenses

Compound verbs contain a conjugated auxiliary and a participle. Most use the avoir conjugated auxiliary verb, but a handful use être. These verbs involve movement or transformation. Here are some: Arriver (arrive), partir (leave), Descendre (descend), monter (ascend), Venir (come), aller (go), devenir (become), revenir (return), Entrer (enter), sortir (leave), rentrer (re-enter), Naître (be born), mourir (die), Tomber (fall), souvenir (remember), raser (shave).

Note that participles vary with gender and number just like adjectives.

A participle that follows avoir is usually invariable. However, if a direct object appears before avoir, its participle agrees with the direct object. A participle that follows être agrees with the subject.

If a pronominal verb is intransitive, then the participle is invariable. Transitive verbs are able to take a direct object like "I saw a donkey." Intransitive verbs are not taking a direct object, e.g., look in look at the sky.

The PC can translate to the preterit (simple past) when it narrates events or states that began and ended in the past.


The PC can also translate to the present perfect for actions and states that started in the past and are still true.

Most past participles are formed by adding an ending to a verb's root, -é to -er verbs, -i to -ir verbs, and -u to -re verbs.

Most irregular verbs have irregular participles.
boire = bu
être = été
lire = lu
venir = (être) venu.
naître = nédevenir = devenu
mourir = mort
mettre = mis

conduire = conduit
disparaître = disparu
permettre = permis
prendre = pris
recevoir = reçu
voir = vu
dire = dit
faire - fait
ouvrir = ouvert
réduire = réduit
savoir = su
avoir = eu

prévoir = prévu

pouvoir = pu

croire = cru

du moins et au moins

"du moins" is used in a restrictive sense (eg: "At least I tried")

"au moins" is used when refering to amounts/quantities (eg: "At least 5,000 attended the game")

angelo000 

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Are "au moins" and "du moins" used interchangeably in French? If so, which is more common; and if not, what are the rules in using each one?

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ReplyGive Lingot•2 years ago

Aron89ification 

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What if I were to say, "At least you didn't die," or "At least no one was hurt."?

8

ReplyGive Lingot•2 years ago

"au moins" means "at a minimum"

au moins 30 jours = at least 30 days (generally used before a quantity)

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/505080

Jezza11 

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Thanks. In summary:

"du moins" is used in a restrictive sense (eg: "At least I tried")

"au moins" is used when refering to amounts/quantities (eg: "At least 5,000 attended the game")

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/707540

Verbs with different meanings with à and de

Verbs with different meanings with à and de

décider à		to persuade, convince
décider de		to decide to
demander à		to ask (for permission)
demander de		to ask (s.o. to do s.t.*)
jouer à		to play a game or sport
jouer de		to play an instrument
manquer à		to miss someone
manquer de		to neglect (to do s.t.)
(more about manquer)
parler à		to talk to
parler de		to talk about
penser à		to think about (imagine)
penser de		to think about (opinion)
(more about penser)
profiter à		to benefit
profiter de		to make the most of
venir à		to happen to
venir de		to have just (done s.t.)
(more about venir)

 Verbs that use both à and de in the same sentence

conseiller à qqun de faire qqch		advise s.o. to do s.t.
défendre à qqun de faire qqch		forbid s.o. to do s.t.
demander à qqun de faire qqch		ask s.o. to do s.t.
dire à qqun de faire qqch		tell s.o. to do s.t.
interdire à qqun de faire qqch		forbid s.o. to do s.t.
ordonner à qqun de faire qqch		order s.o. to do s.t.
permettre à qqun de faire qqch		allow s.o. to do s.t.
promettre à qqun de faire qqch		promise s.o. to do s.t.
téléphoner à qqun de faire qqch		call s.o. to do s.t.

qqun	quelqu'un		s.o.	someone
qqch	quelque chose		s.t.	something

http://french.about.com/library/prepositions/bl_prep_a_vs_de2.htm

Past Imperfect (imparfait)

You can construct it by taking the present indicative nous form of any verb and replacing the -ons with the imperfect ending -ais -ais -ait -ions -iez -aient.

The only irregular imperfect verb is être, which takes on an ét- root but still follow the imperfect ending.

The imperfect (imparfait) describes situations, states of mind, and habits in the past. In a story, it sets the scene or background; thus, it often translates to and from the English past continuous tense (was/were going) or repeated actions or habits (used to, would).

We can translate using simple past tense for habits such as:

• Nous visitions chaque semaine. — We visited every week.
• À l'époque, elle chantait souvent. — Back then, she often sang.

or for stative verbs (to be, to think, to look, to smell, to understand):

• Il croyait son père. — He believed his father. (Not "was believing".)
• Nous avions trois cousins. — We had three cousins. (Using "were having" would make you a confessed cannibal.)

STATES OR SITUATIONS

To translate, use the English preterit (simple past) here to describe mental or physical conditions, scenes, date or times, weather, etc. (stative verbs).

ACTIONS OR PROCESSES

The continuous past can be used here to set up a scene by describing an action or process.

• Je marchais lentement. — I was walking slowly. 
• Vous regardiez la mer. — You were watching the sea.
• Elles pensaient à leurs enfants. — They were thinking of their children. ("Thinking" is a process here.)

Here are some irregular verbs that we should pay attention to:

ét-: to be. This is special, not forming from its present indicative nous form.

j'étais
tu étais
elle était
nous étions
vous étiez
ils étaient

Aller: to go. The present indicative nous form is nous allons. So the imparfait root is all-. So we have:

J'allais
Tu allais
elle allait
nous allions
vous alliez
ils allaient

Faire: to do, to make. The present indicative nous form is nous faisons. So the imparfait root is fais-.

Je faisais
tu faisais
il faisait
nous faisions
vous faisiez
ells faisaient

Avoir: to have. The present indicative nous form is nous avons. So the imparfait root is av-.

J'avais
tu avais
on avait
nous avions
vous aviez
ils avaient

Faire

Faire = to make, to do
It ends in -re, so technically it's a verb of the third group, but it's irregular, so it doesn't follow the third group's conjugation pattern.

Its root (stem) is fai- (my opinion). Its pattern is -s -s -t -sons -tes - and the special ils/elles font.

Je fais
Tu fais
il fait
nous faisons
vous faites
elles font

Comprendre & Entendre

Comprendre = To understand

Comprendre ends in -re, so it belongs to the third group and follows the conjugation pattern: -s -s _ -ons -ez -ent for present tense.

Je comprends
Tu comprends
Elle comprend
Nous comprendons
Vous comprendez
Ils comprendent


Entendre = To hear

Entendre also ends in -re, making it a verb of the third group, following the -s -s _ -ons -ez -ent pattern for present tense. Since the word starts with e, it elides with je and se to become j'entends and s'entend, etc.

J'entends
Tu entends
il entend
nous entendons
vous entendez
elles entendent

qui

"qui" is never elided for one reason: the sound [i] always flows smoothly with any other following vowel sound.

By the same token, you avoid any ambiguity between "qui est-ce/who is it" and "what is it/qu'est-ce".

Written by Sitesurf on Duo.

qu'est-ce?" and qu'est-ce que c'est?

The first one is better French, less colloquial. But the second one is more used on a daily basis even though, stricto sensu, according to the Académie Française, it's wrong.
Written by jrikhalon Duo.

tout, tous, toute, toutes

Arjofocolovi 

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"Tout" is used for uncountable objects such as bread, water, milk, time...etc

• "Il a mangé tout le pain." = "He ate all the bread."

"Tous" is used for countable objects such as lemons, eggs, apples, pens...etc

• "Prends tous tes stylos avec toi !" = "Take all your pens with you !"

orangesunshine 

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To be clear, "tous" IS the plural form of the masculine "tout", just like "toutes" is the plural form of the feminine version "toute". There are no "touts". It also happens to be the case where the singular form "tout" refers to things that are uncountable. When deciding whether it is singular or plural, it is exactly like deciding the usage of "du" or "de la" instead of "des" when they all refer to "some". The same rules apply.

singular: tout le... (tout le temps, tout le pain, tout le riz)

plural: tous les... (tous les stylos, tous les jours, tous les gens, tous les amis)

neutral/genderless: tout va bien

Muzorewi1984 

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tous = "all" (Elle est estimée de tous) [I think "all" has the sense "everyone" here]

tout = "everything" (Tout va bien)

As an adverb, "tout" = "very" (Il est tout heureux)

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/132242

http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/tout.htm

Le Circonflexe ou l'Accent Circonflexe

... eventually they dropped the silent letters in written French but put a circumflex over the preceding vowel to indicate that there had previously been an 's' (or other letter).

So the French hospital became hôpital with a circumflex ^ over the o
Likwise many other words followed suit:

• forest became forêt.
• host became hôte.
• hostesse became hôtesse.
• haste became hâte.
• coast became côte.
• fenester (church window) became fenêtre = window.
• paste (or pastry) became pâte and pâté.
• beast became bête.
• feast became fête.
• master became maître.
• tempest became tempête.
• arrest (stop) became arrêter.
• conquest became conquête.
• inquest became enquête.
• to cost became coûter.
• crust became croûte.
• hostel became hôtel.
• isle became île.
• interest became intérêt.
• plaster became plâtre.
• quest became quête.
• vestments (clothes) became vêtements.

and so on.

Other letters replaced by the circumflex
Sometimes a letter other than 's' was dropped in French, and later replaced by a circumflex in French words such as:

• aage (age) became âge where the preceding a was dropped.
• baailler (to yawn or gape) became bâiller where the preceding a was dropped.
• baaillon (gag) became bâillon where the preceding a was dropped.
• creu (from the verb croître) became crû where the precedinge was dropped. Crû is different to cru which is from the verbcroire (to think, believe).
• deu (from the verb devoir) became dû where the preceding ewas dropped.
• meur (wall) became mûr where the preceding e was dropped.
• seur (sure as in safe, sound, reliable) became sûr where thee was dropped.

Over the centuries the Norman French of England blended intoEnglish, and retained the 's' in many of the imported French words while the French in France developed down a different track to become ... well ... French as in the modern French language in its various forms.

So you can often figure out the meaning of a French word with a circumflex by knowing that the circumflex indicates a missing letter after the vowel ... usually the letter 's'.

http://www.200words-a-day.com/circumflex-in-french.html

c'est & il est

IL EST		C'EST
Adjective describing a person Il est fort, cet homme. (That man is strong.) Elle est intelligente. (She is smart.)	vs	Adjective describing a situation J'entends sa voix, c'est bizarre. (I hear his voice, it's weird.) C'est normal ! (That's normal!)
Unmodified adverb  Il est tard. (It's late.) Elles sont ici. (They are here)	vs	Modified adverb C'est trop tard. (It's too late.) C'est très loin d'ici. (It's very far from here.)
Unmodified noun  Il est avocat. (He's a lawyer.) Elle est actrice. (She's an actress.)	vs	Modified noun C'est un avocat. (He's a lawyer.) C'est une bonne actrice. (She's a good actress.)
Prepositional phrase (people) Il est à la banque. (He's at the bank.) Elle est en France. (She's in France.)		Proper name C'est Luc.  (That's Luc.)
		Stressed pronoun C'est moi.  (That's me.)

http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa032500.htm

Sitesurf 

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"c'est dans la poche !" = it's in the bag! This idiomatic and colloquial expression is used to mean that whatever was at stake (negotiation, permission asked...), the outcome is positive. "c' " as well as "it" refer to a situation.

"il/elle est dans ma poche/le fond de mon sac" = it is in the bottom of my bag. The personal pronoun "il" ou "elle" replaces a noun, masculine or feminine, mentioned before.

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2 days ago

Sitesurf 

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This is another rule, where "il est" or "elle est", followed by a modified noun (noun preceded by a determiner) has to change to "c'est" - for both genders.

• he is a soldier = c'est un soldat
• she is my sister = c'est ma soeur

And this also applies in plural with "ce sont":

• they are my parents = ce sont mes parents
• they are lovely girls = ce sont de jolies filles.

In both cases, "c' " or "ce" are still this demonstrative pronoun that is genderless and numberless.

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/463822$comment_id=8860438