Révision

Être, avoir and vouloir

The book reviews three core irregular verbs: être, avoir and vouloir. Être and avoir are main verbs and auxiliaries. Vouloir is used to say what someone wants and also for offers or invitations: je veux, tu veux, il or elle veut, nous voulons, vous voulez, ils or elles veulent.

Vous and tu

French has formal and informal ways of saying you. Vous is formal singular and also plural, and it is used with strangers or people to whom you want to show respect. Tu is informal singular. The book keeps the focus on vous at this stage.

Negatives and questions

Negatives use ne, or n' before a vowel or mute h, plus pas: Je ne suis pas libre demain; Elle n'a pas de projets; Nous ne voulons pas venir. Questions can be formed by rising intonation, by adding est-ce que, or by inverting the verb and pronoun. Est-ce que is the normal everyday spoken pattern, while inversion is more formal.

Noun genders

Many noun genders can be guessed from endings, though exceptions remain. Nouns ending in -age, -eau, -er, -ier and -in are often masculine, as in un stage, un bureau, un boulanger, un banquier and un jardin. Nouns ending in -ion, -té and -ée are often feminine, as in une région, l'éducation, la santé, la liberté, la soirée and une idée.

Adjective agreement

Adjectives agree in gender and number. The book reviews irregular feminine forms such as frais to fraîche, blanc to blanche, and long to longue. It also recalls the extra masculine forms before a vowel or mute h: beau becomes bel, nouveau becomes nouvel, and vieux has the same kind of pattern. Some adjectives ending in -e, such as superbe, facile, malade, moderne, vide and honnête, have the same masculine and feminine form.

Days, months and dates

Days and months are not capitalized in French unless they begin a sentence, and they are masculine. Dates use a cardinal number with the article before the day: le lundi dix mai, Monday the tenth of May; le jeudi vingt et un août, Thursday the twenty-first of August.

Telling the time

The standard question is Quelle heure est-il ? French has no equivalent of o'clock: Il est une heure, Il est quatre heures. Minutes follow the hour, as in trois heures dix. For times before the next hour, use moins, and for quarter-hours use et quart and moins le quart. Half past is et demie, with an e because heure is feminine. French also commonly uses the twenty-four hour clock.

The book closes by noting that the revision contains a lot of detail, but most of it has already appeared. Apart from noun genders, it recommends not trying to learn everything by heart yet: enjoy the process, because there are no exams to pass.