French 1001-02 3

1. Tu ´ etudies le fran¸ cais. 2. Le pr´ esident est intelligent. 3. Karim aime le football. 4. Nous avons un examen demain. 5. Les professeurs ici donnent beaucoup de devoirs. 6. Elles regardent un film. 7. Abdel joue au basket. 8. Vous travaillez ` a la biblioth` eque. Questions with inversion Grammar note : Remember, the subject pro- nouns are je tu il/elle/on/ce nous vous ils/elles Asking a question with inversion is a bit more di ffi cult. To use inversion, you invert (switch the order of) the subject pronoun and the verb, placing the verb before the subject and connecting them with a hyphen. Phrase d´ eclarative Question Tu es fran¸cais. You are French. Es-tu fran¸cais? Are you French? Il est am´ ericain. He is American. Est-il am´ ericain? Is he American? Vous parlez fran¸cais. You speak French. Parlez-vous fran¸ cais? Do you speak French? Elle arrive demain. She’s arriving tomorrow? Arrive-t-elle demain? Is she arriving tomorrow? Note : This added -t- is called the t euphonique , or “the beautiful-sounding t”! In the last example, the letter “t” has been added between the verb and the pronoun. This “t” is added when the verb ends in a written vowel and the subject pronoun also begins with a vowel, to avoid having two vowels together. Since most verb forms end in a consonant, this can occur only with third person singular forms ( il, elle, on ) of -er verbs and the verbs avoir ( il a ) and aller ( il va ), where the verb forms end in a vowel. Two hyphens are used to join the “t” to the subject and verb. Here are some more examples of this. Phrase d´ eclarative Question Elle a froid. A-t-elle froid? Il aime danser. Aime-t-il danser? Elle dˆ ıne avec nous. Dˆ ıne-t-elle avec nous? Il travaille beaucoup. Travaille-t-il beaucoup? Inversion is used less often in spoken French than either intonation or est-ce que . However, it is extremely common in written French. Additionally, inversion is not used when the subject is “je.” 1 1 There are three common verbs that can invert with “je”: suis-je? ai-je? and puis-je? (“may I?”). Since one doesn’t ask questions about oneself very often, this is not something you need to remember in first-year French. 212 Chapter 3 Le travail et les loisirs Est - ce que tu étudies le Francais ? Do you study French ? Est - ce que le president est intelligent ? Is the president intelligent ? Est - ce que Karim aime le football ? Does Karim like soccer ? Est - ce que nous avons un examen Demain ? Do we have a text tomorrow ? Est - ce que les professors icidonnent beau coup de devoirs ? Do the teachers here give lots of homework ? Est - ce qui elles regardant un film ? Are they watching a movie ? Est - ce Ev ' Abdel jove a. u basketball > Does Abdel play basketball ? Est - ce que vous travail / ez a- la bibliothégue ? Do you work at the library ?

Inversion with a noun subject Since inversion is done between the subject pronoun and the verb, you must have a subject pronoun in order to do inversion. If the subject is a noun instead of a pronoun, the only way to do inversion is to reduplicate the noun with the appropriate pronoun. 2 If the noun is a masculine singular noun, for example, the appropriate pronoun would be “il.” You keep the noun in the usual position (before the verb), but you also invert the verb and the added pronoun. Observe: Phrase d´ eclarative Question H´ el` ene aime le fromage. H´ el` ene aime-t-elle le fromage? Les professeurs sont stricts. Les professeurs sont-ils stricts? Le train arrive. Le train arrive-t-il? Marc et Christine parlent au t´ el´ ephone. Marc et Christine parlent-ils au t´ el´ ephone? Vous d´ etestez parler en classe. D´ etestez-vous parler en classe? Inversion with Negative Verbs To answer “yes” to a negative question (i.e., to contradict the questioner), French uses the word si (“yes”) instead of oui . E.g. “Tu n’as pas de cours ce soir?” “Si, j’ai un cours de maths.” If the verb is negative, the negative surrounds the entire verb- subject hyphenation, for that is now considered one word. Phrase d´ eclarative Question Elle ne va pas bien. Ne va-t-elle pas bien? Vous ne parlez pas italien. Ne parlez-vous pas italien? Elle n’arrive pas aujourd’hui. N’arrive-t-elle pas aujourd’hui? Gilles et Paul n’´ ecoutent pas. Gilles et Paul n’´ ecoutent-ils pas? B.4.2 Comprenez-vous? Transform the following sentences into questions using inversion. Pay attention to the proper punctuation of your question. For sim- plicity, in this exercise, do not change the subject given. That is, if the subject of the sentence is “tu,” the subject of your question should remain “tu.” 1. Tu travailles ` a la biblioth` eque. 2. Nous dˆ ınons ` a la caf´ et´ eria. 3. Le professeur donne beaucoup d’examens. 4. Elle chante bien. 5. Mireille et Joseph aiment les Etats-Unis. 6. Vous ˆ etes chinoise. 7. Les ´ etudiants n’ont pas beaucoup d’argent. 8. Tu n’es pas italienne. 9. Ils sont contents. 10. La fille r´ epond toujours au professeur. 2 If the question contains an interrogative word and is very short, basically just the subject and verb, one occasionally sees the noun inverted; for example, “O`u est le train?” Do not worry if you see this structure! Section B Grammar 213 Travail les tu ' a la bibliothéque ? Dinons - nous ' a la cafeteria ? Le professor donne - t - it beaucovp d ' examens . Chante - t - elle Bien ? Mireille et Joseph aiment - ils les F- tats - unis ? F- 1- es vous chinoise ? Les étudiants n' ont - ils pas beau coup d ' argent ? N' es - tu pas italienne ? sont - its contents ? La fille respond - elle toujours au professor ?

3. Verbs ending in -ayer, -oyer, -uyer Exemple: balayer ( [ba la je], to sweep je balaie [Z@ ba lE] nous balayons [nu ba lE j˜ O] tu balaies [ty ba lE] vous balayez [vu ba lE je] il/elle balaie [il ba lE] ils/elles balaient [il ba lE] Exemple: nettoyer ( [n@ twa je], to clean je nettoie [Z@ nE twa] nous nettoyons [nu nE twa j˜ O] tu nettoies [ty nE twa] vous nettoyez [vu nE twa je] il/elle nettoie [il nE twa] ils/elles nettoient [il nE twa] Exemple: essuyer ( [E s4i je], to dry j’essuie [ZE s4i] nous essuyons [nu zE s4i j˜ O] tu essuies [ty E s4i] vous essuyez [vu zE s4i je] il/elle essuie [i lE s4i] ils/elles essuient [il zE s4i] In these forms, the -y- changes to -i- in the je, tu, il, and ils forms, but remains unchanged in the nous and vous forms. (With verbs of the -ayer type, the change is optional, but since the change is required in the -oyer and -uyer types, it is easiest just to learn that all three of these types change in the shoe pattern.) B.6.1 Stem-changing -er verbs Mini-Vocabulaire: acheter to buy appeler to call balayer to sweep commencer to begin consid´ erer to consider enlever to take o ↵ ´ epeler to spell essayer to try essuyer to dry jeter to throw lever to raise manger to eat nettoyer to clean payer to pay peser to weigh pr´ ef´ erer to prefer promener to walk ranger to put away rejeter to reject r´ ep´ eter to repeat For writing practice, consult the charts above and write the correct form of each stem-changing verb in the present tense. Although you can do this without understanding the sentence, the verbs and their meaning are listed alphabetically in the margin. 1. Je (consid´ erer) Stephen Curry comme un athl` ete extraordinaire. 2. O`u (acheter) -tu tes livres scolaires? 3. Il s’(appeler) Georges. 4. Nous (nettoyer) la cuisine tous les jours. 5. Mon fr` ere (essuyer) la vaisselle. 6. Nous (ranger) nos a ↵ aires sur les ´ etag` eres. 7. Mes amis (balayer) leur chambre. 8. Jean n’(essayer) pas de nouvelles choses. 9. Nous (commencer) ` a parler fran¸cais! 10. Mon sac ` a dos (peser) lourd. 11. A quelle heure (promener) -vous le chien? 12. Qu’est-ce que vous (manger) ? 13. Vous (pr´ ef´ erer) les oranges ou les pommes? 14. Les clients (payer) ` a la caisse. 15. Les ´ etudiants (r´ ep´ eter) le vocabulaire. Section B Grammar 217 consider achétes appelle nettoyons essuie range -00s balaient assai e com men sons pése prom en ez mange 2 préférez paient répétent