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A little bit of French Grammar
Here is a brief overview about the French Grammar, just to give you an idea of what you will have to study if you decide to learn the language.Verbs
Present and Infinitive
In French, the simple present is widely-used:Je lis de la philosophie.
The phrase "en train de" is used to express that you are up to something:
Je ne peux venir. Je suis en train de peindre ma maison.
The simple present also expresses actions that are connected to the near future:
Je pars demain à la guerre.
The infinitive is a non-tense mode because it's not conjugated. If you use it with other verb, the first word marks the tense and the second one is the infinitive form.
Past
There are two types of past tenses: the "passé composé" is used when the action has been finished completely.Elle a donné un coup de pied dans le ballon. Le camion a heurté l'arbre. Il a mangé une groseille.
The second form, or past simple (passé simple), is used mostly in formal writing.
Le Français fit ce que qu'en toute occasion font les français, il se mit à rire.
Future and Conditional
The future can be easily constructed by the expression "aller" plus a verb:Ils vont appeller nos parents.
The conditional, which more than a tense can be defined a mood, is used to express hypothesis and possibility:
Si vous nettoyez votre chambre, votre colocataire serait plus gentil avec vous.
Pronouns
Subject Pronouns: Singular: Je, tu, elle/il/on Plural: nous, vous, elles/ ilsImpersonal Subjects:
The impersonal subject is mainly used with expressions of weather and time, when the subjects describes the way things are. For instance, the universe at the present moment. When an impersonal subject is used, the verb is always in the third person.
Weather: Il is used for weather expressions. Il pleut.
Time: Il is the impersonal subject of time expressions. Quelle heure est-il? Il est 4 heures.
Adverbs
Adjectives are words that modify nouns. An adverb is any term that is used to refer to phrases or words that modify everything else. Following is an adverb modifying an adjective: Ils sont trop sophistiqués.Alternately, the adverb can modify an entire sentence: Heureusement, malgré que je suis pauvre, j'ai de la nourriture, de l'eau, et un abri.
More than anything else, by modifying a verb, adverbs show us how something is done. Those adverbs are called ‘manner adverbs’: Ils s'embrassent passionnément.
Negations
"Ne" is the particle used to express negation. When something is in the negative form, usually the verb is followed by "pas".Je ne veux pas être un numéro.
"Ne" changes into "n'" before a vowel, while in compound tenses "pas" comes after the auxiliary.
La France a perdu une bataille! Mais la France n'a pas perdu la guerre! Appel du général de Gaulle France has lost a battle!
If "ne pas" is placed before the infinitive, it negates it.
L'enfer est de ne pas aimer.
In spoken French, the "ne" is usually omitted.
Je sais pas.
Articles
Nouns usually come with an article.Indefinite Articles
"Un/une" is the indefinite article which comes before a single instance.
un oiseau a bird
une actrice an actress
une blatte a cockroach
un acteur an actor
Plural Indefinite Article
When referring to more than a single identity, use the indefinite article "des", but it is better to avoid using it while making general statements about a group, for which the definite article is used.
Je vois des blattes partout.
Definite Articles
The definite articles are "le, la, les". This includes times when a set of nouns is referred to the whole. For example when blanket statements are made about all humans or all cars.Les blattes vivent dans les murs et se reproduisent prodigieusement.
And when you refer to a noun in a general sense (e.g war in general and not a war in particular)
La guerre est horrible.
Adjectives
French adjectives reflect gender and number of the noun they describe.Adjective Construction
From feminine adjectives, the starting point is the masculine adjective, to which you must add an "e" in the end.
C'est un petit garçon. It is a small boy.
C'est une petite fille. It is a small girl.
But there are some exceptions in the formation of adjectives. Some of them have double final consonants, others are the same of the masculine adjective and others undergo bizarre metamorphoses that make them resemble their masculine counterparts (oddball adjectives).
Plural adjectives are formed by adding an "s" to the end of a masculine or feminine adjective.
Les lits bleus sont là-bas. (lit is masculine)
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