Assignment 21

French I: Assignment 21
The main things I am looking to improve in the next few weeks are knowledge of vocabulary and
accuracy of conjugations. I also want you to be comfortable with using words like aller, savoir and
pouvoir with an infinitive afterwards, as well as the passé composé. Hopefully, future exercises and
quizzes will help in these areas.
Afterwards, we will cover the imperfect – a tense for talking about things that happened over a
period of time in the past. (Remember that the passé composé is used for one-time actions.) We may
cover other verb forms as well, as time allows.
• Review the grammar in this assignment.
• Do the exercises in this assignment. (There are four different exercises.)
• Continue reviewing the vocabulary and conjugations. On February 26, you will be quizzed
again on these.
• Practice saying and writing the following verse (track 44).
Je puis tout par celui qui me fortifie.
(Philippiens 4.13)
Remind me to go over the verse in class this week! We have not done so in a while.
Another helping verb
Verbs using the passé composé form have two parts: a helping verb, which is conjugated normally, and
the main verb, which takes the form of a past participle. So far, all the verbs we have looked at use
avoir as their helping verb. Some intransitive verbs, however, use être as the helping verb instead (for
reasons that I attempted to rationalize in class). Three words on the vocabulary list so far that take
être as a helping verb are aller, venir, and devenir.
All reflexive verbs take être as the helping verb. Note the placement of the reflexive object (me, te,
nous, vous, se): before the conjugated verb, as always with the passé composé.
In each of the following sentences, note the conjugated form of the helping verb être, which is
underlined.
Il s’est amusé. (He had fun.)
Jacques, est-ce que tu t’es amusé ? (Jacques, did you have fun?)
Je me suis rougi. (I blushed.)
Je suis allé à l’école. (I went to school.)
Est-ce que Camille est venu hier ? (Did Camille come yesterday ?)
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Participle agreement with intransitive verbs
Remember that adjectives agree with the noun that they modify.
Ce fromage est délicieux. (The noun fromage is masculine.) Cette tarte est délicieuse. (The noun tarte is feminine.)
Participles function as adjectives, and so they can change form to agree with a noun. For verbs that
take être as the helping verb, the participle in the passé composé construction matches the subject.
Le garçon s’est amusé.
La fille s’est amusée.
Les garçons se sont amusés.
Les filles se sont amusées.
Notice that because the verb is a reflexive verb, the helping verb (underlined) is a form of être; it
comes after the reflexive object pronoun. Notice also that the participle changes number and gender
to match the subject. Here is a breakdown of the last sentence:
Les
filles se
sont
the (plural) girls (reflexive pronoun) have (helping vb.)
amusées.
had fun (participle, fem. pl.)
Participle agreement with transitive verbs
In transitive sentences where the object is a noun phrase and comes after the verb, the participle
doesn’t change form. However, when the object is a pronoun before the verb in a passé composé
sentence, the participle does change form. In sentences like these, the participle refers not to the
subject (as it does with intransitive verbs), but to the object. Look at the sentences below:
(1) Qui a
who has (helping vb.)
(Who stole the tarts?)
volé
stolen (bare form)
(2) Qui les
who them (obj. pronoun, fem. pl.)
(Who stole them?)
les
the (pl.)
a
has (helping vb.)
tartes ?
tarts
volées ?
stolen (participle, fem. pl.)
In sentence (1), the participle doesn’t change form; it’s in the “default” masculine singular form.
However, in sentence (2), the object is now a pronoun which comes right before the helping verb.
Now, the past participle volé (‘stolen’) must agree with the thing it refers to. It’s not the subject of the
sentence it refers to, though: it’s the thing that gets stolen – the object, that is, the tarts. The
pronoun les refers to the tarts and is feminine plural, so volées is feminine plural to match.
Assignment 21
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Exercise I: Conjugation
Rewrite the following sentences six times. Each time, use a different subject, so that you use each of
the verb forms: je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous and ils/elles. This exercise is meant to improve your fluency
with conjugation, so be sure to use the correct verb form in each sentence!
1. Est-ce que ____ [prendre] le train ?
2. ____ [s’amuser] à l’école.
3. ____ ne [vouloir] pas aller à l’école.
Exercise II: Agreement
Rewrite the following sentences four times. Each time, change the underlined phrases – once each to
a masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural noun phrase. Each
time you change the noun, you may need to change the form of (1) a pronoun that refers to it, and
(2) an adjective or participle. This exercise is meant to make you more comfortable with agreement,
so do not forget to change the adjective or participle!
1. Est-ce que tu a goûté* ce fromage ? Il est très délicieux !
‑
2. J’aime cette musique. Elle est belle.
3. Je vais visiter mes frères demain. Ils sont gentils.
* The verb goûter means ‘to taste’.
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Exercise III: Helping verbs and agreement
Write out the following sentences in the past, using the passé composé. Fill in the blank with the
correct helping verb (avoir or être) in the correct conjugated form. Change the bracketed word to a
French past participle, making sure that its number and gender agrees with its referent if necessary.
Translate the sentence.
1. Les filles ____ [to go] à l’école vendredi.
2. Charles, est-ce que tu ____ [to see] cette église ?
3. Non, je ne l’____ pas [to see].
(This sentence is spoken by Charles, answering the question in sentence 2.)
4. Je pense que mes professeurs ____ [to have fun] dans le bibliothèque.
(Make sure to use the reflexive pronoun!)
5. Thérèse, est-ce que ton frère t’____ [to give] un cadeau ?
Exercise IV: Translation
Translate the following sentences into grammatical French. Keep in mind everything from the
previous exercises. If you do not know the vocabulary well enough, then continue to review it.
Double-check (and triple-check) your translations – they should be perfect!
1. Do you want to buy milk or yogurt?
2. Anne, are you hungry now?
3. We had fun yesterday.
4. Did you make a cake for your sister’s birthday?
5. They are not afraid of life.
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