Assignment 12

French I: Assignment 12
Voilà vos devoirs pour le 4 décembre :
• Continue to review the spelling rules for French vowels found on previous assignments. Be
ready for a quiz on any of the following: dictation, translation (using vocabulary and sentence
structure in previous assignments), sentence creation, pronunciation.
¶ You should especially practice your pronunciation of the nasal vowels. You can use the
mnemonic un bon vin blanc [œ̃ bɔ̃ vɛ̃ blɑ̃] to make sure that you are pronouncing each one
distinctly. Also take care with eu, u and ou.
• Practice pages 20–21 of Oral Masteries.
• Do exercises ii and iii on page 154, to be handed in. We did the first section in class, but you
should write these sentences out as well. Replace prepositional phrases with à (such as au
bureau or à l’école) with y, which comes before the verb like other pronoun objects.
• Do the reading and answer the questions on page 155, to be handed in.
• Practice saying the following verse (track 35). Be able to write or recite it from memory.
Il y a un seul Seigneur, une seule foi, un seul baptême.
(Éphésiens 4.5)
• Review the grammar and memorize the vocabulary in this assignment.
Preposition contraction
Just as de + le = du and de + les = des, the preposition à contracts with certain articles:
à + le = au
à + les = aux
There is no grammatical significance to the contraction. Both au and aux are pronounced [o], but
with aux, the sound [z] will appear if the next word begins with a vowel: aux élèves [ozelɛv].
Conjugation
The irregular verb aller is conjugated as follows:
je vais
tu vas
il va
nous allons
vous allez
ils vont
ʒəә vɛ
ty va
il va
nu[z] alɔ
̃
vu[z] ale
il vɔ̃
Note that the nous and vous forms share a stem with the infinitive, while all the rest are different.
Assignment 12
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The verb aller is used to indicate an informal or immediate future, just as in English:
Je vais manger la glace maintenant.
Je vais aller a l’école.
The dummy subject
Some verbs have no meaningful subjects. In English, to rain has no meaningful subject; the dummy
subject it fills its spot in a sentence.
In French, il is similarly used as a dummy subject: il pleut. There are other idioms with the dummy
subject, however, that English does not share. You have encountered one of them already: il y a.
Adverbial pronouns
The word y is like the direct object pronouns: it comes before the verb, and it substitutes for a
phrase. However, while direct object pronouns substitute for a noun phrase, adverbial pronouns
substitute for a prepositional phrase. The word y roughly means “there”; in general, it substitutes for
phrases beginning with à, or sometimes words with a similar meaning (like dans).
Often, English allows sentences to completely drop such phrases. French often requires including the
word y when such a phrase is dropped:
Est-ce que nous allons au supermarché. (Are we going to the supermarket?)
Oui, nous y allons. (Yes, we’re going [there].)
Allons-y ! (Let’s go!)
The word y appears right before the verb – after subjects, ne, and direct object pronouns.
Asking questions with inversion
We have formed many sentences with est-ce que. A more formal way of forming questions, used in
writing (and in the textbook), involves inverting the subject and the verb:
Elle est jeune.
Est-elle jeune ?
Only pronouns can be joined to the verb. If a sentence has a noun subject, it must be separated from
the main sentence. A separate pronoun subject is added:
La fille est jeune.
La fille est-elle jeune ? [“The girl, is she young?”]
Assignment 12
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With third-person verbs, if there is no t in the spelling of the verb, a t is added when inverting
because the following pronoun will begin with a vowel:
Elle a une voiture.
A-t-elle une voiture ?
Armed with this knowledge, you should be able to create the inverted form of il y a:
Il y a de la glace.
Y a-t-il de la glace ?
Sentences
Il pleut.
il plø
It’s raining.
Allons-y !
alɔ̃zi
Let’s go!
blanc, blanche
blɑ̃ blɑ̃ʃ
white
seule, seule
sœl
alone, single
seulement
sœlmɑ̃
only
(une) bicyclette
bisiklɛt
bicycle
(un) vélo
velo
bike (informal)
(une) école
ekɔl
school
(une) église
eɡliz
church
aller
ale
to go
Vocabulary
Assignment 12
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