Posts tagged with "French grammar"

French Grammar – Depuis

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Aug 3 2009

Today a little grammar.  Here are some sentences you might hear if you are talking to French people:

Vous êtes en France depuis quand? (How long have you been in France?)
Vous habitez Paris depuis combien de temps? (How long have you been living in Paris?)
J’habite à Paris depuis quinze ans. (I’ve been living in Paris for fifteen years.)
Depuis combien de temps étudiez-vous le français? (How long have you been studying French?)
Il conduit depuis quatre heures. (He has been driving for four hours.)
Nous nous reposons depuis une heure? (We have been resting for an hour?)
Vous attendez ici depuis une demi-heure? (You have been waiting for a half hour?)

Depuis means “for” when used with the present tense and followed by a time expression.  It is used to show that an action began in the past, but is still happening in the present.  This construction is the equivalent to the present perfect in English; in other words, “has/have been ___ing”.   This structure cannot be directly translated word for word, so be careful!

Now, you may have noticed above that I used both structures “habiter Paris” without a preposition and “habiter à Paris” with the preposition in the above examples and you may think I have made a mistake.  Neither are mistakes and both are not only grammatically correct, but often used and heard by the French and Parisians in particular.  Habiter can be considered transitive or intransitive and therefore can be used with or without a preposition.  Now, where the real controversy lies is in the much-used expression by Parisians “J’habite sur Paris” which is not really considered grammatically correct by all, but has become accepted or not-so-accepted (depending on who you are talking to) common spoken language.  Parisians use “sur” to mean that they live in the “banlieue” near or around Paris, but not in Paris city center itself.  In a way, it’s probably to orient someone who may not know of the small town or suburb the speaker lives in, but will of course know where Paris is located.  Likewise, you can also say “J’habite dans Paris” so the person you’re speaking to knows you mean that you live in Paris city center.

French Grammar – Punctuation Marks

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Jun 5 2009

Punctuation is sometimes different in the French language.  I first came across this when reading Albert Camus’ La Chute in my literature class at the Sorbonne back when I was a student in Paris.  I found it so bizarre to see the direct speech noted in the sentence « Voulez-vous d’une vie propre?  Comme tout le monde? » (Would you like your own life?  Like everyone else?).  I added the bold type just so you would notice what I was talking about.  I found these little marks to be so odd at the time.  I soon came to realize that this is how direct speech is marked in French…they don’t use ‘normal’ apostrophe marks!  So, remembering this, I thought I would write about punctuation today.

Le point (.) is used at the end of a sentence and in abbreviations much like in English.  It is also used in numbers to show thousands (1.750).
La virgule (,) is used to mark a pause between groups, also much like in English.  It is also used to show decimals (0,50)
Le point-virgule (;) is used to make a pause between clauses.
Les deux points (:) is used to announce an explanation or a citation, also much like in English.
Les guillemets (« ») are used for statements in direct speech (in a dialogue) and citations.
Les parenthèses (()) are used for side remarks.
Les points de suspension (…) are used at the end of unfinished sentences.
Le tiret (-) shows a change in speaker when writing in direct speech (in a dialogue) and when enumerating in a list, for example.
L’apostrophe (‘) replaces an ‘a’ or ‘e’ when taken out of a word to combine with another word.
Le c-cédille (ç) is pronounced ‘s’ before an ‘a’ or ‘o’ or ‘u’.
Le trait d’union (-) to link compound words (avant-garde) and divide words at the end of a line (fran- çais).  And remember, if you don’t have enough room at then end of your line, you should divide words after a vowel or between two consonants unless the second consonant is an ‘r’ or ‘l’.  Ex: ma-man, change-ment, ac-cent, prop-ret, ta-ble, théâ-tre.

French Grammar – The Partitive Article

Posted by Transparent Language 6 Comments
Apr 29 2009

The partitive article in French is the English equivalent of ‘some’ and ‘any’.  So, it is very often used and thus, very important to learn.  First, let’s talk about the form:

Before a masculine noun – du
Before a feminine noun – de la
Before a masculine or feminine plural noun – des
Before a masculine or feminine singular noun beginning with a vowel or silent h – de l’

And here is how you use them:
Before a concrete or abstract noun to indicate an uncertain quantity or a part of a whole that can not be counted.  In other words, with non-count nouns.  For example:
Je mange toujours du pain avec les repas. (I always eat bread with meals.)
Je vais prendre de la monnaie.  (I’m going to take some money.)
J’ai mangé des carottes.  (I ate some carrots.)
Je bois toujours de l’eau avec les repas.  (I always drink water with meals.) 

Remember, the partitive article is often used with the verb faire (to do): faire du vélo, faire du sport, faire de la guitare, faire des études, faire du théâtre, etc.

Be careful as you may forget to use the article as it is often omitted in English! 

Also, use only de after adverbs of quantity like beaucoup and moins.  For example,
Je bois beaucoup d’eau avec les repas.  (I drink a lot of water with meals.)
Je mange moins de pain les weekends.  (I eat less bread on the weekends.)  

And, use only de in negative sentences.  For example,
Je ne bois pas d’eau.  (I don’t drink water.)
Je ne mange pas de pain avec les repas.  (I don’t eat bread with meals.)
Je ne vais pas prendre de monnaie.  (I’m not going to take any money.)

French Vocabulary – Word Building

Posted by Transparent Language 1 Comment
Apr 19 2009

Building funny French phrases is a way to learn more vocabulary and even improve your grammar.  The challenge lies in finding a root word and then expressing the same word as a noun, adverb, verb and adjective all in the same sentence.  Here are some examples:

La commode commode a été accommodée commodément.
 Le commentateur a commenté comment ce commentaire aussi commenté?
 Les enthousiastes enthousiasment avec enthousiasme l’enthousiasme enthousiasmant.
La traîtresse traître trahit traîtreusement.

Mais, attention!  Just as in English, the sentences you make this way would probably not be expressed in French like this, although technically/grammatically it is possible (that’s what makes them funny).  Moreover, all four parts of speech can not necessarily be found with all root words.  Here is a table with some nouns and their corresponding adverbs, verbs and adjectives.

NOUN

VERB

ADJECTIVE

ADVERB

un commentaire / un commentateur

commenter

commenté(e)

comment

une commode / la commodité

accommoder

commode

commodément

l’enthousiasme / un enthousiaste

enthousiasmer

enthousiasmant / enthousiaste

avec enthousiasme

une généralité / une généralisation

généraliser

général(e)

généralement

une manifestation / un manifestant(e)

manifester

manifeste

manifestement

la ponctualité

 ——-

ponctuel(le)

ponctuellement

une rationalisation / le rationalisme / la rationalité

rationaliser

rationnel(le) / rationaliste

rationnellement

un scandale

scandaliser

scandaleux(euse)

——–

un(e) traître / une traîtresse / une trahison

trahir

traître

traîtreusement

Now, why don’t you try coming up with your own funny French sentence in this way and share it with us in a comment!  This will help us all learn more vocabulary.

French Language – Negation

Posted by Transparent Language No Comments
Mar 28 2009

In the French language, there are different ways to be negative…to express negativity.  Perhaps the most common is when you want the sentence to be negative.  In that case, you place ne before the main verb and pas after it.  Or, if you want to say that you never do something, you place ne before the main verb and jamais after it.  Here are some examples:

Je ne sais pas.  (I don’t know.)
Elle ne mange pas de pain. (She doesn’t eat bread.)
Vous ne voulez pas de vin ?  (You don’t want any wine?)
Je ne fais jamais de vélo.  (I never ride a bike.)
Il ne boit jamais de lait.  (He never drinks milk.)
Ils ne sortent jamais la nuit.  (They never go out at night.)

To express negation towards a noun or noun group (as opposed to the verb in the above cases), you do the following:
Tu veux de l’eau?  Non, pas de l’eau, du vin.  (No, not water, wine.)
Tu viens en train?  Non, pas en train, en voiture.  (No, not by train, by car.)
Tu veux manger quelque chose ?  Non, je ne veux rien.  (No, I don’t want anything.)
Tu entends quelqu’un ?  No, je n‘entends personne.  (No, I don’t hear anyone.)

To express negation towards an adverb, you do as follows:
Elle le voit toujours.  Non, elle ne le voit plus.  (No, she doesn’t see him anymore.)
Tu as déjà essayé ce vin?  Non, pas encore.  (No, not yet.)

Finally, you can use the negative form to express some kind of restriction:
Je ne travaille que le matin.  (I only work mornings.)

OK.  No more being negative.  Il faut être positif!

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