five accents:
 grave circumflex trema aigu cedilleSuperlative of Adjectives
o the most
o le/la/les + plus + adjective
o Les singes sont les animaux les plus intelligents du zoo.
Passe Compose
 made with two parts- helping verb and the past participle
o Conjugate the helping verb and then add the past participle.
 helping verb:
 avoir verbs: all non- “dr & mrs p vandertramp” verbs and
regular verbs
 etre verbs: reflexive verbs and- devenir, revenir, monter,
retourner, sortir, partir, venir, aller, naitre, descendre, entrer,
rentrer, tomber, rester, arriver, mourir, passer
* the past participle must be in agreement in number and
gender with the subject
 Past participleso -er verbs: e replaces the -er
o -ir verbs: i replaces -ir,
o -re verbs: u replaces -re
o irregular past participles
 s’asseoir – assis- etre verb- reflexive
 avoir - eu
 boire - bu
 conduire - conduit
 connaitre - connu
 courir - couru
 croire - cru
 devoir - du
 dire - dit
 ecrire - ecrit
 etre - ete
 faire - fait
 lire - lu
 mettre - mis
 offrir - offert
 ouvrir - ouvert
 pouvoir - pu







prendre - pris
recevoir - recu
savoir - su
suivre - suivi
vivre - vecu
voir - vu
vouloir - voulu
 J’ai achete un billet.
 Jean-Claude n’a pas voyage avec sa famille.
 As-tu travaille cet ete?
 Nous ne sommes pas alles en Angleterre.
 Quand est-tu rentree, Nora?
 David s’est rase.
Definitions: transitive direct, transitive indirect, intransitive
Transitive verbs by definition have an object, either a direct object or an indirect
object. Intransitive verbs never have objects.
A transitive-direct verb acts directly on its object. In the first sentence below, the
telephone is the direct object. The verb 'entendre' (to hear) always takes an object;
one hears someone or something.
A transitive-indirect verb acts to or for its object. Tex is the object of the
preposition à in the second sentence since Joe-Bob is talking to him.
Intransitive verbs, on the other hand, have no object at all. The verb dormir (to
sleep) in the last example, does not need any object to complete it. In fact, because
the verb is intransitive, it cannot take an object. Intransitive verbs (as well as
transitive ones) may be modified by adverbs or prepositional phrases: 'Joe-Bob
sleeps in the car; he sleeps all the time.
(http://www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/pr/vti1.html)
Transitive Verbs from the Dr & Mrs. P. Vandertramp verb list:
Verbs that require être in the passé composé and other compound tenses are
intransitive - that is, they have no direct object. But some of them can be used
transitively (with a direct object), and when this happens, these verbs need avoir
as the helping verb. In addition, there is a slight change in meaning.
descendre
Il est descendu. - He went down(stairs).
Il a descendu l'escalier. - He went down the stairs.
Il a descendu la valise. - He took the suitcase down.
monter
Il est monté. - He went up(stairs).
Il a monté la côte. - He went up the hill.
Il a monté les livres. - He took the books up.
passer
Je suis passé devant le parc. - I went by the park.
J'ai passé la porte. - I went through the door.
J'ai passé une heure ici. - I spent an hour here.
rentrer
Je suis rentré. - I came home.
J'ai rentré les chaises. - I brought the chairs inside.
retourner
Elle est retournée en France. - She has returned to France.
Elle a retourné la lettre. - She returned / sent back the letter.
sortir
Elle est sortie. - She went out.
Elle a sorti la voiture - She took the car out.
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/etreverbs_3.htm
Prepositions before cities, countries, and continents
 cities - a
 feminine countries/continents - en
 masculine singular countries/continents - au
 masculine plural countries/continents - aux
Ordinal numbers
 first: premier, premiere
 fifth: cinquieme
 ninth: neuvieme
 numbers ending in e: drop the -e, add -ieme
 all other numbers: add -ieme
Irregular pural forms of nouns and adjectives
 no change:
o -eux: vieux, heureux
o never changing: orange, sympa
 -eau to -eaux: bateaux, beaux, nouveaux
 -al to -aux: animal(aux), journal(aux), national(aux)
Partitive Articles
* use partitive articles to express some
 de + le/la/l’
o du the
o de la sauce
o de l’eau minerale
 des + un/e
o des escargots
* use the partitive articles after certain expressions and verbs to indicate quantity
 vouloir, acheter, manger, donner, prendre, desirer, avoir, voici, voila, il y a
*But when referring to whole items, use definite articles after ^ verbs and
expressions
*when referring to things in general, use defintite articles (le/la/l’/les) with the verbs:
 aimer, adorer, preferer
*in negative sentences du, de la, de l’, and des change to de/d’
 Il n’y a pas de saumon
Reflexive Verbs
 a verb that is performed on the subject
 two parts
o reflexive pronouns (first) - represents the subject
me
nous
te
vous
se
se
o verb (second)
 Je m’habille dans ma chambre.
 Nous ne nous levons pas tot la samedi.
 A quelle heure vous couchez-vous?
 Reviellez-vous!
 Ne vous depeches pas!
 use definite adjectives instead of possessive adjectives
 Je me brosse les dents.
Imperative of reflexive verbs
 drop the subject pronoun and attatch the reflexive pronoun to the end of the
verb with a hyphen
o Reveillez-vous!
o Brosse-toi les dents!
o Ne vous depechez pas!
Reflexive verbs in Past tense
 use etre as the helping verb
o Fran s’eest rasee.
o Ils ne se sont pas couches tot.
o T’es-tu brosse les dents?
 the past participle agrees with the subject unless its followed by a part of the
body
o Elle s’est lave les mains.
Double Object Pronouns
 direct object - the person/thing that receives the action of the verb
o direct object pronouns - replace the corresponding subjects and are placed
in front of it’s verb.
me
te
le/la/l’ (agrees with subject)
nous
vous
les
T’attend-il?
Mes parents vont nous attendre.
Tu les regardes aussi?
Je ne l’aime pas.
 in passé compose (the d.o. pn goes in front of the helping verb
& the past participle agrees with the d.o. pn in # and gender
except past participles ending in -s)
 Je l’ai aime
 Mes parents m’ont emmencee.
 Je ne les ai pas pris.
 Dupin l’ont offerte a leur fille.
indirect object - it’s the person to/ for whom the verb’s action is directed
o indirect object pronoun - can replace the corresponding a + subject and is
placed in front of its verb.
me
nous
te
vous
lui
leur
 Je leur ecris.
 Lui telephone-t-il?
 Te parle-t-il?
 Il ne me parle pas.
 Christiane va nous dire sa nouvelle adresse.
both in the same sentence use this chart to find the order:
me
le
te
la
lui
se
l’
leur
y
en
nous
les
vous






Relative pronouns
Que and qui are used to combine two shorter sentences into one longer one.
 qui - its used as the subject of the phrase
o it means who, which or that and refers to a person or thing
 Son pere adore sa nouvelle montre qui est Suisse.
 que - is used as the direct object of the phrase
o it means that, whom, or which and refers to a person or thing
 Le garcon que Rose invite a la boum est tres sympa.
*que acts as the direct object and in passé compose, the past participle must
agree in gender and number with the word that que refers to.
 Les boucles d’oreilles qu’Abdel-Cader a offertes a sa mere sont belles.
Future tense

take the infinitive verb: -ir, -er, -re (drop the e) and add the appropriate endings
onto the infinitive of the verb to express what will happen
-ai
-ons
-as
-ez
-a
-ont
there are irregular verbs that alter their stem during future tense formation:
etre ~ seravoir ~ auraller ~irfaire ~ ferpouvoir ~ poursavoir ~ saurvouloir ~ voudrvenir ~ viendr-