French for Beginners (2 page)

The letter Y is also used as an adverbial pronoun that is used for replacing a noun or a prepositional phrase. For instance, when the specific name of a place is mentioned in a preceding sentence, the igrec is used for replacing the place name on follow-up sentences or questions. More specifically, the igrec is used as an equivalent to the English word ‘there'.

Take the sentence below as an example. (Note that it has been broken down into specific phrases to emphasis how the letter y has replaced the noun):

Initial sentence:
Je veux retourner
...- this phrase indicates that the speaker wishes to return to a place. It is often followed by the mention of a specific place to complete the sentence, such as
en France
(to France) or
en England
(to England).

Follow-up sentence:
J'y étais.
..- in this follow-up phrase, the speaker is indicating that he ‘was (
étais
) there (
J'y
)'. This would then be followed by the mention of a time or date that would complete the sentence.

The igrec is also often used for replacing the French preposition
a
when it is referring to a noun or a verb that is connected to a preposition and an indirect object.

Intonation

When posing a question, the intonation of the French sentence is normally increased.  Increase in intonation is also normally done when enumerating items wherein you would normally hear people’s voice going up after every item until all items on the list have been enumerated, whereupon the voice will fall.  Even individual words and short phrases are given stress on the final syllable only. However, there are also some instances when the last syllable of word that immediately precedes the final word of the sentence or phrase is also stressed in preparation for the stress that would be placed on the last syllable of the last word.

Writing

You may already know that written French is a lot more complex compared to spoken French.  Just looking at how endings of verbs are spelled will show you how complicated written French is.  A verb may end with up to 5 letters and still sound similar to a verb that ends with only 2 letters.  For instance, verbs ending with “-ai” and “-aient” both sound like “ay”; but you can take comfort from the fact that even native French people themselves sometimes find it difficult to spell French words.  You may even want to watch the yearly National Spelling Competition in France to see how spelling French words is extremely difficult.

Reading

In the written French language, you will frequently see an l’ before a word that starts with a silent “h” or a vowel.  L’ basically takes the place of “le” or “la”.  French words starting with L’ is pronounced just like how you would pronounce words starting with the letter “l” such as l’orange.

In general, consonants found at the end of a French word are not pronounced.  For example, “faux” is pronounced as “fo”.  One exception are words that end with the letter “c” such as “sec” which is pronounced as “sek”; but you need to remember that you need to pronounce the consonant at the end of a word if the word that follows it begins with an “h” or a vowel.  An example is “faux ami” which is pronounced as “fo zami”.

Chapter 4: Tools for B
u
ilding Phrases

A or An

In the French language, a/an has two counterparts that are used depending on the noun they refer to – un for masculine nouns and une for feminine nouns.  Examples: un ticket (a ticket), une carte postale (a postcard).

Adjectives

“Je cherche un hôtel confortable.” (I am looking for a comfortable hotel.)

In French, generally, an adjective comes after the noun, with a few exceptions.  The two practical exceptions you should know are “grand” (big) and “petit” (small) that are used before the nouns they describe.

Unlike in English, French adjectives also have their plural forms.  This means that you need to use an adjective in plural form if you are describing nouns in plural form.  This gets more complicated because you also need to make sure that you are using the correct gender form of adjectives.  In general, adjectives in feminine form end in “-e”.  Examples: petit (masc.) and petite (fem.) ; both of which mean small.

Future Tense

“Je vais arriver demain.” (I am going to arrive tomorrow.)

Just like in the English language, you can refer to the future by combining “go” in its present tense form with another verb.

Gender

Nouns in French have a specific gender which is either feminine or masculine.  The gender assigned to a noun is not essentially related to the sex of the object.  For example, a table is feminine in French – une table.  The noun’s gender has a vital influence on the other elements of the sentence such as articles and adjectives.

Have

“J’ai deux frères.” (I have two brothers.)

Just like in the English language, the verb form changes contingent on the subject used.

Locations

“Mon passeport est dans mon sac.” (My passport is in my bag.)

Just like in the English language, you can indicate the location of a particular thing by placing a preposition (such as “dans” or “in”) before the location or the
place.

My and Your

“Voici mon mari et voici ma fille.” (This is my husband and this is my daughter.)

Both “my” and “your” have different forms in French depending on the gender of the noun it is referring to and on whether the noun is singular or plural.

When the noun starts with an “h” or other vowel sounds, you should use “mon” and not “ma”, regardless of whether the noun is feminine or masculine.

For the French words of the informal “your” (ton, ta and tes) and his/her (son, sa, ses), you can simply follow the rules for “my”.

Negative Form

“Je ne sais pas.” (I do not know.)

To create a negative sentence in French, you simply need to add “ne” before the verb and “pas” after it.

Plural Form

“Je voudrais deux billets.” (I would like two tickets.)

In written French, nouns in plural form end with an –s but is frequently silent when spoken.  The best ways to determine when a spoken French noun is plural is by noticing adjectives (such as “beaucoup de” or “a lot of”), numbers (such as “deux billets” or “two tickets) and plural articles (such as “les” which is the plural form of “the”).

“Je voudrais deux billets mensuels.” (I would like two monthly tickets.)

As discussed above, you need to change an adjective to its plural form when the noun it describes is plural.  You can normally do this by adding an –s at the end of the adjective.

Pointing at something

“C’est le bon train.” (That is the right train.)

The simplest way to point at something is to use “c’est” which can be literally translated as “it is”.  You can also simply convert a sentence to a question answerable by a yes or a no by changing the period to a question mark.  Example: “C’est le bon train?” which means “Is that the right train?”

Questions

Some

“Je voudrais  des pommes, du pate et de l’eau.” (I would like some apples, some pate and some water.)

There are three words for “some” in the French language.  They are used depending on the gender of the noun “some” is referring to and on whether the noun is singular or plural. “Du” is used for masculine and singular nouns.  “De (la)” is used for feminine and singular nouns.  “Des” is used for plural nouns.

Somebody’s

“Le chambre de Marie”  (Marie’s room)

To specify that something is owned by somebody, you can use “de” (of) in front of the noun.

The

“Je prends les escargots, le bifteck et la tarte Tatin.” (I will have the snails, the steak and the tarte Tatin.)

In the French language, “the” has three counterpart words that are used depending on the gender of the noun it refers to and whether the noun is singular or plural.  “Le” is used for masculine and singular nouns. “La” is used for feminine and singular nouns. “Les” is used for plural nouns.

“L’hotel près de la gare n’est pas cher.” (The hotel near the train station is not expensive.)

Both “le” and “la” is changed to “l’” when they are used before a noun that starts with an “h” or a vowel.

Yes or No Questions

“Ici?” (Here?)

The easiest way to pose a question answerable by yes or no is to build a statement and then increase the intonation of the statement just like what you would do in English when asking a question.  This simple rule can also be used even with just one word.

Importance of Liaisons

Because word liaisons are very common in the French language, non-native French speakers often have difficulty in transcribing oral sentences into written words and vice versa. Word liaisons in French have two primary characteristics:

• The pronunciation of a word starts with the silent consonant of the word that precedes it. The succeeding word normally begins with the letter H or a vowel.
  
• Liaised consonants are pronounced differently. The most common consonants that experience a change in pronunciation include:
  

D – sound changed to /t/

F – changed to /v/

S – changed to /z/

X – changed to /z/

The consonants g, n, p, r, t, and z are also liaised but are still pronounced in the same way.

Word liaisons in the French language also have three different categories. These are:

1. Liaisons obligatoires
   or Required Liaisons – the words that fall under this category are usually linked either by the sense or function of the words. These words can fall under any of the following pairings:
   
1. Pronoun + verb, example:
   vous avex
   /vuzavé/
   
2. Article + noun
   
3. Adjective + noun, example:
   bon ami
   /bonεmi/
   
4. Number + noun, example:
   très occupé
   /trεzokuhpé/
   
5. 2 different single-syllable prepositions, example:
   chez eux
   /shεzuh/
   

French language experts believe that Required Liaisons are the easiest to remember for non-native French speakers who are still learning the intricacies of the language.

1. Liaisons interdites
   or Forbidden Liaisons – this may sound like the title of some cheesy old movie, but it actually refers to letters that cannot be pronounced at all no matter how hard the speaker tries. These letters are often found on the following placements:
   
1. After mentioning a person’s full name. Example
   : Thomas est parti
   /toma-εy-parti/ (rough translation: Thomas left)
   
2. After the preposition
   et
   /εt/ (and). Example:
   et en
   /εyén/ some speakers might pronounce a hint of the letter ‘n’ at the end.
   
3. Before the H aspirate or h-aspiré. Example:
   en haut
   /ə
   nô/ (top)
   
4. When it is preceeded by interrogative adverbs. Example:
   Comment est-il
   /komän-εitil/ (How is it?)
   
5. When it is preceeded by the toujours /t
   uʒuʁ
   / (always or still). Example:
   toujours
   ici
   / t
   uʒuʁ
   isi/ (still here).
   
2. Liaisons facultatives
   or Optional Liaisons – these liaisons are the words that have evolved through time. These are more difficult for beginners in the French language to completely master because the liaisons often depend on the level of formality between speakers. Some of the instances within which optional liaisons occur include:
   
1. When the letter is preceeded by a plural noun. Example:
   femmes arrivent
   /fεmzariv/
   
2. When a noun is preceeded by the present tense of the verb
   être
   (to be), which is
   il est
   /élεs/. Example: il est idiot /élεytidio/ (it is foolish).
   
3. When an adjective is preceeded by
   il est
   . Example: il est heureux /élεyuru/ (he is happy).
   

It is important to remember that liaisons are different from
enchaînement
. In liaising, the silent consonants of stand-alone words are given emphasis due to the presence of a vowel that comes after it. In
enchaînement,
the consonant has always been pronounced even when the word is mentioned all by itself. However, once the word is attached to another word that begins with a vowel, the final consonant is transferred to beginning of the next word so that it would then be pronounced along with the first vowel letter.

Some examples of
enchaînement
include:

• Avec
  /ävεk/ (along with). When the word is added to avec, it would then be pronounced as /ävε-kεl/ (roughly translated to ‘with it’).
  
• Elle
  /εl/ (it) – this is often used with the preposition est, and the prepositional phrase would then be pronounced as /ε-lé/ (she is).