The infinitive is the basic, unconjugated form of the verb. In English, all infinitives are preceded by to. In French, infinitives end in -er, -ir, or -re (donner [to give], choisir [to choose], vendre [to sell]).
The subject of a sentence is the person or thing that performs the action. The subject determines the form of the verb: I go. You sing. David asks. We dance. The students work. The subject can be a noun (David, the students) or a pronoun (I, you, he, etc.).
When one lists the six existing verb forms in a particular tense by adapting the verb to each of the subject pronouns, one conjugates the verb. Contrary to English, most French verb forms change from one person to another during the conjugation.
Compare the following two present tense conjugations:
French: je parle, tu parles, il/elle/on parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils/elles parlent. (Only two forms are alike.)
English: I speak, you speak, he/she/one speaks, we speak, you speak, they speak. (All forms are the same except one.)
The stem is what is left of the verb after dropping the infinitive ending -er, -ir, or -re. Thus, the stem of parler is parl-, the stem of réussir is réuss-, and the stem of attendre is attend-.
A verb ending is what is added to the stem during the conjugation. Regular -er verbs, for example, have the endings -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent in the present indicative. The verb ending indicates the subject, tense, and mood, i.e., it shows who or what performs the action, when this action occurs, and how it is perceived.
The tense of a verb indicates when the action takes place, in the present, past, or future. The verb can be in a simple tense, which consists of one word only (such as the present tense), or in a compound tense, which consists of two words: the auxiliary and the past participle (such as the passé composé).
Grammatical mood means “manner.” It shows how the speaker perceives what he or she is saying. There are four personal and two impersonal moods in French.
The indicative, subjunctive, imperative, and conditional are personal moods. The infinitive and the participle (present and past) are impersonal moods. Impersonal moods do not show who performs the action.
A vowel is elided when it is dropped and replaced by an apostrophe (je danse, but j’adore).
The following set of subject pronouns are used when conjugating a verb in French:
The French subject pronouns differ from their English counterparts in the following way:
There are two ways to say you, depending on whom one addresses (see Note).
There are two ways to say they, due to gender (see Note).
There is no specific word for it. French refers instead to a masculine thing with il (he) and to a feminine thing with elle (she).
Note: The e in je is elided (i.e., dropped), and je becomes j’ before a verb that starts with a vowel or mute h: j’aime, j’habite.
The pronouns il and elle can be used for persons, animals, and things.
The pronoun il expresses
he (replacing a masculine person)
it (replacing a masculine thing—or an animal—and used as a subject in impersonal expressions)
The pronoun elle expresses
she (replacing a feminine person)
it (replacing a feminine thing or animal)
The indefinite pronoun on expresses one, they, people.
Note that in informal French, on is frequently used instead of nous.
There are two ways to express you in French.
1. The pronoun tu is familiar singular and is used to address one person whom one would call by his/her first name in France, i.e., a family member, a good friend or colleague, a fellow student, or a child. Tu is also used when praying to God and when talking to a pet.
2. The pronoun vous is both singular and plural formal and addresses one adult or a number of adults whom one doesn’t know very well (strangers, service personnel, professional contacts, acquaintances, etc.). It is also the plural of tu, i.e., used when speaking to more than one family member, close friend, fellow student, or child.
In the exercises in this book, fam. (= familiar) indicates that tu should be used, pol. (= polite) indicates that vous should be used to translate you.
There are two ways to express they in French.
1. The pronoun ils replaces masculine beings or things, or masculine and feminine beings or things combined.
2. The pronoun elles replaces feminine beings or things only.
Regular verbs. The conjugation of these verbs follows a fixed pattern. Once you learn this pattern, you can conjugate each verb within one group (-er, -ir, or -re verbs). With regular verbs, the stem of the infinitive remains intact during the conjugation, and all verbs within one group have the same endings.
Irregular verbs. The conjugation of each of these verbs does not follow a fixed pattern and therefore must be memorized.
Auxiliaries. These verbs (avoir and être in French) are also called helping verbs because they help to build a compound tense.
Transitive verbs. These are verbs that can take an (direct or indirect) object. An object is a person who (or a thing that) receives the action of the subject. In the sentence je visite le musée (I visit the museum), le musée is the object. The verb visiter is transitive.
In dictionaries, transitive verbs are often indicated by the abbreviation v.tr. (verbe transitif). You will find a more detailed explanation of the different kinds of objects in the section Verbs and their objects, pages 25–32.
Intransitive verbs. Intransitive verbs, such as aller (to go), venir (to come), and rester (to stay), cannot take an object. You cannot go, come, or stay “someone” or “something.” In dictionaries, intransitive verbs are usually indicated by the abbreviation v.i. (verbe intransitif).
Reflexive verbs. The infinitive of these verbs is preceded by the reflexive pronoun se (or s’ before a vowel or mute h). The verbs se coucher (to go to bed) and s’amuser (to have a good time) are reflexive verbs.
Impersonal verbs. These are verbs that are only used in the third-person singular (= il) form. Many impersonal verbs describe the weather: Il pleut. (It is raining.)