Archive for 'Grammar'
Le subjonctif Posted by Bridgette on Mar 11, 2022
Coucou tout le monde! I thought it was time for a grammar lesson, so today let’s look at the subjunctive. The subjunctive mood (not a tense!) expresses anything that is not an assertion (the indicative mood) but, rather, a doubt, wish, possibility, or judgment. It does exist in English as well, albeit less common, for example…
Le futur simple Posted by Bridgette on May 20, 2021
‘Le futur simple’ – the simple future Le futur simple in French is used to discuss future plans, intentions, or predictions. In English, we use ‘will’ or ‘shall’ when expressing the future. Keep reading to discover how to form the future simple tense in French. _______________________________________________________________ Take the infinitive of the verb and add the…
A French picnic Posted by Tim Hildreth on Apr 13, 2021
Few things in life are as enjoyable as a picnic. When I was living in France we would often pack un panier for an impromptu lunch to break up the drive to the country or simply for an outing to enjoy nature. Last week’s post – with its oranges sur les marches du Sacré Coeur –…
Passé Simple – French Simple Past Posted by Bridgette on Oct 9, 2020
Bonjour! A couple weeks ago I shared with you un conte de fée: Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Little Red Riding Hood. I am sure it was easy enough to understand since the story is already widely known, but you may have noticed something odd while reading. Throughout the story you would have seen a different kind of…
French Culture – Music for the classes Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 22, 2020
Back when I was teaching, I loved to use songs to introduce new vocabulary. At the time, my musical collection was limited to the songs and CDs I owned … and was a little stuck in the 1980’s! Il n’y a pas que les années 80 ! If you’ve been reading my posts for a while…
French Vocabulary – Here, There, & Everywhere Posted by Tim Hildreth on Sep 15, 2020
A few weeks ago I linked to a post about the differences between encore and toujours. It got me thinking about other words in French that you can use for things that are frequent. Here, there, & everywhere Partout When something isn’t just happening içi (here) or là-bas (there) but is happening everywhere, then it…
French Language – Demonstrative Pronouns bis Posted by Tim Hildreth on Feb 25, 2020
A few weeks ago we reviewed demonstrative pronouns in French. As we discussed, les pronoms démonstratifs generally agree in gender and number with the nouns they replace … with one exception that we’ll look at this week. Le cas exceptionnel de ce Ce (or c’ when it comes before a vowel) is a demonstrative pronoun…