Archive for 'Grammar'
Impersonal Verbs Posted by Transparent Language on Dec 3, 2008
Impersonal verbs can often get people confused when learning French, but the fact is that these verbs are used in all languages including English. Il pleut means ‘It is raining’. These verbs are called impersonal because they can not take a real personal subject as they do not represent any action, occurence or state-of-being that…
On se tutoie? Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 21, 2008
The French language is sometimes thought of as a formal language. Possibly one of the reasons is because of the tutoyer and vouvoyer thing. For those of you who speak French and especially those of you who have visited a French-speaking country, you probably fully understand what I’m talking about. The rules are not very…
Auxiliaries Être and Avoir Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 17, 2008
In French, the verbs être and avoir are considered auxiliaries when followed by a past participle and, thus, used to form the perfect tenses much like have/has/had are auxiliaries in English. Just as have/has/had, être and avoir are also regular, normal verbs as well. AVOIR is the auxiliary that is used with most verbs. ÊTRE…
C’est quoi ce quand-même? Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 14, 2008
When I was a college student living in Paris in a French student residence , I was hanging out with some friends who were discussing music and singing along with some CDS that were playing…and just to get into the conversation probably, I said to one of my best (French) friends, “Tu chantes bien quand…
Complex Sentences (La Phrase Complexe) Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 27, 2008
Just like in English, a complex sentence in French is a sentence with more than one clause. These are often used and many times we don’t even realize they’re so complex because several of them so easily come rolling off our tongues. To begin our discussion, there are two kinds of clauses: main clauses and…
Let’s Talk About Present Tense Verbs Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 10, 2008
Je travaille. In French, this short sentence has several translations in English and we would need more context to decide exactly what is meant. It could be translated as “I work” or “I’m working” and if we add more to the sentence without changing the verb structure in any way, it could take on even…
Are French Cars Better Than Italian Cars? Posted by Transparent Language on Oct 6, 2008
« La puissance est plus impressionnante lorsqu’elle est générée par une simple goutte. » This comes from an Audi ad that was blinking at me this afternoon while I was reading Le Monde online. It didn’t inspire me to go out and buy a car, but it did bring me to write this article on comparatives in…