FREN 100 AMU Week 3 French I American Military University assistance is available on Domyclass
Week 3 Overview
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Bienvenu à la semaine 3, mes étudiants!
This week will separate those who will learn French from those who merely dream of learning it. What will make the difference between those two styles of students? Persistence! To that end, this week, you must continue purposefully and determinedly in Rosetta Stone and complete Unit 2, Lessons 1 and 2. Under Forums this week, you will have Forum 3. I encourage you as always to record yourselves. Lastly, this week, we will complete one more Skillbuilder–number three. Oui!
Students will be able to:- Differentiate French structures, sounds and vocabulary for Conjugation, Subject Pronouns, Possessives, Demonstratives, Family Relationships, Numbers 7–12, and Ages, Oral Expression
- Differentiate French structures, sounds and vocabulary for In, On, and Under, Family at Home, Location and Ownership
In this lesson, we will discuss:
- Conjugation, Subject Pronouns, Possessives, Demonstratives, Family Relationships, Numbers 7–12, and Ages, Oral Expression, In, On, and Under, Family at Home, Location and Ownership
- Conjugation
- Subject Pronouns
- Possessives
- Demonstratives The following activities and assessments need to be completed this week:
- Week 3 Lesson
- Readings and Resources
- Rosetta Stone, Unit 2, Lessons 1 and 2
- Week 3 Forums
- Skill-Builder 3
Introduction
Topics to be covered include:
- Conjugation
- Irregular verbs
- Possessive adjectives
- Prepositions: in, on and under
- Demonstrative adjectives
- Family relationships
- Family life and education in France
- Numbers seven to 12
In this lesson, you will be introduced to what is often the French language learner’s least favorite part of French class, conjugating verbs. You should memorize your first two irregular verbs; êtreand avoir. You will also learn about possessive pronouns in this lesson (“my,” “your,” “his,” “hers,” “ours,” “your” and “their”), as well as demonstrative adjectives, like “this” and “that.” You will also tackle family relationship words, and learn a little bit about family life and education in France in this lesson. Finally, you will review and practice the numbers seven to 12.
Pay special attention to the section on conjugation and irregular verbs. You need to master these concepts, and begin memorizing conjugation and irregular verbs early in your study of French.
Conjugation
Conjugation is changing a verb so that it matches its subject. The form of the verb must match the subject; you do this in English too, although you likely do it without thinking much of the time. In English the infinitive form of a verb begins with to. For instance, infinitive forms of verbs include to go, to eat, and to walk. In French, the infinitive is not created by adding a second word. Instead, it is identified by the ending of the word. Infinitive verb endings in French include –er,–ir, –oir, or –re. To translate the English examples just listed, you will see “to go” become aller, “to eat” become manger, and “to walk” become marcher. Each of these endings appears throughout all sorts of French verbs. For instance, “to finish” is finir, and “to be” is être.
As you learned in grade school, all sentences must have a subject and a verb. The subject is the noun (person, place or thing) doing or being the verb. The verb is either an action or a state of being. Verbs need to match the subject in the sentence; you already do this in English, but may not even think about it. In addition, conjugation is significantly simpler in English. First, take a look at an English example.
- First person singular: I eat.
- Second person singular: You eat.
- Third person singular: He eats.
- First person plural: We eat.
- Second person plural: You eat.
- Third person plural: They eat.
In each of these examples, the subjects are subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are pronouns that are used to replace subjects. For instance, “Jane eats” can become “she eats.” Here, the pronoun is replacing Jane.
As you can see in the example using “to eat,” the English verb only conjugates for the second person singular. In French, the verb conjugates into different forms throughout language, and throughout both the past, present, and future tenses. French children spend their childhoods learning how to conjugate verbs correctly, and that’s with the benefits of being a native speaker. For French learners, this is often one of the most challenging parts of learning the language.
Verb tense explains when the action or state of being occurred. Did it occur in the past, the present, or will it occur in the future?
| Person and Number | Subject Pronouns in English | Subject Pronouns in French | Infinitive form: “To walk” Simple present conjugation: | Infinitive form: marcher Simple present conjugation: |
| First person, singular | I | je | walk | marche |
| Second person, singular | You (informal, singular) | tu | walk | marches |
| Third person, singular | he, she, it, one For questions: who, what, how, etc. | il, elle, on For questions: Qui, Que, Comment, etc. | walks | marche |
| First person, plural | We | nous | walk | marchons |
| You (formal, plural) | vous | walk | marchez | |
| Third person, plural | They (m), they (f) | Ils, elles | walk | marchent |
The –s on the end of the second person singular is kept silent, as is the –ent on the third personal plural. The sound before the –ent becomes more pronounced, however. The –ez and –ons are fully pronounced “eh and “ohn”.
Prepositions: In, On and Under
Prepositions are words that connect other words, and provide information about the relationship between those words. If you think about prepositions in English, you use them lots of different ways. For instance, if I say “coffee is on me,” I mean that I’m paying for your coffee, not that I’ve spilled coffee on myself. It’s much the same in French; the actual meaning of the prepositions depends upon the context of the sentence in some cases.
In this course, you have already learned two prepositions, à and de. Roughly, à means “to,” and de means “from.”
Now, you will learn three more prepositions:
| English | French |
| On | Sur |
| Under | Sous |
| In | Dans |
Look at each of these in a sentence:
- Le chat est sur latable.
- Le chat est sous latable.
- Le chat est dans la chambre (room).
You should be able to read each of these sentences with the vocabulary you have learned so far. The first sentence reads “the cat is on the table,” while the second says “the cat is under the table.” The third sentence says “the cat is in the room.”
Each of these prepositions identifies the relative position of two nouns; the cat, and something else in these examples. You will continue to learn prepositions throughout this course.
Demonstrative Adjectives
Demonstrative adjectives include words like this, that, these and those. As with other adjectives in French, demonstrative adjectives must agree in both gender and number.
Ce means this or that in the masculine singular. However, if it precedes a noun, and the noun begins with a vowel or silent h, it becomes cet.
The feminine singular of “this” or “that” is cette.
Cesis the plural, meaning “these” or “those,” and like les and des, applies regardless of gender.
In use, it looks like this:
- Ce chat est beau.
- Cet homme habite à Paris.
- Cette femme est belle.
- Ces chats sont beaux.
Context typically determines the meaning of ce, cette, or ces. If you would like to clarify, or to add emphasis, you can do so by adding suffixes to the noun. The two suffixes are –ci (here) and –là (there).
- Ce chat- là est beau.
- Cet homme-ci habite à Paris.
- Cette femme- là est belle.
- Ces chats-ci sont beaux.
You have seen the word c’est throughout these lessons. In this usage, ce is not a demonstrative adjective, but an indefinite pronoun, meaning “it.” Ce, as a demonstrative adjective, does not form a contraction or elision with a word beginning with a noun. Instead, it adds a t, forming cet.