Practice Makes Perfect: Intermediate French Grammar: With 145 Exercises
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Practice Makes Perfect: Intermediate French Grammar helps you take your grammar skills to a higher level and gives you the confidence to speak and write in your new language. This workbook leads you through French grammar using concise, easy-to-understand language, keeping you focused on achieving your goal of total fluency.
Practice Makes Perfect: Intermediate French Grammar is packed with:
- Example sentences that illustrate and clarify each grammatical point
- Hundreds of exercises in formats suited to your learning style
- Practical and high-frequency French vocabulary
Master these tricky subjects:
Prepositions and prepositional phrases * Idiomatic uses of irregular verbs * Negative and interrogative structures * Imparfait and passe compose * The subjunctive mood * Relative pronouns
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Practice Makes Perfect - Eliane Kurbegov
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Contents
Introduction
1 Present tense and uses of regular and stem-changing verbs
Uses of the present tense
The present tense of regular verbs
The present tense of stem-changing -er verbs
2 Articles and genders
Review of articles and genders
Using the appropriate article
Contractions
Omitting articles
The definite article with parts of the body
3 The present tense and idiomatic uses of the irregular verbs aller, avoir, être, and faire
The present tense conjugation of the irregular verbs aller, avoir, être, and faire
Idiomatic uses of aller
Idiomatic uses of avoir
Idiomatic uses of être
Idiomatic uses of faire
4 Adjectives and comparisons
Use and agreement of adjectives
Descriptive adjectives
5 The present tense of irregular verbs ending in -oir, -re, and -ir
Verbs ending in -oir
Verbs ending in -re
Verbs ending in -ir
6 Prepositions, prepositional phrases, and verbal structures after prepositions
Prepositions and prepositional phrases introducing nouns or pronouns
Prepositions and prepositional phrases followed by verbal structures
7 Imperative, infinitive, and present participle structures
Imperative structures
Use of infinitive forms of verbs
The present participle
8 Reflexive verbs
Reflexive verbs in the present tense
Transitive verbs
Expressing reciprocity with reflexive verbs
Reflexive verbs in the imperative mood
Use of the definite article with parts of the body
9 Future tenses
The near future tense of verbs
The simple future tense of verbs
The future tense after quand, lorsque, dès que, aussitôt que
10 Negative and interrogative structures
Negative expressions in simple tenses
Negative expressions with infinitives
Negative expressions in compound tenses
Interrogative expressions in simple tenses
Interrogative structures in compound tenses
11 Imparfait and passé composé
Formation of imparfait tense
Uses of the imparfait
Formation of passé composé tense
Uses of the passé composé
Using the imparfait and/or passé composé in a sentence
Using the imparfait and passé composé in extended writing
12 Adverbs and adverbial phrases
The functions of adverbs
Formation of adverbs derived from adjectives
Placement of adverbs
Adverbial phrases
13 Conditional sentences
Conditional sentences with the imparfait and present conditional
Conditional sentences with the pluperfect and past conditional
14 Object pronouns
Position of object pronouns
Personal object pronouns me, te, nous, vous, and se
Direct object pronouns le, la, l’, and les
Object pronouns y and en
15 Past infinitive structures and agreement of past participles
Past infinitive structure of avoir verbs
Past infinitive structure of être verbs
Past infinitive structure of reflexive verbs
Agreement of past participles in compound tenses
Agreement of past participles for verbs conjugated with either avoir or être
16 Demonstrative, interrogative, and possessive pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns lequel, laquelle, lesquels, and lesquelles
Possessive pronouns
17 The subjunctive mood
Formation of present subjunctive
Past subjunctive
18 Relative pronouns
Function of relative pronouns
Answer key
Introduction
You have a good understanding of French and feel you are ready to move on. You want to progress toward a higher level of proficiency in the French language, but advanced grammar books still look overwhelming. Then this book is for you.
This highly useful book is well suited for the student who has mastered the basics of French grammar. It can also be used as a review book at the end of a second- or third-year course or as a supplement to an online French course. Intermediate French Grammar aims at expanding your knowledge and usage of verb tenses as well as your knowledge and usage of syntactical structures. It also aims to familiarize you with function words (such as relative pronouns), which make sentences richer and more detailed.
Each unit in the book is self-contained and therefore can be studied independently. A total of 18 lessons follow a simple and progressive format designed to help you learn, review, and retain knowledge of intermediate grammatical forms and structures. User-friendly charts serve as preparation for exercises, and an Answer key at the end of the book will help you verify your mastery of the material. You will practice present, past, and future tenses in addition to commonly used present and past conditional as well as present and past subjunctive mood verb forms. Adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and pronouns are also important parts of this book.
As the focus of the book is grammar, vocabulary will be presented as a context in which to review and practice grammatical and syntactical forms. Each new concept or structure is introduced with explanations, followed by highlighted examples illustrating and clarifying the new grammatical points, and a variety of exercises for practice. Among those exercises, some are designed to test your writing skills and some are embedded in contextualized reading material designed to help you review and practice essential structures and concepts in an interesting and fun manner. These exercises allow you to practice what you are learning and assess your understanding of concepts as well as put your knowledge into real-world tasks such as reading about the Olympic Games and writing about what the world will look like in 50 years.
À vous la parole! Amusez-vous bien tout en apprenant!
•1•
Present tense and uses of regular and stem-changing verbs
Uses of the present tense
In French, the present tense is used to indicate that an action or a situation takes place at the very moment when one is speaking or that it takes place routinely.
Note that there is no direct equivalent of the English progressive present tense in French. To state that something is happening, simply state that it happens.
You may also use the idiomatic expression être en train de (to be in the middle of) followed by an infinitive verb to stress the progressive present.
The present tense is sometimes used for future actions.
The present tense is used after depuis to indicate that the action started in the past is still going on in the present.
The present tense of regular verbs
Remember that the first step in conjugating a regular -er, -ir, or -re verb in the present tense consists of identifying the stem or root of the verb by dropping its infinitive ending.
The second step consists of adding the appropriate endings for that category of verbs and for the subject of the verb.
Here are some commonly used regular -er, -ir, and -re verbs in their infinitive forms, which you may use in exercises found in this chapter.
Remember that the verbs ouvrir (to open), couvrir (to cover), découvrir (to discover), and offrir (to offer) are conjugated like regular -er verbs.
Note that a verb remains in the infinitive form when it appears after a preposition such as de, avant de, or pour.
DU VOCABULAIRE UTILE. Useful vocabulary.
Examine this vocabulary list before doing the next exercises.
EXERCICE 1•1
Ma famille et moi. My family and I. Write the correct present tense form of each verb in parentheses on the line provided.
Dans ma famille, on (raccrocher).
EXERCICE 1•2
Mes frères, ma sœur et moi. My brothers, my sister, and I. Write the correct present tense form of each verb in parentheses on the line provided.
Mon frère aîné Jérôme (grandir) trop vite, ma petite sœur.
EXERCICE 1•3
À vous d’écrire! Your turn to write! Write this paragraph in French, remembering to conjugate all verbs appropriately.
I have a small family: a mom, a dad, one brother, and one sister. We eat dinner together every night. My mom and my sister Nina cook. During dinner, Dad talks a lot and we listen. He is very funny and loves to tell jokes.
After dinner, I clean up the table; my dad and my brother wash the dishes. My sister who has many friends spends a lot of time on the phone. My mom stays in her room and answers e-mails.
The present tense of stem-changing -er verbs
Remember that some regular -er verbs have a slight stem change as they are conjugated in the present tense.
-Er verbs that have a g in the stem will end in -eons in their nous form. Similarly, if an -er verb has a c in the stem, it will become ç in the nous form.
l → ll: