F r e n c h G r a m m a r by Véronique Mazet, PhD French Grammar For Dummies® Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013933935 ISBN 978-1-118-50251-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-50248-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-50250-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-50324-9 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Véronique Mazet, PhD, is a professor of French, adjunct, at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. She’s the author of two other French grammar books: Correct Your French Blunders and Advanced French Grammar (both published by McGraw-Hill). Dedication To my students of all ages: Thanks for believing in the beauty of the French language, and thanks for trusting me. Author’s Acknowledgments Thanks to my agent, Grace Freedson, for calling me, and to my husband, for his super support. Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites Composition Services Senior Project Editor: Georgette Beatty Senior Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees Acquisitions Editor: Michael Lewis Layout and Graphics: Carrie A. Cesavice, Joyce Haughey, Erin Zeltner Copy Editor: Caitlin Copple Proofreader: The Well-Chosen Word Assistant Editor: David Lutton Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen Technical Editors: Eric Laird, Jessica Sturm Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker Editorial Assistant: Alexa Koschier Cover Photo: © James Gately/iStockphoto.com Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher David Palmer, Associate Publisher Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Composition Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance Introduction ............................................................................1 Part I: Getting Started with French Grammar ............................5 Chapter 1: French Grammar in a Nutshell .........................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Sounding Out French Words ..........................................................................................17 Chapter 3: Using Nouns and Determiners .......................................................................................35 Chapter 4: Describing Nouns with Adjectives.................................................................................55 Chapter 5: Dealing with Numbers, Dates, and Times .....................................................................69 Part II: Constructing Sentences, Saying No, and Asking Questions .............................................................85 Chapter 6: Acquainting Yourself with the Present Tense .............................................................87 Chapter 7: Acting on Oneself and on Each Other: Pronominal Verbs .......................................107 Chapter 8: Just Say No: Negative Words and Phrases .................................................................119 Chapter 9: Handling Questions and Exclamations .......................................................................131 Part III: Beefing Up Your Sentences ......................................155 Chapter 10: Saying Where, When, and How with Adverbs ..........................................................157 Chapter 11: Picking Up Prepositions ..............................................................................................171 Chapter 12: It’s All Relative: Making Comparisons .......................................................................187 Chapter 13: Using Pronouns ............................................................................................................203 Chapter 14: Adding the Gerund and the Passive to Your Repertoire ........................................227 Part IV: Talking about the Past or Future ..............................237 Chapter 15: Noting Past Actions with the Present Perfect ..........................................................239 Chapter 16: Reminiscing and Describing Ongoing Past Actions with the Imperfect ...............253 Chapter 17: Projecting Forward with the Future ..........................................................................265 Part V: Expressing Conditions, Subjectivity, and Orders ..........283 Chapter 18: Wondering with the Conditional ................................................................................285 Chapter 19: Surveying the Subjunctive ..........................................................................................301 Chapter 20: Giving Orders with the Imperative ............................................................................319 Chapter 21: Discovering Compound Tenses .................................................................................333 Part VI: The Part of Tens ......................................................341 Chapter 22: Ten Common French Grammar Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) ..................343 Chapter 23: Ten (Or So) Useful French Idioms .............................................................................349 Index ..................................................................................353