Essential French Grammar

465 Pages·2013·2.77 MB·English

by  Mike Thacker

Essential French Grammar

Essential French Grammar is a student-friendly French grammar designed to give
learners a fi rm foundation on which to build a real understanding of both spoken and
written French.

Clear explanations of grammar are supported by contemporary examples, lively cartoon
drawings and a variety of exercises.

Key features of each chapter:

� each grammar point explained initially with reference to English

� parallels between English and French provided where relevant

� ‘key points’ box and tables that summarize grammar concepts

� real-life language examples in French, with English translations

� a variety of exercises to reinforce learning

� a contemporary primary source or literary extract to illustrate grammar in context.

A glossary of grammatical terms in French and English, useful verb tables, and a key to
the exercises are also provided, making this an ideal resource for both independent and
class-based learners.

Essential French Grammar is an innovative reference grammar and workbook for
intermediate and advanced undergraduate students of French (CEFR levels B2 to C1,
ACTFL Intermediate to Advanced).

Mike Thacker was Director of the Language Centre at the University of Surrey from
1991 to 2005 and has taught at all degree levels. He is co-author of several coursebooks
for Spanish A level, A Spanish Learning Grammar and Friday Afternoon French (with
Casimir d’Angelo).

Casimir d’Angelo is Director of the Language Unit in the Engineering Department of the
University of Cambridge. He is co-author of Friday Afternoon French (with Mike
Thacker).

Essential Language Grammars

Essential Language Grammars are available for the following languages:

French

German

ESSENTIAL
FRENCH
GRAMMAR

Mike Thacker • Casimir d’Angelo

First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2013 Mike Thacker and Casimir d’Angelo

The right of the authors to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Thacker, Mike, author.
Essential French Grammar / Mike Thacker and Casimir d’Angelo.
pages cm
Text in French and English.
Includes index.
1. French language--Grammar. 2. French language--Textbooks for foreign speakers--English. 3. French
language--Spoken French. 4. French language--Study and teaching--English speakers. I. d’Angelo, Casimir,
author. II. Title.
PC2112.T49 2013
448.2’421--dc23
2012044322

ISBN: 978-0-415-82596-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-4441-6689-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-78453-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby

CONTENTS

v

Acknowledgements
xi

Introduction
xiii

Glossary of grammatical terms
xv

1
NOUNS
1

1.1 Types of nouns
3

1.2 Gender
7

1.3 Number
27

Nouns in context
36

Exercises
39

2
DETERMINERS
43

2.1 The three types of article
44

2.2 Forms of the articles
44

2.3 The defi nite article
45

2.4 The indefi nite article
47

2.5 The partitive article
49

2.6 Omission of the article
50

2.7 Demonstrative determiners
51

2.8 Possessive determiners
53

Determiners in context
55

Exercises
57

3
PRONOUNS
61

3.1 Subject pronouns
63

3.2 Direct and indirect object pronouns
68

3.3 y
71

3.4 en
72

3.5 Refl exive pronouns
73

3.6 Order of object pronouns
75

3.7 Stressed pronouns
77

3.8 Coordination of personal pronouns
78

3.9 Demonstrative pronouns
79

3.10 Possessive pronouns
80

3.11 Indefi nite pronouns
81

Pronouns in context
83

Exercises
85

4
ADJECTIVES
88

4.1 The position of adjectives
90

4.2 The feminine of adjectives
95

4.3 Adjectives with a second masculine form
103

4.4 The plural of adjectives
103

4.5 Compound adjectives
105

4.6 Agreement of adjectives with on
106

4.7 Agreement of adjectives according to meaning
106

CONTENTS

vi

4.8 Adjectives of colour
107

4.9 Foreign borrowings
108

4.10 Special cases
109

4.11 Adjectival expressions
110

4.12 Comparison of adjectives
111

4.13 Verbal adjectives
113

Adjectives in context
115

Exercises
117

5
NUMBERS
121

5.1 Cardinal numbers
122

5.2 Ordinal numbers
126

5.3 Word order when a cardinal and ordinal number are
together
128

5.4 Approximate numbers
128

5.5 Time
129

5.6 Dates
129

5.7 Measurements
130

5.8 Fractions and calculations
130

5.9 Quantifi ers
131

Numbers in context
133

Exercises
135

6
ADVERBS
138

6.1 Adverbs and adverbials
140

6.2 Formation of adverbs ending in -ment
140

6.3 Different types of adverbs
143

6.4 Comparison of adverbs
146

6.5 Position of adverbs
148

6.6 Inversion after certain adverbs
150

Adverbs in context
151

Exercises
153

7
NEGATION
157

7.1 Position of negative expressions
158

7.2 Order of negative expressions
159

7.3 de with a direct object in negative sentences
159

7.4 ne … aucun
160

7.5 ne … guère
160

7.6 ne … jamais
160

7.7 ne … ni … ni
161

7.8 ne … nul(le); ne … nulle part; ne … nullement
161

7.9 ne … pas
161

7.10 ne … personne
162

7.11 ne … plus
162

7.12 ne … que
163

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

vii

7.13 ne … rien
163

7.14 Omission of ne in speech
164

7.15 Use of non and si
164

7.16 n’est-ce pas ?
164

7.17 Use of ne without a negative sense
164

7.18 Negative words with sans
165

Negation in context
166

Exercises
168

8
VERBS 1
171

8.1 The verb
171

8.2 Characteristics of the verb
171

8.3 Transitive and intransitive verbs
185

8.4 Pronominal verbs
186

8.5 Impersonal verbs
191

8.6 Verbal aspect
191

Verbs in context
198

Exercises
200

9
VERBS 2 : TENSES OF THE INDICATIVE
204

9.1 Tenses
204

9.2 The radical and verb endings
207

9.3 The present tense
210

9.4 The imperfect tense
215

9.5 The compound past
220

9.6 The simple past
223

9.7 The imperfect and the simple past contrasted
226

9.8 The pluperfect tense
227

9.9 The past anterior
230

9.10 The future tense
232

9.11 The compound future
236

9.12 The conditional tense
239

9.13 The compound conditional
242

9.14 Summary of the sequence of tenses in conditional clauses
245

Indicative tenses in context
246

Exercises
247

10 VERBS 3 : THE IMPERATIVE, THE INFINITIVE,
PARTICIPLES
250

10.1 The imperative
250

10.2 The infi nitive
255

10.3 Participles
265

10.4 The present participle
266

10.5 The gerund
271

10.6 The past participle
272

Imperatives, infi nitives and participles in context
282

Exercises
284

CONTENTS

viii

11 VERBS 4 : THE SUBJUNCTIVE
287

11.1 The present subjunctive
289

11.2 The compound past subjunctive
290

11.3 The imperfect subjunctive
290

11.4 The pluperfect subjunctive
292

11.5 The double compound past subjunctive
293

11.6 Examples of the fi ve subjunctive tenses
294

11.7 Uses of the subjunctive
294

The subjunctive in context
302

Exercises
304

12 PREPOSITIONS
307

12.1 Coordination of prepositions
309

12.2 Verb + preposition constructions
310

12.3 Adjectives and adverbs + prepositions
310

12.4 Differentiating between prepositions and adverbs
311

12.5 Prepositions and their uses
311

12.6 Prepositions meaning ‘in’ and ‘to’ before geographical names
328

Prepositions in context
329

Exercises
333

13 CONJUNCTIONS
337

13.1 Coordinating conjunctions
338

13.2 Subordinating conjunctions
341

13.3 Subordinating conjunctions followed by the indicative
341

13.4 Subordinating conjunctions followed by the subjunctive
344

13.5 Subordinating conjunctions followed by the indicative or
subjunctive, depending on meaning
345

Conjunctions in context
347

Exercises
349

14 RELATIVE PRONOUNS
352

14.1 Agreement with the past participle (see also 10.6.4)
353

14.2 The invariable relatives, qui, que, quoi, dont, où
354

14.3 Qui
355

14.4 Que / qu’
355

14.5 Quoi
356

14.6 Dont
357

14.7 Où
357

14.8 Lequel
358

14.9 Restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses
359

Relative pronouns in context
360

Exercises
362

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

ix

15 QUESTIONS AND EXCLAMATIONS
365

15.1 Questions
365

15.2 Exclamations
372

Questions and exclamations in context
375

Exercises
377

Appendix: Punctuation, accents and the French phonetic alphabet
381

Verb tables
393

Answers to exercises
418

Index
432

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xi

Acknowledgements

We wish to express our gratitude to Bianca Knights and Lucy Winder, for their
encouragement and guidance during the writing of this book, and to Andrea Hartill and
Samantha Vale Noya, of Routledge, for their help and advice in its fi nal stages. We
would also like to thank a number of anonymous reviewers for their feedback on several
chapters. We owe a special debt of gratitude to our colleague Thomas Godard for his
valuable comments on several chapters, which helped us to clarify a number of complex
points of grammar.

The publishers would like to thank Editions Gallimard and the Estate of Jacques Prévert
for their permission to reproduce ‘Inventaire’ by Jacques Prévert and Nino Ferrer for
permission to reproduce the lyrics to ‘Les Cornichons’.

����������������������������������

xiii

Introduction

Essential French Grammar was written out of a conviction that grammar is the key to
attaining a real understanding of both spoken and written French. While it is possible to
communicate with native speakers at a basic phrase book level using a limited number of
structures, knowledge of the grammar of the language is essential to hold a conversation
of any complexity, or write a letter or an essay successfully. In our long experience of
teaching and examining, grammar plays a fundamental part in the learning process of
students who aspire to higher levels of competence.

Our aim in writing Essential French Grammar is to provide a clear description of French
grammar, together with practice exercises, for English-speaking undergraduate students
of French and for those who are studying French in preparation to go to university.
University students of French will benefi t from using this book, whether they are
specialist linguists or non-specialists studying a module in French as part of another
degree. In terms of the commonly accepted European system for assessing achievement in
a language, the book corresponds approximately to levels B1 to C1 of the Common
European Framework Reference for Languages (Independent User to Profi cient User).

In each of the 15 chapters we explain briefl y how grammar works in English and then in
French. This method enables students to grasp the fact that French has different ways of
creating its grammatical rules, which derive from a distinctive cultural and linguistic
tradition. The structure of each chapter follows a sequence:

� each grammar point is explained initially with reference to English

� parallels between English and French are then pointed out in a contrastive way

� Key points relating the grammar in question are explained

� a description of how the grammar is formed, where appropriate, and its main uses are
then explored, with translated examples

� in the fi nal section of each chapter,

� the grammar point is exemplifi ed in passages that show how it works in context

� a sequence of fi ve exercises gives ample practice for students to test themselves.

In chapters where several different grammar areas are covered, the above sequence is
followed for each point. Occasional illustrations show grammar ‘in action’.

The book also includes:

� a Glossary, provided at the beginning of the book, for those who are less familiar
with grammar terms

� an Appendix describing Punctuation, accents and the French phonetic alphabet

� Verb tables

� Answers to the exercises

INTRODUCTION

xiv

� an Index

In general, we have followed the conventions for explaining French grammar found in
English grammars of French, pointing out some conceptual differences where
appropriate (e.g. in Chapter 8, Verbs 1).

In 1990, new rules for spelling were agreed by Francophone countries, which are set out
in the Rectifi cations orthographiques du français (1990). These rules, which we have
summarized in the Appendix, affect such aspects as the hyphenation of numbers, the use
of the circumfl ex accent and compound words. Since this reform of spelling is not
prescriptive, and has not yet taken hold in France, we have chosen to follow the
traditional rules.

It is often the case that incorrect usage of a given structure in the spoken language has
become so widespread it is generally accepted. In cases of this kind we have pointed out
that the structure is confi ned to speech. Similarly, we have indicated language that is
employed only in formal circumstances or used in a literary or legal register. Where we
feel the need to point to language that is ungrammatical, an asterisk is placed before the
example.

Casimir d’Angelo
Mike Thacker
March 2013