French Demystified: A Self - Teaching Guide

434 Pages·2007·1.75 MB·English

by  Annie Heminway

french
DeMYSTiFieD
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french
DeMYSTiFieD
Annie Heminway
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Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except
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CONTENTS
Introduction xi
PART ONE BASICS OF FRENCH UNDERSTANDING
CHAPTER 1 French Pronunciation 3
The French You Already Know: Borrowed Words
and Cognates 3
The French Alphabet 6
Pronouncing Vowels 8
Pronouncing Consonants 13
Syllabifi cation 17
The Francophone World 20
QUIZ 21
CHAPTER 2 Naming Things 23
Defi nite Articles 24
French Nouns and Gender 24
Asking Basic Questions 26
The Gender of Countries 27
The Plural of Nouns 29
Indefi nite Articles 31
The Cardinal Numbers Zero to Fifty 33
Ordinal Numbers 33
Days, Months, and Seasons 36
French Names 38
QUIZ 39
v
vi Contents
CHAPTER 3 Asking Questions 41
Subject Pronouns 41
-er Verb Endings in the Present Tense 42
Spelling Changes in -er Verbs 45
Asking Questions 49
Answering Questions in the Negative 54
The Negation ni... ni 56
QUIZ 57
CHAPTER 4 To Be or to Have, That Is the Question! 59
The Verb être 60
The Verb avoir 62
The Verb aller 65
Using il y a 67
Expressions of Quantity 67
Demonstrative Adjectives 70
Possessive Adjectives 72
The Numbers Fifty and Above 74
QUIZ 75
CHAPTER 5 Describing Things 77
-ir Verbs in the Present Tense 77
-re Verbs in the Present Tense 80
The Imperative Mood 82
Qualitative Adjectives 84
Making Comparisons 89
The Académie Française 91
QUIZ 92
PART ONE TEST 93
PART TWO SOME ESSENTIAL FRIENDS
CHAPTER 6 Talking About Time and Location 99
Telling Time 100
Adverbs and Expressions of Time 102
Contents vii
Adverbs and Expressions of Location 105
Using depuis 106
Geographic Names 108
The French Republic and Government 113
QUIZ 13
CHAPTER 7 Expressing Possibilities, Wishes, and Abilities 117
The Verb devoir 118
The Verb vouloir 120
The Verb pouvoir 121
Irregular -oir Verbs in the Present Tense 123
The Partitive Article 125
Synonyms 126
Homonyms 127
Onomatopoeia 128
French Etiquette 129
QUIZ 129
CHAPTER 8 Getting Acquainted 131
The Verb savoir 131
The Verb connaître 133
Prefi xes 135
Suffi xes 138
Dans versus en 140
Colors 141
QUIZ 143
CHAPTER 9 Talking About the Immediate Future and Past 145
The Immediate Future Tense 146
The Immediate Past Tense 149
The Verb tenir 151
Using the Idiom il s’agit de 152
The Verb faire 152
QUIZ 157
viii Contents
CHAPTER 10 Using Pronominal Verbs 161
The Different Types of Pronominal Verbs 162
Pronominal Verbs in the Imperative Form 168
Pronominal Verbs in the Infi nitive 169
Parts of the Body 169
Disjunctive Pronouns 170
Intonation in French 175
The Conjunction donc 175
QUIZ 17
PART TWO TEST 179
PART THREE TALKING ABOUT THE PAST
CHAPER 11 All About Pronouns 185
Direct Object Pronouns 185
Indirect Object Pronouns 191
The Pronoun y 195
The Pronoun en 197
The Order of the Pronouns 199
QUIZ 202
CHAPTER 12 Talking About the Past with the passé composé 205
The passé composé 206
The passé composé with avoir 207
The passé composé with être 212
Using Direct Objects in the passé composé 214
Pronominal Verbs in the passé composé 216
Using Adverbs with the passé composé 219
QUIZ 21
CHAPTER 13 Talking About the Past with the imparfait 225
The imparfait 226
Using the imparfait for Description 227
Using the imparfait for Habitual Action 229
Using the imparfait to Express Interrupted Action 231
Using the imparfait to Make a Suggestion 233