French Grammar Drills

2012·1.39 MB·English

by  Eliane Kurbegov

FRENCH
GRAMMAR
DRILLS
Eliane Kurbegov
New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City
Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
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DOI: 10.1036/0071475133
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Contents
Preface vii
Part 1
Articles and Adjectives
1 Definite Articles 3
2 Indefinite Articles 15
3 Demonstrative Adjectives 19
4 Possessive Adjectives 21
5 Interrogative Adjectives 25
Review 1 27
Part 2
Plurals, Quantity, and Partitive Articles
6 Plural of Nouns 33
7 Quantity 35
8 Partitive Articles 39
Review 2 43
iii
Part 3
Adjectives
9 Agreement of Adjectives 51
10 Position of Adjectives 59
11 Comparative and Superlative Forms
of Adjectives 63
Review 3 65
Part 4
Adverbs
12 Position of Adverbs 69
13 Formation of Adverbs 73
14 Comparative and Superlative Forms
of Adverbs 75
Review 4 77
Part 5
Subject, Stressed, and Object Pronouns
15 Subject Pronouns 83
16 Stressed Pronouns 85
17 Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns 87
18 Other Object Pronouns: y and en 95
Review 5 99
iv Contents
Part 6
Possessive, Demonstrative, and Interrogative Pronouns
19 Possessive Pronouns 107
20 Demonstrative Pronouns 109
21 Interrogative Pronouns 111
Review 6 113
Part 7
Relative Pronouns
22 The Relative Pronouns qui and que 117
23 The Relative Pronouns qui and lequel
After Prepositions 119
24 The Relative Pronouns où and dont 123
25 Ce Before qui, que, and dont 127
Review 7 129
Part 8
Prepositions and Conjunctions
26 Prepositions 135
27 Geographical Expressions 143
28 Prepositional Expressions and Idioms 151
29 Conjunctions 159
Review 8 163
Contents v
Part 9
Basic Verbal Structures
30 The Present Participle, Present Tense,
and Imperative 167
31 The Near Future, Simple Future, Future
Perfect, and Present Conditional 179
32 Imparfait and passé composé 187
33 Imparfait and conditionnel 197
34 The Past Infinitive 199
Review 9 203
Part 10
Other Verbal Structures
35 The Present and Past Subjunctive 211
36 Reflexive Verbs and the Passive Voice 217
37 Negations 225
38 The Interrogative 229
39 Stem-Changing and Irregular Verbs 233
40 Verbal Expressions and Idioms 267
Review 10 273
Answer Key 281
vi Contents
Preface
If you’ve picked up this book, you know that to learn a language well—to
read and write and to understand others and be understood yourself—at
some point you just have to buckle down and deal with the grammar. French
Grammar Drills will enable you to take charge of the grammar that you
need to know French well by providing you with plenty of writing drills to
reinforce your knowledge and enhance your ability to speak, read, and write
with finesse. You will be able to work at your own pace while focusing on
those aspects of grammar that require the most attention.
Since so many grammatical elements in French vary as a function of the
gender and number nouns, the book starts with a chapter on articles and tips
showing you how to distinguish between masculine and feminine genders, as
well as singular and plural forms, before moving on to chapters examining
adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. The remain-
ing chapters are devoted to verbal forms and tenses. The emphasis in the verb
chapters is on those tenses of the indicative and subjunctive modes that are
most frequently used in contemporary and conversational French.
A variety of exercises will reinforce your ability to manipulate the French
language. There are exercises after each set of explanations so you can imme-
diately apply what you have learned. In addition, ten sets of review exercises
follow each group of related chapters. They are found following the study of
articles and adjectives (Part 1); after plurals, quantity, and partitive articles
(Part 2); after the study of adjectives, including comparatives and superla-
tives (Part 3); after the study of adverbs (Part 4); after the study of subject,
stressed, and object pronouns (Part 5); after possessive, demonstrative, and
interrogative pronouns (Part 6); after relative pronouns (Part 7); after prepo-
sitions and conjunctions (Part 8); after the study of verbs in the future, condi-
tional, imparfait, and passé composé, including present and past participles
(Part 9); and after the study of the subjunctive, reflexive verbs, the passive
voice, negations, interrogatives, irregular verb forms and verbal expressions
(Part 10). These review exercises are given specific contexts with the aid of
vii
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various “vignettes” that give you the opportunity to challenge yourself in
communicative, real-life situations. You will find answers to all the exercises
in the answer key at the back of the book.
Once you’ve worked your way through French Grammar Drills, not
only will you find yourself confidently on your way to fluency, this book
will remain a unique resource anytime you need to clarify or review essential
grammatical concepts.
viii Preface