French Verbs for Dummies (ISBN - 0471773883)

306 Pages·2021·4.3 MB·English

by Zoe Erotopoulos,PhD

Professor of French at Fairfield University

French Verbs

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

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French Verbs

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

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by Zoe Erotopoulos,PhD

Professor of French at Fairfield University

French Verbs

FOR

DUMmIES

‰

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French Verbs For Dummies®

Published by
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Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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About the Author

Zoe Erotopoulos was born in Macedonia, Hellas (Greece) and immigrated to the United
States with her parents and brother at a young age. Her love of the French language and
literature inspired her to pursue her academic dream. She holds an MA, MPhil, and PhD in
French and Romance Philology from Columbia University in New York City. She has also
studied in Aix-en-Provence, at the Sorbonne, and at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Her teaching experience in French ranges from elementary to advanced level courses, includ-
ing literature and theater. Dr. Erotopoulos’ area of expertise is 17th century French Theater.
She has taught at a number of institutions, including Columbia University, Reid Hall in Paris,
and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. For the past 15 years, she has been teaching
in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Fairfield University in Fairfield,
Connecticut. She serves as coordinator and supervisor of a number of teacher assistants each
year. Dr. Erotopoulos lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my family.

Author’s Acknowledgments

There are a great number of people I must thank for this joyous endeavor. First, I would like
to thank my parents, George and Olga Erotopoulos for their unwavering encouragement and
support, their sacrifice for a better future for their children, and their unconditional love. To
my brother Jim, my sister-in-law Alissa, and their beautiful twin daughters, I am so thankful
that you are a constant part of my life. A special thank you to my mother- and father-in-law,
to my husband Steve, and our beautiful children, Despina, Olga, and Stathi for their love and
support.

In addition, I would like to thank my colleagues at the Department of Modern Languages
and Literatures at Fairfield University for their encouragement, especially Dr. Marie-Agnès
Sourieau for her belief in me. Since teaching is also learning, I owe a big thank you to all my
students throughout my many years of teaching. A heartfelt thanks to Cynthia Nadal for her
insightful comments and suggestions. Last, but certainly not least, a special thank you to
the editorial staff at Wiley for their professionalism, insightfulness, and expertise, especially
to my project editor, Chad Sievers, acquisitions editor Tracy Boggier, and copy editor Sarah
Faulkner. A special thanks to this book’s technical editor, Joyce Roush, a French teacher at
Culver Academies in Culver, Indiana.

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction.................................................................................1

Part I: Living in the Here and Now: The Present Indicative..............5

Chapter 1: Verbs 101: The Lowdown on Verbs.........................................................................................7
Chapter 2: Conjugating Regular Verbs in the Present Tense ................................................................17
Chapter 3: Knowing How to Handle Spelling-Change Verbs .................................................................29
Chapter 4: Wrestling with Some Irregular Conjugations .......................................................................43
Chapter 5: Reflecting on Pronominal Verbs (Reflexive, Reciprocal, and Idiomatic) .........................61
Chapter 6: Forming the Present Participle and the Gerund .................................................................69
Part II: Using Verbs Correctly with Questions,
Commands, and Such..................................................................77

Chapter 7: Inquisitive Minds Want to Know: Asking and Answering Questions................................79
Chapter 8: Telling People What to Do: The Regular, Irregular, and Pronominal Commands............89
Chapter 9: Looking Forward and Back: The Immediate Future and Past..........................................101
Chapter 10: Correctly Using Often Misused Verbs in Daily Conversation ........................................109
Part III: Taking a Look Back: The Past Tenses ............................119

Chapter 11: No Tense Is Perfect: The Imperfect Tense ......................................................................121
Chapter 12: Comprehending the Passé Composé and the Pluperfect Tenses .................................133
Chapter 13: Contrasting the Imperfect with the Passé Composé ......................................................153
Chapter 14: Deciphering the Literary Tenses: The Passé Simple and Passé Antérieur..................163
Part IV: Looking Ahead: The Future and the Conditional Tenses ...171

Chapter 15: Moving Forward with the Future Tense ...........................................................................173
Chapter 16: Completing a Future Action with the Future Perfect......................................................183
Chapter 17: Could-ing and Would-ing with the Present Conditional Tense ......................................191
Chapter 18: Trying the Past Conditional Tense: Could Have and Would Have ................................201
Part V: Considering Your Mood: Subjunctive or Not.....................209

Chapter 19: Creating the Present Subjunctive......................................................................................211
Chapter 20: Knowing How to Use the Present Subjunctive ................................................................223
Chapter 21: Forming and Using the Past Subjunctive .........................................................................237
Part VI: The Part of Tens...........................................................243

Chapter 22: Ten Verbs Used the French Way........................................................................................245
Chapter 23: Ten Most Frequently Mixed-Up Verbs ..............................................................................249
Part VII: Appendixes.................................................................255

Appendix A: French-to-English Verb Glossary......................................................................................257
Appendix B: English-to-French Verb Glossary......................................................................................263
Appendix C: Conjugating Common Irregular Verbs.............................................................................269
Index.......................................................................................283

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