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The passé composé with the verb “être”
French Grammar, French Vocabulary

The passé composé with the verb “être”

The ”passé composé” is the present perfect tense. This tense is used a lot in French to describe a situation that happened in the past at a definite time but that still has a meaning for today…

Seems very theoretical, but really, it is not as you will see soon with French Lessons Australia!

 

When to use it?

The passé composé is the usual tense for events and incidents that happened in a close past. Unlike the English present perfect, the passé composé is used very often by French people.

Sometime indicators can be used in addition to strengthen this relation between past and present! For instance: hier (yesterday), l’autre jour (the other day), samedi passé (last Saturday), plusieurs fois (several times), l’année passée (last year), … As you can see, it is not necessary to be very recent to use the passé composé. As soon as the information is still relevant with today, the passé composé is appropriate.

Obviously, the passé composé is not the only past tense used in French. The imperfect tense and the past simple tense are also used as we will see in another post on French Lessons Sydney. However, the passé composé is one of the predominant tense in everyday’s language!

How to use it?

The passé composé is, as its name suggests, a compound tense. Which means that it can be compounded with either the auxiliary  ‘être’ or ‘avoir’, followed by the past participle of the verb. The passé composé of a limited group of verbs is formed with the auxiliary ‘être’, and usually express a change of position.

The passé composé with the verb “être”

The conjugation of the auxiliary ‘être’ looks like this:

Je suis

Tu es

Il/Elle est

Nous sommes

Vous êtes

Ils/Elles sont         

Once you have put your auxiliary with your past participle, there is a rule you need to know: the past participle always agrees with the subject in gender and number.

That seems a bit complicated but basically it means that if the subject of your sentence is feminine you add an ‘e’ at the end of the past participle. If your subject is plural (more than one subject), you add an ‘s’.

Example: You are a group of girls and explain to your friend that you went to the beach yesterday. You will say “Nous sommes allées a la mer hier”. If you were a group of men, you would say “Nous sommes allés a la mer hier”.

If you want to learn more about French tenses, or just to know more about French in general and what we do at French Lessons Australia, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@french-lessons-australia.com

THE PASSÉ COMPOSÉ WITH THE VERB “AVOIR”
French Grammar

The passé composé with the verb “avoir”

 

The ”passé composé” is the present perfect tense. This tense is used a lot in French to describe a situation that happened in the past at a definite time but that still has a meaning for today… Seems very theoretical, but really, it is not as you will see soon with French Lessons Australia!

 

When to use it?

The passé composé is the usual tense for events and incidents that happened in a close past. Unlike the English present perfect, the passé composé is used very often by French people.

Some time indicators can be used in addition to strengthen this relation between past and present! For instance: hier (yesterday), l’autre jour (the other day), samedi passé (last Saturday), plusieurs fois (several times), l’année passée (last year),

As you can see, it is not necessary to be very recent to use the passé composé. As soon as the information is still relevant with today, the passé composé is appropriate.

Obviously, the passé composé is not the only past tense used in French. The imperfect tense and the past simple tense are also used as we will see in another post on French Lessons Brisbane. However, the passé composé is one of the predominant tense in everyday’s language!

 

How to use it?

The passé composé is, as its name suggests, a compound tense. Which means that it can be compounded with either the auxiliary ‘être’ or ‘avoir’, followed by the past participle of the verb.

The passé composé of most of the French verbs is used with the ‘avoir’.

Let’s take the action of eating. To say that you ate some bread this morning, you will say in French ”j’ai mangé du pain ce matin”. In fact, in English, you could have said either ”I ate some bread”, or ”I have eaten”, or even ”I did eat”. In French, you will only use the passé composé and say ”J’ai mangé”.

The only things you need to know to form the passé composé is the conjugation of the verb ‘avoir’ to the present tense.

J’ai

Tu as

Il/Elle a

Nous avons

Vous avez

Ils/Elles ont

 

To that, you will need to add the past participle of the verb you want to conjugate. If the verb is regular, its past participle will mostly be regular. Which means you can guess it without having to know it by heart.

For instance, regular verbs ending by ER will have see their ER displaced by a ‘e’. Therefore, acheter (to buy) will be acheté (bought), manger (to eat) will be mangé (eaten), commencer (to start) will be commencé (started).

Regular verbs ending by IR will have their IR displaced by a ‘i’. Therefore, finir (to finish) will be fini (finished), choisir (to choose) will be choisi (chosen).

And finally, regular verbs ending by RE will have their RE displaced by a ‘u’. Therefore, perdre (to lose) will be perdu (lost), attendre (to wait) will be attendu (waited).

Easy, right?

Well, now, as in English, there are a few irregular verbs which will see their past participle changing differently.

For example, etre (to be) will be été (been), pouvoir (to can) will be pu (could), voir (to see) will be vu (seen), apprendre (to learn) will be appris (learnt), rire (to laugh) will be ri (laughed), etc…

 

If you want to learn more about French tenses, or just to know more about French in general and what we do at French Lessons Australia, don’t hesitate to contact us at  info@french-lessons-australia.com

Discover charming Sarlat like a local
French Online Courses

Time to discover Sarlat in France

Traveling is the most enriching experience that unravels a world of wonders and beauty!

Every corner of the world is full of magnificent natural beauty, rich culture and local tales and flavors that make them unique and significant.

France is a country that has so much to offer to every traveller! History, nature, food, wine, crafts and arts and innumerable exotic discoveries are waiting to be explored!

Sarlat, or Sarlat-la-Caneda

It’s  a small but significant commune in south western France. It’s a medieval town that has been left unchanged and offers the ‘old world charm’ that many travellers desire. Walking through this commune is a mystical walk down 14th century France in all its preserved and flourishing ways.

The old town displays restored stone buildings and the quaint streets offer a peek into what was!

This preserved medieval town has become a ‘must visit’ place for the wonderful opportunities and sights it has in store. Let’s take a look at some of the ‘must do’ and ‘must see’ in Sarlat.

  • There are several small villages within Sarlat; each unique and beautiful. The market at Cenac Village, the view across the Dordogne from Domme Village, the castle and riverside peace at La RoqueGageac, the church and market at Perigeaux, the ancient castle and serenity of Bourdeilles, the village built by monks- Brantome, and the quaint St. Jeam de Cole. A visit to each and every village will leave you spellbound!
  • Place des Oies, a former Goose market, is now home to the best Foie Gras, a French speciality. Bronze geese at the square add to the charm!
  • Cathedral Saint Sacerdos is a marvel! It was built in the 12th century and has been reworked upon since then. The varying architectural styles give it a spectacular look.
  • Jardin public du Plantier, formerly the flower garden of the Bishop, today it is a public garden that offers peace and relaxation amongst beautiful nature.

These are just a handful of the numerous jewels you can discover in Sarlat!

A major problem most travellers face is a language barrier. French Lessons Australia helps you get over that hurdle with specially designed online French lessons that can make you an expert at French in no time! Learn French and discover the local essence of Sarlat.

Our online French lessons will help you make your visit to Sarlat more meaningful and memorable! Don’t hesitate and contact us at info@french-lessons-australia.com

French Grammar, French Vocabulary

4 easy fundamental prepositions to indicate great locations

Prepositions are used in both French and English, but according to the context of the sentence, they don’t always have the same meaning or translation.

French Lessons Australia is here to help you out with a specific kind of propositions: the ones that indicate location or direction to or from a place.

 

A preposition shows the relationship of a noun or a pronoun to another word in a sentence.

Today, we will see the most useful ones in French!

 

à

 

Note that this preposition is always used before the name of a city or a person. When it is a country, the rule change as you will see later in this post.

You perhaps also have noticed that the à becomes ”au” in some cases. When the following noun is masculine (and is not the name of a place like Paris), à becomes au. Eg. I do the shopping at the supermarket =>Je fais les courses ausupermarche.  To indicate a time or a direction, à is also used. Examples:

  • Our meeting is at 3pm -> Notre reunion est à 3h de l’apres-midi.
  • It is the first on the right ->C’est la premiere à 

 

de

 

Here, de becomes d’ when a word starting with a vowel follows the preposition. Eg. My boyfriend comes from Australia -> Mon petit amivientd’Australie.

The form ”du” is also possible. It is in fact the contraction of ”de le” (from the) that cannot be said in French. When the place of origin is not a geographical name (eg le bureau, le jardin, le magasin) but is masculine, you will use du. If this is not geographical name but it is feminine, you will say de la. Eg. I come from the bakery -> Je pars de laboulangerie.

De can also be translated by about when it is used with verb ”parler” (to talk). Eg. What are you talking about? ->De quoi parles-tu?

 

 

dans/en

 

When you talk about a country, you can either use the preposition en or au, depending if the country is feminine or masculine. Eg. (1) I am in France -> Je suisen France (feminine name). (2) She is in Canada -> Elle estau Canada. (masculine name)

 

chez

 

That’s it for today, I hope this post was helpful and we hope to hear from you soon at info@frenchlessons-Autralia.com.au

Top 5 Exclusive French Language Learning Strategies That Really Works
French Grammar, Learning New Language, Uncategorized

Top 5 Exclusive French Language Learning Strategies That Really Works

Learning a new language necessitates a massive endeavor and good understanding of that culture.

But there are countless ways how you can speed up your learning progress.

Most of the times lots of students may possibly not conscious that they are using the language learning strategies that are not working for them.  There are few exclusive French Language Learning strategies and styles that actually work for so many people and certainly works for you too, during learning French or any new language.

These language learning styles will prevent you from taking the redundant alternative route of a learning process. The below mentioned top 5 most effective learning strategies of learning a language can give you a motivation towards better learning experiences over the time. French language learning strategies basically comprise behaviors, specific actions, steps, or techniques that students often intentionally use to improve their progress in developing the French language.

French is the second most widely learned foreign language after English, and the ninth most widely spoken language in the world.

French is also the only language, alongside English, that is taught in every country in the world. France operates the biggest international network of cultural institutes, which run French-language courses for more than 750,000 learners.

  1. Engagement of learner’s motivation, behaviors, and thoughts

Its student’s motivation, behaviors, and thoughts that engage during learning which is intended to influence the learner’s training process. It includes all learning regardless of language or anything about something new. To start learning in an effective and an efficient manner learner should have focus & dedicated thought process towards learning the French language.

  1. Communication with Yourself and in your Social Group

It’s a very simple idea behind talking with yourself. You always have direct access to your inner voice. Take the advantage of it and get benefited to improve your French Language. The only major change here you need to do is instead of using your mother tongue, just stick to use the French language and communicate with yourself. From now, you don’t require any French native speaker to enhance your French learning skills.

Choose at least one friend to study with. Not only is it more fun to learn with other living, breathing human beings, but a little friendly competition can significantly boost compliance. Still it will be well and good if you have an outstanding friends circle in college or in office to whom you can communicate & share your thought process. Regularly practicing 10 to 20 min per day will be sufficed for the beginners.

  1. Writing and Reading in French is a key

Successful French language learners make a common habit of writing and reading French on a daily basis, as part of their effective learning strategies. Take the advantage of all practice opportunities such as reading French Newspaper, watching French TV Channel, Writing documents in French, reading French magazine and much more. Reading gives you broader prospect of how one can express their thoughts in any new language. While written in a new language, you will get deeper experience of learning the French language.

 

  1. Practice of Listening makes you perfect

Listening to French Music or any other Audio, like you normally do during your normal daily activities such as while driving, jogging, cooking, traveling or may be during your fun time with friends.  While listening the audio, simultaneously try to practice of repeating the same. After a short span of time, you will enjoy this regular habit of learning French Language. Your willpower and your regular practice make you perfect in speaking fluent French.

  1. Habit of Regular Scheduling 1st in the Morning

Move ahead with a positive attitude & do short but the regular sessions every morning. It sounds one of a great learning strategy, where you will achieve the goal comparatively in much lesser time. It reminds your brain that language learning is a top priority in your life.

Prioritise the things which are most important in your life before anything is else, is one of the best strategy to succeed, not only to learn any language, buy also get the real success in your life both at personal and professional level.

 

 Summary

So, if you really want to learn French or another new language, these 5 learning strategies provide you perhaps with the best learning tools. Learning any new language takes some time, however, your dedication speedup the process much faster.   To reach the highest level of proficiency you need to make a habit of learning. France is the world’s number-one tourist destination and attracts more than 70 million visitors a year.

A little bit of knowledge of French language makes it so much more enjoyable to visit Paris and all the regions of France. French also comes in handy when traveling to Africa, Switzerland, Canada, Monaco, the Seychelles and other places.

French Lessons Australia always believes that you need to bring the French language and culture alive for people to really engage enough to start learning. If you deem in speaking the French language right from the start of your language learning journey, then visit your favourite expert right away and use the quick links – http://www.frenchlessonsbrisbane.com.au/

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