IMPORTANT:
The short story French-English parallel text below is usable but incomplete. Try some of my others which I've actually finished:
Un Scandale en Bohème [A Scandal in Bohemia] ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Le Matelot D'Amsterdam [The Sailor from Amsterdam] GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE
Un Incident Au Pont D'Owl Creek [An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge] AMBROSE BIERCE
L'invité de Dracula [Dracula's Guest] BRAM STOKER
Boule de Suif [Dumpling] GUY DE MAUPASSANT
For the rest, please go to the menu page of my parallel texts.
For beginners I would recommend some of my Lyrics Translation French Lessons.
For some useful info + links please go to my Home Page
Thankyou, you may now continue...
The short story French-English parallel text below is usable but incomplete. Try some of my others which I've actually finished:
Un Scandale en Bohème [A Scandal in Bohemia] ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Le Matelot D'Amsterdam [The Sailor from Amsterdam] GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE
Un Incident Au Pont D'Owl Creek [An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge] AMBROSE BIERCE
L'invité de Dracula [Dracula's Guest] BRAM STOKER
Boule de Suif [Dumpling] GUY DE MAUPASSANT
For the rest, please go to the menu page of my parallel texts.
For beginners I would recommend some of my Lyrics Translation French Lessons.
For some useful info + links please go to my Home Page
Thankyou, you may now continue...
French Beginner Bilingual Story-Lesson
Quatrième Étage [Fourth Floor]
PART ONE
Note; Although the story is intermediate level, the annotations in Section B below make it accessible to complete beginners.
SECTION A ~ BILINGUAL SHORT STORY French/English
Horizontally Aligned (side by side) Parallel Text
ORIGINAL FRENCH TEXT
By Jean Hougron |
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
By Simpetweb (that's me!) |
PARA 1
Je partirai demain. Je suis en France depuis huit ans. Je suis né dans ce pays et, pourtant, j’y ai vécu en exil. Ces huit années-la ont été longues, très longue, car je n’ai jamais cessé d’attendre le jour ou je bouclerais ma valise pour revenir a Bactriang. |
I will leave tomorrow. I have been in france for 8 years. I was born in this country and yet I have lived here in exile. These past eight years have been long, very long, because I have never ceased to await the day that I would boucle my suitcase and return to Bactriang. |
PARA 2
Ce matin, je me suis regardé dans la glace du lavabo. J’ai vieilli. Le poil, la peau, le regard. Surtout le regard, et je me demande si, là-bas, Ils me reconnaîtront. Je me demande aussi si cela vaut vraiment la peine de reprendre la route. Il y a tellement de chose qui ont changé en huit ans, a commencer par moi. Malgré tout, il faut que je règle cette vieille histoire, ne serait-ce que pour apprendre a De Soto qu’il n’a pas gagné la partie. |
This morning, I looked at myself in the mirror of the bathroom sink. I have aged. The hair, the skin, the gaze. Above all the gaze and I asked myself if, over there, they will recognize me. I asked myself as well if it was worth the effort to go back on the road. There are so many things which have changed in eight years, starting with me. Inspite of everything, I’ll have to sort out this old situation, if only to teach De Soto who’s the boss. |
PARA 3
Je crois que, si je n’avais pas rencontré Perdrier sur le port, je ne serais jamais retourné a Bactriang. Nous nous sommes un peu bousculés a la porte du Chien-bleu. Il entrait et moi je sortais, et nous étions aussi pressé l’un que l’autre. Il m’a dit: |
I believe that, if I had not encountered Perdrier in the port, I would have never returned to Bactriang. We bumped into each other by the door of the Chien-blue. He was entering and I was leaving, and we were as much in a hurry as one another. He said to me: |
PARA 4
“oh! Kergain, je te croyais mort et enterré depuis un bout de temps.” |
“oh! Kergain, I you thought you dead and buried for a while now” |
PARA 5
C’était le premier employé de la concession que je rencontrais depuis mon arrivé en France. Nous sommes entré au Chien-bleu pour prendre un verre et nous avons parlé d’autrefois. Perdrier avait quitté Bactraing deux ans auparavant. A cause de la dégringolade du cours de l’étain après la guerre. A cause de ses poumons aussi, qui étaient en mauvais état tout les deux. Je lui ai dit: |
He was the first employee of the concession that I had encountered since my arrival in France. We entered the Chien-blue to have a drink and we talked of times gone past. Perdrier had left Bactraing two years ago; as a result of the fall in price of tin after the war; as a result of his lungs as well which were in a bad state, the both of them. I said to him: |
PARA 6
“De Soto m’a ecrit il y a cinq ou six mois. Il m’explique que ca ne marche pas fort. A son avis, il vaut mieux que je reste encore en France. Là-bas je me ferais tout de suite épingler.” |
“De Soto wrote to me five or six months ago. He expained to me that it’s not going well. In his opinion, it’s better if I rest in France. Over there I’d get myself nabbed straight away.” |
PARA 7
Pedrier a paru surpris. Il a répété, “épingler et pourquoi?” “Mon histoire avec Cumming” Pedrier a fait un grand geste: |
Pedrier appeared surprised. He repeated, “nabbed, and why?” “My history with cumming” Pedrier made a big gesture: |
SECTION B ~ BILINGUAL SHORT STORY
French/English
Sentence Under Sentence (vertically) Aligned Parallel Text
Stages of Translation Shown and Detailed Grammar Annotations Given
HINT: READ FOOTNOTE NUMBER ONE BELOW BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE
PARA 1
P.1
Je partirai demain. Je suis en france depuis huit ans.
Je[I] partirai[will.leave] demain[tomorrow]. Je[I] Suis[am] en[in] france[France] depuis[since] huit[eight] ans[years].
I will.leave tomorrow. I am in france since 8 years.
I will leave tomorrow. I have been in france for 8 years.
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(1) Ok folks, this is your first footnote so read carefully. The four sets of text above are the way in which you are going to learn French. It’s the same text but in different stages of translation. How does that help? A lot actually. This deconstruction of the translation process is a quick method of not only absorbing French words but also absorbing the French way of putting these words together. When talking French to start with your brain will be doing this kind of acrobatics but with this short cut to that process you’ll speed up learning a lot.
Now let’s look at the first line of text above which is in bold. This is the original French text and contains the first sentence of a short story written by Jean Hougron. Almost each page that will follow will contain one or more lines from this short story (in sequence of course) followed underneath by the same system of translation. Just by reading that alone you can learn a lot about French. However, underneath the story/translation section will be the footnote section (the section you’re in now) This is where you get to fill out the knowledge gained through the story/translation section; a kind of hints and tips guide if you like. It is here where you will learn the grammar rules. (2) The second line of text in the story~translation section is the most important. It’s the same as the first line of text, only that this time each French word is followed, in square brackets, by its best fitting English counterpart according to the context. Sometimes a French word can only be translated by two or more English words like in partirai [will.leave]. If this is the case the two or more English words will be connected with a full stop as in this example. Sometimes two or more French words together have only one English equivalent. In these circumstances the two or more French words will be underlined. Note; words have different meanings in different contexts and so you will find that a French word is replaced by one English word in one sentence and a different English word in another. Get used to it as it happens often. (3) The third line in the story~translation section is simply the second with the French words taken away. What is left is basically English written with French language rules. Reading this will help you understand French word order among other things. (4) The fourth line is the full English translation. Not going for artistic merit here but simply keeping the translation as faithful to the original text without it sounding weird. |
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(5) Ai vecu ~ [have lived(lived)]. JE form of vivre [to live] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ. For those to whom the last sentence is a mystery read the next bit carefully; all verbs referred to will be done so using this format.
Explication of format: In French (as well as in English) verbs change form according to what tense or mood it is in and according to who or what is fulfilling the verb (you could say acting out the verb but not all verbs are actions.) . (A)TENSE/MOOD: Without going into too much detail it is enough for the moment to know that tenses and moods change subtly the sense of a verb used (ie I drove is different to I drive). In the example above the verb itself changes form to note a change in tense/mood but sometimes the verb doesn’t change itself, rather its meaning is changed by the addition of another word (ie. would drive is different to will drive). Sometimes an auxiliary verb (to have in English) is added to complete a tense (ie. have driven or had driven.) Note; Rather than using additional words like would or will, French verbs simply change their form. However, French verbs do use auxillary verbs. In French there are 14 tenses/moods in total, 7 of which are simple tenses/moods so called because they do not combine with anything else to form the tense/mood, and the other 7 are called composed tenses/moods. Why? Because they combine with an auxiliary verb (avoir/etre see later) to form their tenses/moods. (B)WHO/WHAT Lets keep this simple. Look at the table below: Je Suis [I am] Nous Sommes [We are] Tu es [You are] Vous etes [you are] Il/elle/on est [He/she/it/one is] Ils/elles sont [They are] This is etre [to be] in the PRESENT tense. Note that all these forms of etre (the words in bold) are in the same tense. Technically etre changes form here according to person and number but don’t worry about this. All I want you to remember is that I am not only going to refer to verbs according to their TENSE/MOOD but also according to this table. For example, suis is etre in the JE form (I form), sommes is etre in the NOUS form (WE form), and so on and so forth. There are a total of six who/what forms Demonstration: So, we have 14 tenses/moods and within each tense we have 6 what/who forms. This gives us a total of 84 combinations. Look to the next page to see what that gives. |
Conjugation Table for the Verb Vivre [to live]
Simple Tenses/Moods
PRESENT
IMPARFAIT
PASSÉ SIMPLE
FUTUR
CONDITONNEL
PRESENT DU SUBJONCTIF
IMPARFAIT DU SUBJONCTIF
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Composed Tenses/Moods
PASSÉ COMPOSÉ
PLUS-QUE-PARFAIT
PASSÉ ANTERIEUR
FUTUR ANTERIEUR
CONDITIONNEL PASSÉ
PASSÉ DU SUBJONCTIF
PLUS-QUE-PARFAIT DU SUBJONCTIVE
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(6) As you can see above a fully conjugated verb table looks pretty complicated but don’t worry, a lot of the forms found within are rarely used. If I refer to a form of verb by saying it’s the VOUS form in the PASSÉ SIMPLE all you have to do is look in a verb book, look for the passé simple box (if in a box) an then locate the vous word in that box and voila. (in bold here)
(7a) You will notice the form vivre in the title of the table. This form is called the infinitive. Although you will not find this form in the 84 combinations found in a verb table, the infinitive form is probably the most important form of a verb and the first form that one should learn. It is used to name a verb and it is by this form that I will refer to verbs in general. Note; it is also under this form that you will find verbs in a dictionary. (7b) There is one other important form of a verb not included in the verb table and that is the present participle: the role of this form will be explained later. Note; the present participle of vivre [to live] is vivant [living] (7c) Look at the composed tenses/moods column. Notice that each verb form in this column is composed of (a), a form of avoir in one of it's simple tenses/moods followed by (b), the past participle of the verb being conjugatedNote; in the table above vécu is the past participle. |
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Cliquez ici pour modifier.
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(8) La ~ [there], but used sometimes in situations where the English use here. In context ‘Those years there.’ If ci had been used at the end instead of la (ie. ces années-ci) then the translation would have been ‘these years here.’
(9) Ai cessé ~ [(I) ceased/have ceased]. JE form of cesser [to cease] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ. As has been said, the passé composé is composed of two parts. The first part is the auxiliary verb. In this example the auxiliary verb is avoir [to have]. Ai is simply the JE form of the avoir in the PRESENT. The second part (as with all the 7 composed tenses) is the past participle (cessé in this example) of the verb in question. Note that some verbs use etre in place of avoir to form there composed tenses/moods. (10) Attendre ~ [to wait] ~ this is in the infinitive form. (11) Bouclerais ~ [Would.buckle]. JE and TU form of boucler [to buckle/to complete a circle] in the CONDITIONNEL. Conditional tense demonstration: Je bouclerais [I would buckle] Tu bouclerais [you would buckle] Il/elle/on bouclerait [he/she/it/one would buckle] Nous bouclerions [we would.buckle] Vous boucleriez [you would.buckle] (Plural/formal) Ils/elles boucleraient [they would.buckle] (12) Revenir ~ [to return]. Like attendre above this is also in the infinitive. |
PARA 2
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(13) Je me suis regardé ~ [I looked at myself]. JE form of se regarder [to look at onself] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ. This is what is called a reflexive verb. Such verbs are formed using an extra element, that element being the self element (Technically the reflexive personal pronoun) ie. Myself, yourself, himself, themselves…etc. You can see this in the English phrases, I wash myself, you ask yourself, he hurt himself, we get ourselves up…etc. In essence the verb is reflecting back at the person/objects fulfilling the verb hence the label ‘reflexive verb.’ The French language makes much greater use of reflexive verbs and so it is important to understand the rules involved.
The first rule is that the self element always comes before the verb, as opposed to English where it comes after the verb. This can be seen below in the demonstration of se regarder in the PRESENT. (Note; the self element is in bold) Je me regarde [I look at myself] Tu te regardes [you look at yourself] Il/elle/on se regarde [he/she/it/one looks at himself/herself/itself/oneself] Nous nous regardons [we look at ourselves] Vous vous regardez [you look at yourself] (plural/formal) Ils/elles se regardent [they looked at themselves] The second rule is that French reflexive verbs always take etre [to be] as the auxiliary verb to form their 7 composed tenses/moods as can be seen in this demonstration of the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ of se regarder. Note; auxiliary verbs are in bold. Je me suis regardé [I looked/have looked at myself] Tu t’es regardé [you looked/have looked at yourself] Il/elle/on s’est regardé [he/she/it/one looked/have looked at himself/herself/itself/oneself] Nous nous somrmes regardé [we looked/have looked at ourselves] Vous vouse etes regardé [you looked/have looked at yourself] (plural/formal) ils/elles sont regardé [they looked/have looked at themselves] |
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(14) me demande ~ [(I) myself ask] ([I] ask myself.) JE form of se demander [to ask oneself] in the PRESENT. Again, this is another example of a reflexive verb. (I did say they were common!) You can see that the self element or reflexive personal pronoun (me) comes before the verb element (demande) as described on the previous page.
Previously I enunciated two rules for reflexive verbs. But there are more and so we shall continue with the third rule The third rule with reflexive verbs is that when they appear in the infinitive they are always proceeded by se, ie. se demander [to ask onself], se regarder [to look at oneself], se laver [to wash oneself], se reveiller [to wake oneself up]… etc. However, do not search for them in a dictionary under s for se. They will appear under the first letter of the verb element. The dictionary will explain what the verb means generally (ie demander means to ask) then go on to explain what the sense is when used reflexively. The fourth rule is… well… not a rule really. Just wanted to say that most reflexive verbs can be used non reflexively and this goes for the two examples we have looked at i.e. Reflexive use; Tu te regardes [you look at yourself] Normal use; Tu me regardes [you look at me] Reflexive use; Il se demande [he asks himself] Normal use; Il te demande [he asks you] Note: Technically speaking se demander is a special kind of reflexive verb. Why? Because it belongs to a group of reflexive verbs that are called idiomatic reflexive verbs. Why? Because when a verb like demander is used reflexively it’s meaning changes subtly. Although I have translated se demander as to ask onself, if I was being totally honest its formal translation would be to wonder. Can you see the subtle change from to ask to to wonder? We will see other examples of this later. |
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(15) Si ~ [if], but can also be the negation of a question put in the negative ie
Tu veux un cadre. [You want a frame] (for a photo etc) oui. [Yes]. Or non. [No] Tu ne veux pas un cadre. [You don’t want a frame]. Non or Oui, [yes] or[ noI don’t want a frame]. Si. [But.yes I do want a frame].This system of response to negative questions does not exist in the English language which is a shame as confusion can arise. (16) La ~ [the]. If you were wondering why the French word for the on the previous page was le then read on. The reason is that it changes according to the noun it is referring to. If the noun is masculine (yes, French nouns are either masculine or feminine; aarrgghh!) then the French word for the is le. If feminine then this word changes to la. An extra complication is the fact that if the noun starts with a vowel or a h aspirate then both le and la become l’. But that’s not all! If the noun is plural then le, la and l’ become les whether the following noun is masculine or feminine or whether it starts with a vowel or consonant. Lets see this in acton; Le verre (verre is a masculine noun) [the glass] La table (table is a feminine noun) [the table] L’attelage (attelage is a masculine noun) [the harness] L’aube (aube is a feminine noun) [the dawn] Les verres (verres is the plural of verre) [the glasses] Les tables (tables is the plural of table) [the tables] Les attelages (attelages is the plural of attelage) [the harnesses] Les aubes (aubes is the plural of aube) [the dawns] By the way le, la l’ and les and their English counterpart the are called Definite Articles. |
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(17) Il faut que ~ [it needs that/ the situation calls for that] faut is the IL/ELLE/ON form of falloir [to be necessary] in the PRESENT. Always used impersonally ie. One can only ever say il faut [it needs]; never je faus [I need] nor elle faut [she needs]. Of all the phrases describing a necessity (ie. j’ai besoin, c’est necessaire…etc) this is the most popular and must be learnt quickly because used profusely. One hardly hears the other alternatives. When il faut is accompanied by que the following verb is always in the subjunctive i.e. il faut que tu le fasses [it needs that you it do] (you need to do it), but we shall discuss the subjunctive another time.
(18) Vieille ~ [old]. This is what is called an adjective. An adjective is a descriptive word that modifies the noun it is referring to. In the example above the noun is histoire [story/history]. The adjective vieille makes it an old story/history but use of a different adjective like nouvelle [new] would turn the story/history into a new story/history. Generally French adjectives come after the noun they are referring to, however some adjectives go in front of the noun. Which ones? The ones that change the inherent quality of a noun (yep, that’s not much help, I know.) Vieille and nouvelle belong to this second category. Adjectives, like definite articles (see f.20) change according to the noun they are referring to. Most change in a regular way but some change in an irregular way. This is the case with vieille. Let’s see this in action; Vieux verre/verres (verre/verres is a masculine singlular/plural noun) [old glass/es] Vieille guerre (guerre is a feminine single noun) [old war] Vieilles guerres (guerres is a femine plural noun) [old wars] If a masculine noun starts with a vowel or h muet then you have to use Vieil (or vieils if plural) Vieil homme/indice [old man/clue] Vieils hommes/indices [old men/clues] |
PARA 3
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(19) It’s about time we dealt with negatives in French.
Simple tenses/moods in single verb constructions To create a negative sentences in these circumstances you simply take a positive sentence (ie. je chante [I sing]) and you add two words, first of these being ne (or n’ in front of verbs beginning with a vowel). This ne is added before the verb (ie. je ne chante.) However this is not enough. You will also have to add a second word. 99% of the time this other word is pas but occasionally you will see point used in its place. Point is simply a very old fashioned version of pas. This second word (pas or point) comes after the verb (ie. Je ne chante pas [I do not sing]). Occasionally, in informal speech, you will find that the ne is left out ie. Je sais pas [I do not know] as opposed to je ne sais pas. Composed Tenses/Moods When the verb to be negated is in one of the seven composed tenses/moods than the ne comes before the auxiliary verb and the pas goes straight after that auxiliary verb as seem in the examples below (Hint; auxiliary verbs are in bold) Tu as donné ~ Tu n’as pas donné [you have given ~ you have not given] J’avais rencontré ~ Je n’avais pas rencontré [I had met ~ I had not met] Il aurait pleuré ~ Il n’aurait pas pleuré [he would have/would not have cried] Vous etes allé ~ vous n’etes pas allé [you went ~ you did not go] Duel verb constructions These constructions are formed with what is called a semi~auxiliary verb followed by a verb in the infinitive. These constructions have not yet been discussed but when they will be, an explanation of how to form the negative with these will be attached. Note; When I first started reading French I used to interpret the ne part as no and the pas part as not. This kind of sounds funny at first but it gets you used to using both parts in the negative and so I have continued the tradition in the word for word translation sections in this course. |
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(20) Nous nous sommes bousculer ~ [we ourselves are bumped.one.against.the.other] NOUS form of bousculer [to jostle/shove/bump into] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ. The extra nous (being a reflexive personal pronoun) makes you think that bousculer is a verb being used reflexively like demander and regarder in the two other examples looked at. Well, in fact, no! This is an example of a verb being used reciprocally. Confused? No need to be for the clue is in the name. What is happening is that two or more things or people (the latter in this case) are mutually doing the same thing to one another in a reciprocal fashion. Let’s say for example that the we stands for me and you: I would be bumping into you and you would be bumping into me. This is different from a reflexive us for if the sentence above was nous nous sommes demander [we asked ourselves] and again the we was me and you, than I would be asking myself (wondering) and you would be asking yourself (wondering) but we wouldn’t be asking each other. Note; when used reciprocally a verb acts grammatically in exactly the same way as a verb used reflexively except that unlike the latter it is only permitted for plural subjects.
(21) Du ~ [of the] (can also mean some) obligatory contraction of de le. Ok, we have already discussed the French word for the which comes in four forms; le, la, l’ and les. When we want to say of the in French it is not surprising that this phrase comes in more than one form, however it is more complicated than expected. You would think that all you have to do is stick the French word for of (de by the way) in front of each of the four French alternatives for the to get of the. Well this only works for two of them; la and l’. And as expexted what you get is de la and de l’ (both meaning of the,of course) For the other two words for the it get’s a bit more complicated as you are obliged to contract them. De le is not permitted; it is forced to become du. Likewise de les is not permitted, it gets contracted automatically into des. Want to see this in action? Le livre [the book] + de = du livre [of the book] La fleur [the flower] + de = de la fleur [of the flower] L’homme [the man] + de = de l’homme [of the man] Les livres/fleurs [the books/flowers] + de = des livres/fleurs [of the books/flowers] |
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(22) Entrait ~ [was entering]. IL/ELLE/ON form of entrer [to enter] in the IMPARFAIT. (See Imparfait Sheet) Imparfait tense demonstration:
J’entrais [I was entering/used to enter] Tu entrais [You was entering/used to enter] Il/elle/on entrait [He/she/it/one was entering or used to Nous Entrions [We were entering/used to enter Vous entriez [You (pl) was entering/used to enter] Ils/elles entraient [They were entering/used to enter] (23) Sortais ~ [was.leaving].JE form of sortir [to exit] in the IMPARFAIT. Note that the je form ends in s and the il/elle/on form ends in t. This remains true for all verbs in the imparfait, a tense which is very regular (ie. each verb converts into the imparfait in a regular [similar] way thus allowing one rule for conversion to be applied to almost all the verbs to obtain the imparfait) And this rule is: Take the nous form in present tense of each verb. (ie. voulons of vouloir,) take off the ons ending (ie. leaving voul in our example) and then add the endings in bold below. Je ais (voulais) nous ions (voulions) tu as above(voulais) Vous iez (vouliez) il/ell/on ait (voulait) Ils/elles aient (voulaient) The one exception is etre. The endings added are the same but the stem used is et. (24) Nous etions pressé ~ [were were pressed (for time)]. Passive NOUS form of presser [to press] in the PLUS-QUE-PARFAIT . Note; Passive means that the subject (here nous) is not fulfilling the verb (active) but is being affected by the said fulfillment by someone/something else (passive) ie in the sentence ‘terry was shocked’ terry shocked no-one even though he is the subject of the sentence. Infact something/someone had shocked him. In French, like in English, verbs used in the passive take etre [to be] rather than avoir [to have] as auxiliary. Demonstration: Terry was shocked Terry has shocked his wife Terry etait choqué Terry a choqué sa femme |
NOTE: IMPARFAIT
The imparfait is a past tense. It differs from the passé composé (another past tense) in that it describes actions in the past that are imperfect i.e. without a sense of there being a before or after the action. A continuous state if you like. As a rule of thumb if you see the imparfait version of any verb other than avoir/être translate it as a was/were [verb]ing or used to [verb] even when it sounds funny to English ears i.e.
Was/were [verb]ing
Used to [verb]
When être/avoir is in the imparfait simply translate as was-were/had.
Was-were/had
Warming; If you see avoir in the imparfait form followed by the past participle of another verb, it is acting as an auxiliary for this said verb. In fact, together they are forming a different tense/mood; the plus-que-parfait.
The same applies for être in the imparfait when it is followed by the past participle of one of the group of verbs (aller, venir etc) that use être as an auxiliary to form it's compound tenses,
or when etre is proceeded by a reflexive personal pronoun as reflexive verbs also take etre to form their compound tenses.
If the above two situations don't apply to the imparfait form of être before a past participle, than it is not acting as an auxiliary verb (the past participle being used simply as an adjective) and thus a was/were translation can be applied.
Here are the situations where the imparfait is used
1.Description of States /conditions use (which existed in the past)
La maison était neuve et elle avait de grandes pièce.
The house was new and had big rooms
Je constatais que la foule se reculaient et dans le milieu il y avait un mec avec un flingue qui menaçait de tuer un flic. C’était crépuscule et les nuages dévoilaient ce qui en restait de la lumière.
I was.noticing (noticed) that the crowd was edging.back and in the centre there was a guy with a gun who was menacing to kill a cop. It was dusk and the clouds were.masking (masked) it which of was resting (what rested of) of the light.
NOTE In modern fiction the use of the imparfait is prolific. The imparfait gives a sense of urgency, as if events are taking place just at that very moment. The narrator is describing what was happening as opposed to what had happened.
2. Background use ~To describe what a situation was when something else happened.
Je regardais la télévision quand il m’a donné une claque
I was wactching the television when he gave me a slap
Quand je suis sorti, il faisait froid et pleuvait.
When I left it was cold and was raining
3. Wishes or suggestions use
Nous voulions qu’il rentre
We was wanting that he re-enter. (we wanted him to come home)
4. "si" clauses use
Si j’étais roi, j’aiderais les pauvres gens
If I was king I would aid the poor people
5. Repeated or customary actions use (without reference to beginning or end)
Quand j’apprenais français je lisait constanament
When I was learning French I used to read constantly
Le dimanche mes amis et moi, on se voyait au café
Sundays my friends and me used.to (would) see each other at the café
Quand nous étions a paris nous mangions souvent dans les restaurants
When we were in paris we used to eat often in the restaurants
6. 'En train de' use (in the middle of doing something)
Ou étais tu? Je fumais un clope
Where were you? I was smoking a fag.
7. Indirect speech
Il m’a écris qu’il venait demain
He wrote to me saying that he was coming tommorow
Note; Pronounciation of voulais, voulait and voulaient is the same when a liason is not made. For those who don’t know what a liason is, it is where the last constant/s of a word which is/are normally not pronounced (as is the case with many French words) is/are pronounced because the word following after begins with a vowel or a h muet.
Was/were [verb]ing
- Que faisiez vous. Nous courions
- What was you doing. We were running
Used to [verb]
- Il habitait là-bas et criait chaque jour
- He used to live there and used to shout every day
When être/avoir is in the imparfait simply translate as was-were/had.
Was-were/had
- J’avais la grippe a l’époque
- I had the flu at the time
- Nous étions jeunes et j’étais nul
- We were young and I was crap
Warming; If you see avoir in the imparfait form followed by the past participle of another verb, it is acting as an auxiliary for this said verb. In fact, together they are forming a different tense/mood; the plus-que-parfait.
- J'avais donné mon avis.
- I had given my opinion.
The same applies for être in the imparfait when it is followed by the past participle of one of the group of verbs (aller, venir etc) that use être as an auxiliary to form it's compound tenses,
- Il etait allé hier.
- He had gone yesterday.
or when etre is proceeded by a reflexive personal pronoun as reflexive verbs also take etre to form their compound tenses.
- Je m’était demandé.
- I had asked myself.
If the above two situations don't apply to the imparfait form of être before a past participle, than it is not acting as an auxiliary verb (the past participle being used simply as an adjective) and thus a was/were translation can be applied.
- Nous étions fatigués
- We were tired
Here are the situations where the imparfait is used
1.Description of States /conditions use (which existed in the past)
La maison était neuve et elle avait de grandes pièce.
The house was new and had big rooms
Je constatais que la foule se reculaient et dans le milieu il y avait un mec avec un flingue qui menaçait de tuer un flic. C’était crépuscule et les nuages dévoilaient ce qui en restait de la lumière.
I was.noticing (noticed) that the crowd was edging.back and in the centre there was a guy with a gun who was menacing to kill a cop. It was dusk and the clouds were.masking (masked) it which of was resting (what rested of) of the light.
NOTE In modern fiction the use of the imparfait is prolific. The imparfait gives a sense of urgency, as if events are taking place just at that very moment. The narrator is describing what was happening as opposed to what had happened.
2. Background use ~To describe what a situation was when something else happened.
Je regardais la télévision quand il m’a donné une claque
I was wactching the television when he gave me a slap
Quand je suis sorti, il faisait froid et pleuvait.
When I left it was cold and was raining
3. Wishes or suggestions use
Nous voulions qu’il rentre
We was wanting that he re-enter. (we wanted him to come home)
4. "si" clauses use
Si j’étais roi, j’aiderais les pauvres gens
If I was king I would aid the poor people
5. Repeated or customary actions use (without reference to beginning or end)
Quand j’apprenais français je lisait constanament
When I was learning French I used to read constantly
Le dimanche mes amis et moi, on se voyait au café
Sundays my friends and me used.to (would) see each other at the café
Quand nous étions a paris nous mangions souvent dans les restaurants
When we were in paris we used to eat often in the restaurants
6. 'En train de' use (in the middle of doing something)
Ou étais tu? Je fumais un clope
Where were you? I was smoking a fag.
7. Indirect speech
Il m’a écris qu’il venait demain
He wrote to me saying that he was coming tommorow
Note; Pronounciation of voulais, voulait and voulaient is the same when a liason is not made. For those who don’t know what a liason is, it is where the last constant/s of a word which is/are normally not pronounced (as is the case with many French words) is/are pronounced because the word following after begins with a vowel or a h muet.
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(25) a dit ~ [said/has said] IL/ELLE/ON form of dire [to say] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ.
(26)Croyais ~ [was.believing/used to believe/believed)] JE et Tu form of croire [to believe] in the IMPARFAIT This is the first example of an imparfait since our big discussion on the subject. As by chance it is one of those rare occaisions where the imparfait can’t be easily translated by the was/were (verb)ing or the used to (verb) rule of thumb translations. Croyais is, in this context, an example of Descriptions of state or conditions use of the imparfait (see imparfait sheet). The character is saying that he was believing or used to believe that the other guy was dead until he saw him alive. Seen like this the translation I was believing you dead doesn’t seem so ridiculous now. But in English one uses a perfect tense in this situation; I believed you to be dead. As it happens, French can do the same thing in the same situation by using the passé composé; je t’ai cru mort. (27) Bout ~ [Piece] ie. bout de pain [piece of bread (but not slice of bread)] However has another sense meaning end as in ‘l’autre bout’ [the other end]. What the word literally means in these two cases is end piece. There is a famous stand up comedy sketch using the word bout which doesn’t work as well if you translate only as piece. In essence, one guy asks the other for a bout de bois [piece of wood] and so the other guy (who has only one piece of wood in his hand) asks quelle bout [which piece (playing with the other sense of the word meaning end ie which end?] He explains that chaque bout de bois a deux bout [every piece of wood has two pieces (but means two ends)] Bout du monde [furthest edge of the world]. Bout de temps [piece of time] this is a set phrase meaning for a moment now. |
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(28) Rencontrais ~ [was encountering/used to encounter] JE and TU form of rencontrer [to encounter] in the IMPARFAIT.
Another situation in which the rule of thumb for interpreting the imparfait does not fit so well. I swear it’s rare that the rule of thumb doesn’t work, just bad luck! For me, the use of the imparfait is a bit strange here. The passé composé would have been my natural choice; j’ai rencontré. Even the plus-que-parfait would have been.. well… better; j’avais rencontré. Rencontrer is one of those awkward verbs which contain two r’s near the end of its infinitve (as underlined above.) This makes it difficult to distinguish it’s imparfait and conditional forms using the quick method (see below) (29) Mon ~ [my]. The French word for my changes according to noun it proceeds; mon is used if the noun is masculine but is also used for feminine nouns that start with a vowel or a h muet. Ma is used for feminine nouns that do not start with a vowel or h muet. Mes is used if the noun is plural whether masculine or feminine. Demonstration: Ma porte [my door](fem sing) Mes portes [my doors](fem plural) Note; the s in mes is not pronounced here. Mon lapin [my rabbit] (masc sing) Mes lapins [my rabbits] (masc plural) Note; the s in mes is not pronounced here. Mon artere [my artery] (fem sing but noun starts with vowel) Mes arteres [my areries] (fem plural) Note; the s in mes is pronounced here. Mon huile [my oil] (fem sing but noun starts with a h muet) Mes huile [my oils] (fem plural) Note: the s of mes is pronounced here. Ma hache [my axe] (fem single but starts with a h aspire) Mes hache [my axes] (fem plural) Note; the s in mes is not pronounced here. Note; where the s in mes is pronounced as a cause of the liaison between mes and the following noun than the s makes a z sound i.e. the word will sound similar to maze. If no liaison is made then the word mes sounds similar to may. |
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(30) Un ~ [a/an]. This word changes form according to the noun it is referring to.
Un ~ when noun is masculine ie.~ Un corps [a body] Une ~ when noun is feminine ie. ~ Une bouche [a mouth] The technical name for this word is indefinite article. Note; un/une is also used where the English would use the word one and thus differs from its English counterpart; J’ai un frère [I have one brother] Il a une bras [he has one arm] The plural form of un/une is des which means some; Nous voyons un clou [we see a nail] Nous voyons des clous [we see some nails] Tu as amené une bouteilles? [you have brought a bottle?] Tu as amené des bouteilles? [you have brought some bottles?] When used in a negative construction un/une/des change to de (or d’ in front of a vowel/h muet; Il y a une attente [is there a wait] I n’y a pas d’attente [there isn’t a wait] Elle a un noix [she has a walnut] Elle n’a pas de noix [she hasn’t got a walnut] On a attrapé des papillon [we have caught some butterflies] On n’a pas attrapé de papillon [we have not caught any butterflies] (31) autrefois ~ [another.time (literal sense)] The actual translation is formely/yeasteryear/ in the past/in days gone by… etc. Formed by the combination of two words: autre [another] and fois [time- but only as in the first time and not in that takes time as temps is the word used in this second sense] |
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(32) avait quitté ~ [had quitted (had left)] IL/ELLE/ON form of verb quitter [to quit/leave] in the PLUS-QUE-PARFAIT. This tense uses the imparfait of avoir/etre as auxiliary, in this case avait is used as auxiliary being the IL/ELLE/ON form of avoir [to have] in the IMPARFAIT.
(33) auparavant.~ [previously/beforehand]. Use the word avant [before] hidden in the word itself as key to recognising its meaning. Other words to express past periods of time are; Autrefois Jadis (rare) Naguère (rare) D’antan (rare) Anciennement (34) a cause de ~ set phrase meaning because of. (35) degringolade ~ [down.tumble/fall] is a noun. Degringoler [to tumble down.) is a verb in the INFINITIVE. Rather lovely verb to use in a sentence i've always thought! (36) cours ~ [price/exchange rate]. This is a limited sense of cours whose central meanings are race, court and lesson/course. Also used in the sense of course of events i.e. au cours de la desastre [over the course of the disaster] Cours is also the JE and TU form of the verb courir [to run] i.e. Je cours [I run] Note; though the word for price in this context is cours, in an everyday context the word is prix i.e. le prix des pneus [the price of tyres] (37) guerre ~ [war]. Not to be confused with guere [hardly.ever] which is pronounced the same as guerre. |
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(38) ses ~ [his/her/its/ones] (plural form) This word changes according to the noun it proceeds, i.e. if the noun is masculine you have to use the masculine version of his/her. Also, one cannot distinguish between his or her or its or ones as the word in all its forms can apply to all these English words. Context usually helps to identify which (in our case his)
Sa his/her/its/ones (in front of feminine nouns) Son his/ her/its/ones (in front of masculine nouns and all nouns beginning with a vowel/h muet) Ses his/her/its/ones (in front of all plural nouns) Note: this is an example of what is called a possessive adjective (see below) Note: Possessive Adjectives A noun is a thing/person (ie car), an adjective is a word that qualifies a noun ( black car, fast car, big car). A possessive adjective qualifies a noun in a specific way: it indicates to whom that noun (thing/person) belongs i.e. his car, her car, their car, your car, our car, its car. There are more versions of possessive adjectives in French then in English because possessive adjectives change according to the gender and number i.e. my car is ma voiture in French because voiture is feminine but my glass is mon verre because verre is masculine. My cars and my glasses are translated as mes voitures et mes verres because voitures and glasses are plural. On top of this complication is the fact that mon (my for masculine singular words) is used for all singular words beginning with a vowel or h muet whether masculine or feminine ie mon aide (aide is feminine) Here are all the forms of possessive adjectives in french. Fem masc plural My Ma mon mes Your (sing/pers) Ta ton tes His/her/its/ones Sa son ses Our notre notre nos Your (plur/form) votre votre vos Their leur leur leurs |
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(39) lui ~ [to.him/to her/to it]. This is what is called a pronoun, which is simply a substitute for a noun.. Infact, it is a personal pronoun. (see below)
Note: Personal Pronouns (nom/acc/dat) A personal pronoun is a Pronoun (a substitute for a noun) which designates the person/s speaking [1st person] (I, me, we, us), the person/s spoken to [2nd person] (you), or the person/s or thing/s spoken about [3rd person] (he, she, it, they, him, her, them). When a personal pronoun is a fulfiller of a verb (person/s or thing/s doing the hitting/reading /thinking etc it takes the nominative form i.e. I [je], you [tu/vous], he [il], she [elle], it [il/elle], one [on], and we [nous]. Now, these examples change form when their role in a sentence changes. Lets take one of these (he) as an example Imagine there are five men. Man A explains to man B that man C hit Man D because Man E told him to. Man A says ‘He (pointing to man C) hit him (pointing to man D) for him (pointing to man E). If he is doing something (fulfilling the verb) he is the subject (he hit) and thus in the nomitive form. If he is the recipient of the verb he is the direct object (he hit him.) and thus in the accusative (ie he changes to him. If he is a third element (neither instigator nor recipient of the verb) he is the indirect object (he hit him for him) and thus in the dative. Warning: in the sentence [he gave him it], the word him is the third element even if it is not the third position. He may have received the gift but is not the recipient of the verb ie he is not the object being given but is simply the object of the sentence indirectly affected by the verb. Also, in the sentence ‘he wrote to him,’ again, him is not the direct object but the indirect object ie the third element even though there are only two elements in the sentence. The direct object is implied (letter/postcard etc.) this element being the recipient of the verb (the thing written). If in doubt, the indirect object usually takes a preposition (to him, for her, at you, with it, etc) Below are all the French personal pronouns. Note; although we have only dealt with the nominative, accusative and dative forms, the reflexive and stressed forms are included for completeness of table, these forms being dealt with later on. Nominative Accusative Dative Reflexive Stressed Je (I) me (me) me (me) me (myself) Moi Tu (you ) te (you) te (you) te (yourself) Toi Il (he/it) le (him/it) lui (him/it) se (himself/itself) lui Elle (she/it) la (her/it) lui (her/it) se (herself/itself) elle On (one) n/a n/a se (oneself) Soi Nous (we) Nous (us) Nous (us) nous (ourself) nous Vous (you) vous (you) Vous (you) vous (yourself) vous Ils/elles (they) les (them) leur (them) se (themselves) eux/elles |
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(40) a ecrit ~ [(he/she/it/one) wrote (has written)]. IL/ELLE/ON form of ecrire [to write] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ. I will get to explaining deeper the realm of the passé compose soon, I promise.
(41) il y a ~[ it there has (ago/there is/there are)] Ok, this one takes a while to get used to. You can either treat it as having two separate meanings. The first is ago. You just have to accept it comes before the time period instead of after i.e. il y a tois semaines [ago three years]. The other meaning is there are/ there is. However, if you translate il y a directly than it kind of covers the two without to much mental flipping even though it sounds weird. Ex. Il y a cinq ans j’etais alcoholic [it there has five years I used to be alcoholic] il y a une mini-pelle dehors [it there has a mini-digger outside] (42) Explique ~ [explains]. JE form of expliquer [to explain] in the PRESENT. Note: the use of the present tense here rather than a past tense is extreme, even for the French who use the present to describe past situations quite often. (43) Marche ~ [works (as in functions/goes only)] JE and IL/ELLE/ONE of marcher [to work(function)/to walk] in the PRESENT. Used often in the phrase ca marche? [does it work?/is that ok with you], but don’t forget it’s original sense as in elle a marché toute la journé [she walked all the day] (44) Vaut ~ [is.worth] IL/ELLE/ON form of valloir [to be worth] in the PRESENT. (45) Reste ~ [stay] JE and IL/ELLE/ON form of rester [to stay/rest/remain] in the PRESENT |
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(46) Me ferais ~ [myself would make (would make(get) myself.)] JE form of se faire [to make done to oneself(to get oneself)] in the CONDITIONNEL (the would tense/mood). Me is the 1st person reflexive personal pronoun. It’s use here means that faire is being used reflexively (see notes above.) In fact se faire is one of those idiomatic reflexive verbs that we have already discussed. The resulting meaning when used this way is more like ‘to get something done to onself’. Examples:
Il s’est fait tuer [he himself is made killed]~ [he got himself killed] Tu t’est fait rasé [you yourself are made shaved] ~[you got yourself shaved] Je me suis fait mal [I myself am made bad] ~[I hurt myself(or got hurt)] Nous nous sommes fait payer [we ousrselves are made paid] ~[we got paid] (47) Epingler ~ [pinned (nabbed)]. In fact, epingler here is in the infinitive form ie to pin (to nab) but can only be translated as the past participle nabbed in the sentence above. This is because French uses the infinitive in ways which English doesn’t. So when do the French use the infinitive? In three ciricumstances: (I) As a noun voir ces croire (seeing is believing) or (to see is to believe) (II) After a preposition A prendre ou a laisser (take or leave) (to take or to leave) Title of a very naff programme on TF1, the main french tv station, based on Noel Edmund's thing with the boxes (can't remember the title!) (III) After a semi-auxiliary verb in dual verb construction.(here are some examples) The infinive is in bold MODEL VERB EXAMPLE TRANSLATION Vouloir/souhaitre Je voulais/souhatais donner.. Iwanted/wished to give… Aimer/Preferer Nous aimons/preferons dancer vite We like/prefere to dance fast Pouvoir/Devoir Il peut/dois voler He can/must fly Aller Vous allez tuer? (are you) going to kill Esperer Tu esperes passer ? You hope to pass? Faillir J’ai failli casser le vase I nearly broke the vase Faire Tu me fait chier (You annoy me) - rude Laisser Laise moi sortir. Let me leave Partir/Sortir T’es parti/sorti chercher le pain You left to search the bread Savoir Il sait grimper He knows.how to climb Adorer J’adore chasser les cerfs I love hunting stags Falloir Il faut interdire la chasse Hunting should be banned |
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(48) a paru ~ [appeared/seemed (has appeared/has seemed)]. Il/ELLE/ON form of paraitre [to appear to be/to seem to be] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ. How do we know this. Well it’s not by looking at the past participle of paraitre (being paru of course). This only tells us that it is one of the seven composed tenses/moods. In fact paru remains the same throughout all seven of these composed tenses in all the what/who forms there-within. The clue to identification is in the auxiliary verb. Here the auxiliary is avoir and is in the IL/ELLE/ON form of the PRESENT. From this we can deduce that the composed tense/mood of the verb to which avoir is the auxiliary will also be in the IL/ELLE/ON form. But which tense/mood in particular? Well, each of the seven composed tenses use a particular simple tense auxiliary. Look to the verb conjugation table of vivre given earlier. Look at the right column and pick one of the composed tenses there-within. Got one? Now look to the simple tense which is directly to the left of your chosen composed tense/mood. The auxiliary of your chosen composed tense/mood will be in the simple tense/mood you just found to its left. In our example, the auxiliary of the passé compose is…. (look left) the present. Ta da! What I am trying to get at is that if you know avoir /etre in all their simple tense/mood forms than not only will you know off by heart the two most commonly used verbs in the French language but you will also instantly be able to identify any composed tense/mood of any verb, even those you have never seen before (even which what/who form these composed verbs are in)(49) Epingler [pinned/nabbed] Note that once again the infininitive gets somewhat unnaturally translated by an English past tense. What has happened here is that the character has repeated what the other person said earlier and in doing so he has abbreviated, leaving out tu te ferais which would normally have come before epingler and thus must be implied . We can now see that this is the use of an infinive in the third situation as described above i.e. after a semi-auxiliary verb in a duel verb construction. You will note that in two of the examples given for such cases above, the infinitive gets translated as an English verb in a past tense i.e. j’ai failli casser le vase [I nearly broke the vase]: we can’t say in English I nearly to brake the vase. It is here where the French infinitve acts differently to its English counterpart.
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(50) a fait ~ [made (has made)]. Il/ELLE/ON form of faire [to do/to make] in the PASSÉ COMPOSÉ. At last I am going to explain the passé composé! Being a composed tense/moood it takes an auxiliary (avoir/etre) which proceeds the past participle of the verb being conjugated. The auxiliary is in the (remember, look to the left!) PRESENT and is the only thing which changes according to the what/who form, the past participle remaining the same for all such forms. (i.e. ai fait, as fait, a fait, avons fait, avez fait, ont fait)The passé composé (PC) is, like the Imparfait, a past tense. However, where the imparfait is for imperfected actions the PC is only for perfected actions. The temptation is to make a direct comparison of these two with the two English past tenses; the Preterit (I drove) and the ridiculously named Present Perfect Simple (I have driven) but this is not possible. At first glance, the imparfait seems to match the preterit because they both are simple one word tenses: Enormous error! In fact, as a general rule, the PC covers both the English preterite and the past perfect present tenses leaving the imparfait to replace certain phrases like was/were driving/used to drive. In danger of repeating myself, I shall more or less repeat myself: WHEN YOU SEE THE ENGLISH PRETERITE (I drove; he drank; we flew; you shot) YOU WILL ALMOST ALWAYS TRANSLATE IT BY THE PASSÉ COMPOSÉ (J’ai conduis; il a bu; nous avons voler; tu as tire) The same goes for the present perfect simple (PPS). However, when you see to have or to be in the English preterite when not acting as an auxiliary (they were stupid; you had it) then in some cases you can or will have to translate that into the imparfait (ils etaient idiots, tu l'avais). Getting used to the distinction between the PC and the imparfait is probably the most difficult but useful lesson where French verbs are concerned. Let’s have a look at some examples;
I went to the protestation (Preterit) [Je suis aller au manif] (PC) He shot at the seal (Preterit) [il a tire sur la phoque] (PC She had a gun (Preterit) [elle avait un flingue] (Imparfait) This is the exception discussed above. We havn’t seen him (PPS) [on ne l’a pas vu] (PC) They took the ladders (Preterite) [ils ont pris les echelles] (PC) You have driven all the way here? (PPS) [tu as conduis jusqu’ici] (PC) I showed him the way (Preterite) [je lui ai montré le chemin] (PC) |
You have now finished Part One. Felicitations! Unfortunately I have not finished Part Two in the Beginner Catalogue. However, you can continue to read this french bilingual story where you left off, if you are feeling confident, by clicking the button to the right which will take you to part two in the Intermediate Catalogue. Its the same system of French to English word for word translations but just without the footnotes. Just remember, go straight to Section C. Good luck! |