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I just wanted to give a small lesson today to clarify a few things.
In French, when we use a verb in its present tense it can mean three things. Let’s use the verb “parler”, to talk, as an example. You can use a verb in the present tense to mean:
I talk.
I do talk.
I am talking.
If you want to say any of those three things, you can use the same phrase; “je parle.” There’s no need to complicate things by trying to combine “être” (which you all should know means “to be”) with other verbs.
I hadn’t clarified that and I thought it was important to know so I figured I’d just do this little lesson.
In French there are many expressions that use avoir. These expressions range from saying how old you are to telling someone that you’re hungry. Let’s look at some these expressions and I’ll go over each one afterward.
avoir (number) ans [avwaR … ɑ̃] - to be … years old
avoir faim [avwaR fɛ̃] - to be hungry
avoir soif [avwaR swaf] - to be thirsty
avoir chaud [avwaR ʃo] - to be hot
avoir froid [avwaR fRwa] - to be cold
avoir peur de [avwaR pœR də] - to be afraid of (something)
avoir besoin de [avwaR bəzwɛ̃ də] - to need (something)
avoir envie de [avwaR ɑ̃vi də] - to want (something)
Note: The ones in italics can use the infinitives of verbs as well.
Let’s look at some examples.
J’ai 22 (vingt-deux) ans. - I’m 22 years old.
J’ai faim. - I’m hungry.
J’ai soif. - I’m thirsty.
J’ai chaud. - I’m hot.
J’ai froid. - I’m cold.
J’ai peur de l’examen. (exam) - I’m scared of the exam.
J’ai besoin d’argent. (money) - I need money.
J’ai envie de manger. (eat) - I want to eat.
Note: Remember the liaison after the 22!
I had to record them in one file because if there are too many of the little players it takes a while to load the page as you can see with my phonetic alphabet posts. They’re all there, however! As always, you can message me if you have any questions!
Now that you know some prepositions you might want to start using them. But there are a few rules that you have to know to use ‘à’ and ‘de’. Whenever these two words come before ‘le’ or ‘les’ they change. Let’s see how they change.
+
Le
Les
À
Au
Aux
De
Du
Des
So when ‘à’ and ‘le’ are next to each other they combine to form ‘au’ [o]. ‘À’ and ‘les’ become ‘aux’ [o] (pronounced the same except before a vowel or an ‘h’).
And when ‘de’ and ‘le’ are next to each other they combine to form ‘du’ [dy]. ‘De’ and ‘les’ combine to form ‘des’ [de].
This might be a little confusing so let’s look at some example sentences.
Ex: Paul donne le livre au garçon. Paul gives the book to the boy.
Notice how it’s not “Paul donne le livre à le garçon” but rather “au garçon”.
Let’s look at another one with ‘de’ instead.
Ex: Je donne le livre du garçon à Paul. I give the boy’s book to Paul. (or more literally, I give the book of the boy to Paul)
Again, it’s “du garçon” and not “de le garçon”.
One last thing that I want you to take note of is that this rule doesn’t apply to ‘la’. So you can say “à la” and “de la” and it’s perfectly good grammar.
I have two lessons ready to go except for the recordings! I had to take my sister to Gainesville and I’m currently on the bus back. I’ll see if I can’t record when I get home!
