Lesson 1: School

Introduction to Perfect Tenses

The next section is optional. You will eventually learn everything that is covered in it, but if you would like a preview, read it, and if not, continue on to the school section.

• The perfect tenses are also called the compound or composed tenses.
• The perfect tenses are all composed of a conjugated auxiliary verb and a fixed past participle.

Auxiliary Verb Formation

• The auxiliary verb is always either avoir or être.
• The tense of the verb depends upon the tense that avoir or être is conjugated in.
  • When the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the passé composé, for example, the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the present indicative.
    • J’ai fini. – I have finished.

Past Participle Formation

• -er verbs – replace -er with é
• -ir verbs – replace -ir with i
• -re verbs – replace -re with u
• irregular verbs – must be memorized

Past Participle Agreement

• The past participle must agree with the direct object of a clause in gender and plurality if the direct object goes before the verb.
  • the direct object is masculine singular – no change
    • J’ai fini le jeu. – I have finished the game.
    • Je l’ai fini. – I have finished it.
  • the direct object is feminine singular – add an e to the past participle
    • J’ai fini la tâche. – I have finished the task.
    • Je l’ai finie. – I have finished it.
  • the direct object is masculine plural – add an s to the past participle.
    • J’ai fini les jeux. – I have finished the games.
    • Je les ai finis. – I have finished them.
  • the direct object is feminine plural – add an es to the past participle.
    • J’ai fini les tâches. – I have finished the tasks.
    • Je les ai finies. – I have finished them.
• The past participle must agree with the subject of a clause in gender and plurality if it is conjugated with the auxiliary être.
  • the subject is masculine singular – no change
    • Il est arrivé. – He has arrived.
  • the subject is feminine singular – add an e to the past participle
    • Elle est arrivée. – She has arrived.
  • the subject is masculine plural – add an s to the past participle.
    • Ils sont arrivés. – They have arrived.
  • the subject is feminine plural – add an es to the past participle.
    • Elles sont arrivées. – They have arrived.

Avoir ou Être?

• In most circumstances, the auxiliary verb is avoir.
• However, under certain situations, the auxiliary verb is être.
• This occurs when:
  • The verb is one of 16 special verbs that take être.
    • Note that when a direct object is used with these verbs, the auxiliary verb becomes avoir.
  • The verb is reflexive.
    • That is, the subject of the verb is also its object.

List of Tenses

There are seven perfect tenses in French. These are:

1. Le passé composé (The Present Perfect)
2. Le plus-que-parfait de l’indicatif (The Pluperfect of the Indicative)
3. Le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif (The Pluperfect Subjunctive)
4. Le passé antérieur (The Past Anterior)
5. Le futur antérieur (The Future Anterior)
6. Le conditionnel passé (The Past Conditional)
7. Le passé du subjonctif (The Past Subjunctive)

Don’t worry if you don’t completely understand the perfect tenses. Each tense and lists of irregular verb conjugations will be given later in this course. In the next lesson, the passé composé is introduced.

Introduction to Moods and Tenses

Like the above section, this is also optional. You will eventually learn everything in here.

School

French Vocabulary • School School L’école
General		Classes / Grades
le professeur[2]	teacher	12th Grade	Classe Terminale
la bourse	scholarship	11th Grade	1ère (la première classe)
le diplôme (professionnel)	diploma	10th Grade	2ème (la deuxième classe)
le bac(calauréat)	high school exit exam	9th Grade	3ème (la troisième classe)
la bibliothèque	library	8th Grade	4ème (la quatrième classe)
les notes	grades (as on a test)	7th Grade	5ème (la cinquième classe)
les cours	classes or courses	6th Grade	6ème (la sixième classe)
la classe	grade (e.g. 6th Grade)	5th Grade	CM2 (CM = cours moyen)
en cours de […]	in […] class	4th Grade	CM1
Pendant les cours – During Classes		3rd Grade	CE2 (CE=cours élémentaire)
le tableau	chalkboard	2nd Grade	CE1
la craie	chalk	1st Grade	CP1 (CP = cours préparatoire)
le pupitre	desk	Verbs
l’examen (m)	test	passer un examen	to take a test
les devoirs	homework	étudier	to study
la classe	class	écrire	to write
la cantine déjeuner	cafeteria to (eat) lunch	lever (la main)	to raise (your hand)
la récré(ation) la cour	recess courtyard	poser (une question)	to ask (a question)
Schools and Students		parler	to speak
l’école (f)	school	écouter	to listen (to)
l’étudiant l’étudiante	student (m) student (f)	entendre	to hear (of)
le collège (classes 6-4)	jr. high school (grades 6-9)	regarder	to watch
le collégien	jr. high school student	déjeuner	to (have) lunch
le lycée (classes 3-terminale)	high school (grades 10-12)
le lycéen	high school student	Describing Teachers and Students
l’université (f) la fac(ulté)	university	intelligent(e)	intelligent
		nul(le)	not good, not bright
l’enseignement supérieur	higher education graduate school	strict(e)	strict
Des fournitures scolaires – School Supllies
la craie chalk cray le tableau the board tahbloh le stylo(-bille) pen steeloh (bee) le crayon pencil krayoh la calculatrice calculator le livre le bouquin book leevr le cahier notebook kie ay		le papier la feuille de papier paper sheet of paper pahpeeyay le bloc-notes (small) notepad block nut le classeur three-ring binder le sac à dos backpack sack ah doe la gomme eraser gum la règle ruler rehgluh le feutre marker feuhtr

The word professeur is considered masculine at all times, even if the teacher is female. The only case when “professeur” can be preceded by feminine determinant is either when contracting it in colloquial language “la prof”, or when adding a few words before : “madame/mademoiselle la/le professeur”.
The way that grades are numbered in France is opposite the way they are in the US. Whereas American grade numbers go up as you approach your senior year, they descend in France.
Écrire is an irregular verb. You will learn to conjugate it in the next section.
In French, you do not “own” body parts. While in English, you would say my hand or your hand, the definite article is almost always used in French.

• la main – my hand
• la jambe – my leg
• le bras – my arm

For example, you would say Je me suis cassé la main (I have broken my hand) and never Je me suis cassé ma main. But you must say “Ma main est cassée” (My hand is broken) and not “La main est cassée” (lit. The hand is broken) if you speak about your own hand.
To and of are built into the verbs écouter and entendre respectively. It is not necessary to add a preposition to the verb. Other verbs, such as répondre {à), meaning to respond (to), are almost always followed by a preposition.

Écrire & Lire

Écrire is an irregular french verb, meaning to write. It varies from other ‘-re’ verbs in the plural conjugation, by adding a ‘v’.

French Verb • School écrire to write
past participle: écrit
	Singular			Plural
first person	j’ écris	jay cree	I write	nous écrivons	noozay creevohn	we write
second person	tu écris	tue aycree	you write	vous écrivez	voozay creevay	you write
third person	il écrit	eel aycree	he writes	ils écrivent	eel zaycreeve	they write (masc. or mixed)
	elle écrit	ell aycree	she writes
	on écrit	ohn aycree	one writes	elles écrivent	ell zaycreeve	they write (fem.)

Lire is an irregular french verb, meaning to read. It’s plural conjugation adds an additional ‘s’.

French Verb • School lire to read
past participle: lu
	Singular			Plural
first person	je lis	jeuh lee	I read	nous lisons	noo leezonn	we read
second person	tu lis	tue lee	you read	vous lisez	voo leezay	you read
third person	il lit	eel lee	he reads	ils lisent	eel leez	they read (masc. or mixed)
	elle lit	ell lee	she reads
	on lit	ohn lee	one reads	elles lisent	ell leez	they read (fem.)

School Subjects

French Vocabulary • School School Subjects Les matières d’enseignement
les langues	languages	les mathématiques les maths	mathematics
l’anglais	English	l’algèbre (f)	algebra
le français	French	le calcul	calculus
l’espagnol	Spanish	la géométrie	geometry
l’allemand	German	les sciences sociales	social sciences
le russe	Russian	l’économie	economics
l’italien	Italian	la géo(graphie)	geography
		l’histoire (f)	history
les sciences naturelles	natural sciences	d’autres matières	other subjects
la biologie la bio	biology	le dessin	drawing
la chimie	chemistry	l’informatique (f)	computer science
la technologie	engineering	la littérature	literature
la physique	physics	la musique	music

Passé Composé with Regular Verbs

The passé composé is a perfect tense, and is therefore composed of an auxiliary verb and a past participle. With most verbs, that auxiliary verb is avoir.

Meaning

In English, verbs conjugated in the passé composé literally mean have/has ____ed. While there is a simple past tense in French, it is almost only used in formal writing, so verbs conjugated in the passé composé can also be used to mean the English simple tense.

• For example, the passé composé form of parler (to speak), [avoir] parlé, literally mean has/have spoken, but also means spoke.

Basic Formation

To conjugate a verb in the passé composé, the helping verb, usually avoir, is conjugated in the present indicative and the past participle is then added.

Auxiliary Verb – Avoir

Conjugate avoir in the present indicative.

Past Participle

• -er verbs – replace -er with é
• -ir verbs – replace -ir with i
• -re verbs – replace -re with u
• irregular verbs – varies, must be memorized.

Avoir + Past Participle

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