Understanding what a verb is [1]

1
FRENCH GRAMMAR

• This presentation will help you to understand
  what verbs are and how to use them accurately in
  French. First we will look at what happens in
  English and then see how this compares with
  French.
• Bonne chance!

2
What is a verb?

• A verb is a word or group of words which tell us
  about actions.
• E.g. She plays.
• This gives us 3 pieces of information
• The activity - i.e. playing
• The tense (or time) of the activity - i.e.
  present
• The person or thing doing the activity - i.e. she

3
How do verbs work?

• The person or thing doing the verb is called the
  subject of the verb. In English there are 6
  categories of subject
  singular plural
• I (play) We (play)
  when talking about yourself when a group talks
  about itself
• You (play) You (play)
• when talking to one other person
  when talking to more than one
  
  
  person
• (S)he/it (plays) They (play)
  when talking about one person or thing when
  talking about a group

4
How do verbs work?

• You will see that the (S)he/it part is different
  from the other parts. It has an s added to
  the end. This is called an ending.
• E.g. I live She lives We play He
  plays You laugh She laughs
• The ending in English is added to the infinitive.

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What is an infinitive?

• This is the part of the verb that you find in the
  dictionary. In English it usually has the word
  to in front of it. E.g. to play. to laugh, to
  live, etc.
• In French the infinitive is only one word. There
  are 3 types of infinitive
• Those ending in er ( Parler - to speak)
• Those ending in ir ( Finir - to finish.)
• Those ending in re ( Attendre - to wait.)
• Here we are only looking at the -er type.
  
  
  

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The -er verb

• Jouer
• This is an example of an infinitive in French.
  It is the part of the verb that you find in the
  dictionary.
• In English jouer means to play

7
How French verbs work

• In French we have the same 6 subject categories
  as in English singular plural
• Je ( I ) Nous (we)
• Tu ( you ) Vous (you)
• Elle (she)/il (elle)/on (we) Elles/ils (they)
  (In French all
  6 categories need endings, as we will see . . . )

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How do we get the right endings?

• 1. Take the infinitive (e.g. jouer)
• 2. Remove the -er (e.g. jou)
• 3. Add the endings
• Je joue
• Tu joues
• Elle/il joue

• Nous jouons
• Vous jouez
• Elles/ils jouent