French Simple vs Imperfect Past
Generally speaking, the imperfect describes past situations, while the passé composé narrates specific events. In addition, the imperfect can set the stage for an event expressed with…
Tag: French Grammar
French The Imperfect (past tense)
The French imperfect (imparfait) is a descriptive past tense that indicates an ongoing state of being or a repeated or incomplete action. The beginning and end of…
The French Verbs “To Know”
Savoir and Connaître Savoir and connaître both mean “to know.” But they mean “to know” in very different ways: savoir relates more to things and connaître relates more to people, although there…
French Reflexive Verbs (past tense)
In le passé composé tense, pronominal verbs are always conjugated with the auxiliary verb être, which you have already learned. The reflexive pronoun is placed before the auxiliary verb.…
French Reflexive Verbs (present tense)
French pronominal verbs are accompanied by the reflexive pronoun se or s’ preceding the infinitive, thus, the grammatical term “pronominal,” which means “relating to a pronoun.” All conjugated verbs, with…
The Recent Past in French
The French recent past is a verb construction that’s used to express something that just happened. It is called the passé récent. Like the futur proche, or near future,…
French The Verb “to come”
The French verb venir literally means “to come” and is also used in many idiomatic expressions. It’s an essential verb for beginners to learn and is used in a…
French Negative Expressions
Do the French have a negative way of speaking? “Non – ce n’est pas possible !”, “Je n’ai aucune idée”, “J’y peux rien” are a…
French Simple Future
Le futur simple corresponds to the will-future tense in English. We mostly use this tense to talk about future plans or intentions in French, as well…
French Adverbs
French adverbs, like their English counterparts, are used to modify adjectives, other adverbs, and verbs or clauses. They do not display any inflection; that is, their…