Verb of the day / A bit of pronounciation

Your verb for today is Manger: to eat

Manger is a verb of the ER type. Its conjugation is fairly simple and follows the ER verb pattern, but with a slight exception! Due to the fact that it contains the letter g before the ER, it sometimes requires an extra e (which is not pronounced) when it lands in front of hard vowels such as a, u and o. 

 

But why??

The letter G can be pronounced two ways in French. It can be hard (like in gust!) or soft (like in gin, but without the d sound.) The way it goes depends on the letter following it. 

Soft Vowels	e	gémir, gèle, mangeais, neige
	i	gite, giraffe , girouette, gigantesque
	y	gynécologue, gyroscope
Hard Vowels	a	gamme, gamin, gant, gallop
	o	gomme, Congo, bingo,
	u	guérir, longue. guide *

*The u in those words is ONLY used to make the g hard, and is not pronounced. I think there must be a few words where the u is pronounced after a g, but I couldn’t come up with any…

Anyway, here is the verb Manger, conjugated for you, with the extra e’s highlighted.

Présent	Imparfait	Future simple
Today, I eat	Yesterday, I was eating	Tomorrow, I will eat
je mange tu manges il mange nous mangeons vous mangez ils mangent	je mangeais tu mangeais il mangeait nous mangions vous mangiez ils mangeaient	je mangerai tu mangeras il mangera nous mangerons vous mangerez ils mangeront

Your challenge:

1.      Think of a word with a g in it where it’s pronounced softly and a word where it is pronounced hard. Bonus points for having both g’s in the same word!

2.      Make a sentence describing what you are eating for lunch.

Marcher

Our verb of the week is marcher: to walk!

Marcher is an easy to conjugate verb of the ER type. 

Many verbs ending in ER follow the same conjugation pattern, therefore it can be very useful to memorize this pattern.

Présent	Imparfait	Future simple
Today, I walk	Yesterday, I was walking	Tomorrow, I will walk
je marche tu marches il marche nous marchons vous marchez ils marchent	je marchais tu marchais il marchait nous marchions vous marchiez ils marchaient	je marcherai tu marcheras il marchera nous marcherons vous marcherez ils marcheront

Please note that the root of the verb never changes! You can obtain the root of any ER verb* by removing the “ER” ending to the infinitive. 

In theory, which this knowledge you should be able to conjugate other ER verbs, like jouer (to play) and acheter (to buy)!

Your challenge:

1.      Conjugate jouer in the present tense.

2.      Go for a walk, it’s healthy!

*A few verbs ending in ER are not actually ER verbs but exceptions. Aller (to go) is one of these.

Être

Your verb of the week is... Être!

Easy right? Everyone knows that verb! It’s to be! Not so fast.. Être is probably the strangest beast in the Bescherelle.*

Not only is it an irregular verb (meaning it doesn’t follow the usual conjugation rules) but it is also an auxiliary verb, which means it can be used with certain other verbs to form extra past tense or future tense combinations. Even stranger rules apply then!**

Because of the complexity of this verb, it is very important to have the basic tenses thoroughly memorized. 

Here they are:

Présent	Imparfait	Future simple
Today, I am	Yesterday, I was	Tomorrow, I will be
je suis tu es il est nous sommes vous êtes ils sont	j'étais tu étais il était nous étions vous étiez ils étaient	je serai tu seras il sera nous serons vous serez ils seront

Let’s see these in action!

Quand je serai grand, je serai pompier! Les pompiers sont forts, et comme moi aussi je suis fort, c’est un métier qui me convient. Mon grand-père était pompier et aimais sa profession. Quand vous serez mal pris, je viendrais à votre secours. 

Your challenge:

1.       Write a few sentences using all three different tenses.

2.       Fill in the blank: Quand j’étais enfant, je voulais être ___________(métier).

*If you don’t have a Bescherelle, you should totally get one. They are the most useful thing you can own after a good French-English dictionary.  

**More on this in a different post. 

The most important verb of all...

Your verb of the week is... 

Avoir To have

Why couldn’t we start with an easier verb, you ask? One that follows the regular rules of conjugation? That’s because avoir is the basis for many tenses of conjugation and therefore must be mastered first.

If you know how to properly conjugate avoir, you can conjugate things into the past tense, the future tense... you can tell people how old you are... and best of all, you can tell them what you have, to make them jealous.

Here it is in the most commonly used tenses.

Présent	Imparfait	Future simple
Today, I have	Yesterday, I had	Tomorrow, I will have
j'ai tu as il a nous avons vous avez ils ont	j'avais tu avais il avait nous avions vous aviez ils avaient	j'aurai tu auras il aura nous aurons vous aurez ils auront

But that’s not all! Because avoir is the base of many composed tenses, let’s look at those too. 

Composed tenses are formed by using an auxiliary verb such as avoir and tacking on the past tense of the other verb to form a new tense.  It seems complicated but we do it in English all the time. Take the following:

J’ai mangé	I have eaten
J’avais mangé	I had eaten
J’aurai mangé	I will have eaten

Not too bad, right? The “mangé” part which doesn’t change is called the participe passé. Avoir has a participe passé as well (eu), and you can use it on itself! 

J’ai eu	I have had
J’avais eu	I had had
J’aurai eu	I will have had

Granted, they aren’t the most common tenses, but you still need to know they exist!

Here are some composed tenses of avoir. You’ll notice they are the same as the ones above, with “eu” at the end.

Passé composé	Plus-que-parfait	Future simple
Yesterday, I have had	Yesterday, I had had	Tomorrow, I will have had
j'ai eu tu as eu il a eu nous avons eu vous avez eu ils ont eu	j'avais eu tu avais eu il avait eu nous avions eu vous aviez eu ils avaient eu	j'aurai eu tu auras eu il aura eu nous aurons eu vous aurez eu ils auront eu

Examples:

Chez nous, nous avons plein de jouets. Ma sœur a un ours en peluche, j’ai un camion et mon ami Luc a une voiture miniature. J’avais une poupée mais comme elle a eu une tache, ma mère l’a jetée. Pour ma fête, j’ai eu un jeu de lego mais j’aimerai avoir plus de morceaux. J’aurai eu un avion l’année prochaine! Après noël, on aura encore plus de jouets! Toi, quels jouets as-tu?

Challenge :

1. Translate the paragraph into english. (No feeding the whole thing into a translator!)
2. Write a few sentences using as many different tenses as you can.