Standard Negation
In order to say that one did not do something, the ne ... pas construction must be used. The ne is placed before the verb, while the pas is placed after.
Formation and Rules
- Simple negation is done by wrapping ne...pas around the verb.
- Je ne vole pas. - I do not steal.
- In a perfect tense, ne...pas wraps around the auxillary verb, not the participle.
- Je n'ai pas volé. - I have not stolen.
- When an infinitive and conjugated verb are together, ne...pas usually wraps around the conjugated verb.
- Je ne veux pas voler. - I do not want to steal.
- ne pas can also go directly in front of the infinitive for a different meaning.
- Je veux ne pas voler. - I want to not steal.
- ne goes before any pronoun relating to the verb it affects.
- Je ne le vole pas. - I did not steal it.
Examples
| French Grammar · Weather · audio262 kb Negation Formation Examples Exemples de formation de négation | |
|---|---|
| Il est avocat. Il n'est pas avocat. | He is [a] lawyer. He is not [a] lawyer. |
| Nous faisons nos devoirs. Nous ne faisons pas nos devoirs. | We are doing our homework. We are not doing our homework. |
| Je joue du piano. Je ne joue pas du piano. | I play the piano. I do not play the piano. |
| Vous vendez votre voiture. Vous ne vendez pas votre voiture. | You sell your car. You do not sell your car. |
Negation of Indefinate Articles
The indefinite articles un, une, and des change to de (or d') when negating a sentence.
- J'ai un livre. - I have a book.
- Je n'ai pas de livre. - I don't have any book.
- J'ai des livres. - I have some books.
- Je n'ai pas de livres. - I don't have any books.
Examples
| Il est belge.. Il n'est pas belge. | He is Belgian. He is not Belgian. |
| Nous lisons un livre. Nous ne lisons pas de livre. | We read a book. We do not read a book. |
| Je mange une cerise. Je ne mange pas de cerise. | I eat a cherry. I do not eat a cherry. |
Contractions
Weather - Le temps
^ Le temps means both the weather and the time.
Aller
The verb aller is translated to to go. It is irregularly conjugated (it does not count as a regular -er verb).
Formation
In the present indicative, aller is conjugated as follows:
| French Verb · Weather · audio327 kb aller to go | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||||
| first person | je vais | jeuh vay | I go | nouszallons | nouzah lohn | we go |
| second person | tu vas | too vah | you go | vouszallez | vouzah lay | you go |
| third person | il va | eel vah | he goes | ils vont | eel vohn | they go (masc. or mized) |
| elle va | ell vah | she goes | ||||
| on va | ohn vah | one goes | elles vont | ell vohn | they go (fem.) | |
Usage
There is no present progressive tense in French, so aller in the present indicative is used to express both I go and I am going.
Aller must be used with a place and cannot stand alone.
The preposition à, meaing in, at, or to, is used, followed by the place.
- Tu vas a l'école? - You're going to school.
Remember that à le contracts to au and à les contracts to aux.
- Je vais au stade. - I'm going to the stage.
Instead of a preposition and place, you can use the pronoun y, meaning there. Y comes before the verb. Remember that aller must be used with a place (there or a name) when indicating that you are going somewhere, even if a place wouldn't normally be given in English.
- J'y vais. - I'm going there.
- Tu y vas. - You're going there.
- Nous y allons. - We're going there.
Futur Proche
The strucure aller + infinitive is used to say that something is going to happen in the near future.
- Il va pleuvoir demain. - It's going to rain tomorrow.
- Il va faire froid. - It's going to be cold.
Remember that the negative goes around the conjugated verb.
- Il ne va pas pleuvoir demain. - It's not going to rain tomorrow.
Idioms
- Allons-y - ahlonzee - Let's go! (impératif)
- Ça va? - How are you? (lit: It goes?)
- On y va! - Let's get going!
- On y va? - Should we go?
Liaison
Usually, whenever a vowel sound comes after ...ons or ...ez, the usually unpronounced s and z change to a sharp z sound and link to the next syllable. (This process is called liaison.) However, since allons and allez begins with vowels, nous allons is pronounced nyoozahloh and vous allez is pronounced voozahlay. In order to have a pleasing and clean sound, two liaisons should not go connsecultively. There is therefore no liaison in allons à when it comes right after nous and allez à when it comes after vous.
- In the phrase Vous allez à l'école?, vous allez à is pronounced vouzahlay ah.
- In the phrase vous et Marie allez à l'école?", allez à is pronounced ahlayzah.
Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License Source: Wikibooks