French Verbs in a Nutshell

June, 1929] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 181 tinues to make every effort to do so. It on the rest and fearlessly proceed to form is precisely by enlarging its fields of activ- all tenses from four principal parts—four ity and by fulfilling more completely the only. duties towards its members that the Asso- The responsibility is squarely left upon ciation feels that it is doing a necessary each root-verb to stand for its whole fam- piece of work. The very encouraging and ily of derivatives. When these deviate even enthusiastic results of its efforts make from its manner of conjugation, due notice it wish to extend its work and serve more of the unlikeness will be given. For in- of the many thousands of teachers of stance, when it is stated that venir and tenir French in the United States and keep them take a d in the future tense, it goes without in closer touch with each other in order that saying that the same is true of the two doz- the spirit of co-operation may grow among verbs compounded from these by means of them and make for a more efficient and prefixes (retenir, devenir, etc.). more agreeable discharge of their duties. Fortunately, those verbs presenting the It is as a national organization that it can most irregularities are the strong, service- best carry out its aims, and it is as such able auxiliaries and semi-auxiliaries that that it hopes for continued support. have to be learned early, before the student Edmond A. Meeas, Secretary. realizes how irregular they are. Avoir and etre break many "rules"; but we learn, per- FRENCH VERBS IN A force, their conjugation before we are aware NUTSHELL* of this fact. The present subjunctive of ALTHOUGH there is no royal road pouvoir and of faire runs smoothly through to learning, yet we must find some to the end before we are disturbed by the short cuts—must straighten some knowledge that better-behaved verbs would curves—else how can the next generation have reverted, in the plural, to the present participle stem. But these four verbs and travel further than we? half-a-dozen others are very troublesome The plan here suggested for mastering French verbs has nothing astonishing about when we begin later to make any general statements in regard to the laws of the it, but it has been tried out for several years French verb. Macaulay objected to dogs and seems to work without much difficulty. It is mechanical, not scientific, but it is because they interrupt conversation. The convenient for busy people. It is not even same charge must be brought against these entirely exhaustive, for it makes no attempt verbs, which may well be branded as "The to deal with obsolete verbs or to include Unruly Ten." They naggingly break in such defectives as are seldom used. These upon our observations on verbs in general; have long been safely listed in the gram- they at any moment are apt to impede the mars, for reference on the rare occasions flow of classroom eloquence. We may men- when they are needed. tion as unchanging facts the endings of the The claims of this plan rest upon two present participle and of the future and facts; (1) that, by segregating ten very imperfect indicative, and certain tip-end- A A unruly verbs so that their irregular conduct ings such as —nt for "they" — mes — tes can not intrude itself upon our attention, —rent of the past definite, together with the we can focus upon the great principles that entire formation of the conditional and of govern French verb forms; and (2) that, the imperfect subjunctive. But we can by listing a dozen exceptional future stems make few other universal claims without in- and half-a-dozen past definites, we can rely stant and pert contradiction from one or *A11 rights reserved. more of these ten verbs. "There are birds 182 THE VIRGINIA TEACHER [Vol. 10, No. 6 and English sparrows," says van Dyke. mise between the singular and the plural Even so there are verbs and The Unruly forms—having any vowel peculiarity1 that Ten. Once silence these, and we can in- the singular may show, followed by the dulge in many an unchallenged "always" consonant found in the first and second per- and "never." sons plural. Example: How, then, may a busy student who has bois meus re^ois already some scattered knowledge of French bois meus regois boit meut regoit verb-forms tackle and conquer the French buvons mouvous recevons verb as a whole? buvez mouvez recevez First, review the model verbs of the reg- boi-v-ent meu-v-ent regoi-v-ent ular conjugations: donner, finir, (recevoir) HI. The Imperative rompre. Omitting the pronoun subject, take bodily Second, review the two auxiliaries, avoir from the present indicative the three corre- and etre, and also five of the semi-auxilia- sponding forms: hois, buvons, buvez. Drop ries: faire, pouvoir, vouloir, savoir, aller. the —s of the second person singular in the Then set these seven apart on account of first conjugation and in any other verb their extreme irregularity—together with which has for its present indicative endings dire, valoir, asseoir, and their cognates (re- —e —es —e: donne, ouvre.2 A speedy but dire, surseoir, etc.)—as ten exceptions to be illogical way to obtain this form at a single thoroughly learned now or later, but cer- stroke is to take the first person singular tainly to be ignored in any statements to be just as it stands. made thereafter about verbs in general. Al- so set aside as negligible all obsolete verbs IV. The Present Subjunctive and seldom-used defectives. 1. Get a start by cutting off the —nt of The foregoing eccentric verbs being thus the present indicative third person plural: silenced, if not mastered, you may proceed boive(nt). with freedom to claim the following prin- 2. The entire set of endings will run thus : ciples as yours-to-count-on for the rest. —e —es —e —ions —iez —ent. 3. The first and second persons plural I. Principal Parts revert to the present participle stem. In The conjugation of every verb hinges on brief, for the plural forms, take the three the infinitive, the present participle, the plurals of the indicative present, inserting past participle, and the present indicative an i before the endings of the first two: first person singular. Hence it may be de- buv-i-ons, huv-i-ez, hoivent. rived in full from these parts by observing the simple principles that follow, from V. The Imperfect Indicative LEARNING THESE FOUR PARTS OF AN IRREG- For —ant of the present participle substi- ULAR VERB THERE IS NO ESCAPE. tute the endings —ais —ais —ait —ions —iez —aient. H. The Present Indicative 1. The endings of the singular are either VI. The Future —e —es —e or —s —s —t (this t being 1. To the infinitive add the present tense dropped after c, d, or t). of avoir, omitting av in the plural forms. 2. The first and second persons plural re- Drop the oi from infinitives in —oir and vert to the present participle stem. the e from those in —re. Thus we have 3. The plural endings are —ons —ez ^Resolvent is an exception. So is the present of —ent. failhr: faux, faux, faut, faillons, faillez, faillent. 2 4. The third person plural is a compro- This j returns whenever the word y or en is appended: donnes-en, ouvres-y. June, 1929] THE VIRGINIA TEACHER 183 these unfailing forms: —rai —ras —ra off the last letter of the first person singular ■—rons —rez —ront. of the past definite and adding sse —sses A 2. Learn that a dozen future stems are — i —ssions —ssies —ssent. (The odd exceptional; third person singular is said to "put on his (a) Six in —rr— (like a tale of Csesar s hat and go out to —t.") conquests) X. Compound Tenses send run see3 1. These are usually formed of the aux- enverrai courrai verrai iliary avoir plus the past participle. conquer fall die conquerrai decherrai mourrai 2. Reflexive verbs are always conjugated (b) Four that introduce a d with etre instead. venir tenir falloir faillir4 3. Conjugated with etre also are about viendroi tieudrai faudra faudrai two dozen intransitive verbs meaning (c) Two that have e in the place of i "come" or "go," with raster, "to remain." cueillir saillir (= jut out) (Note that "to be born" and "to die" are cueillerai saillerai merely the extremes of coming and going.) VII. The Conditional 4. In this last-named group (3) the past This is always made of the stem of the participle agrees with the subject in gender future plus the endings of the imperfect; and number. In the other groups (1) and hence the unfailing forms: —rais —rais (2) it agrees (if at all) with a preceding —rait —rions —riez —raient. direct object. VIII. The Past Definite 1. The endings of the first conjugation The foregoing facts constitute what we are —ai —as -—a —dmes —dies —erent. in our classroom designate as French verbs 2. All other verbs have the endings —-t in a nutshell. —j —t —^mes ■ K tes —rent. Their vowel The accompanying verb-blank we keep is generally i, sometimes u. Disregarding the permanently outlined in white paint on a sec- odd past participle mart, nothing justifies a tion of the blackboard, ready to be filled in u in the past definite except the presence of at any minute with any verb, as with boire a m in the past participle.

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