Study Guide Final Exam s1

French 322 Study Guide – Final Exam Supplement

We covered one topic – reflexive verbs – in the C’est à toi! Level 2 textbook. Reflexive verbs describe actions that impact (reflect) on our person, such as getting up, getting dressed, and getting washed. When I say that I get up at 6 a.m., it is understood that I am getting myself up, not someone else. Likewise, I am dressing myself, washing myself, etc. In French, reflexive verbs contain an extra word that reinforces the idea of myself, yourself, ourselves, etc. On the final exam, you will be responsible for knowing how to conjugate reflexive verbs in the present tense (le présent), and also in the command form (l’impératif). Now let’s take a look at how to do these conjugations.

C’est à toi ! Level 2:Unité 4: Pages 160, 171

Present tense conjugation. Page 160

You can recognize a reflexive verb by the word se that precedes the verb. The se means oneself. Let’s conjugate the verb se lever, which means to get up (from a night’s sleep). For each conjugated form, you will see in italics the extra word that is included: me (myself), te (yourself), se (himself, herself, oneself, themselves) [Note that se is used for both il/elle/on and ils/elles], nous (ourselves), vous (yourself, yourselves). Je me lève Nous nous levons Tu te lèves Vous vous levez Il/elle/on se lève Ils/elles se lèvent (You should also note that in the case of se lever, the first e gets an accent grave in the je, tu, il/elle/on and ils/elles forms.)

To negate a reflexive verb, the ne…pas will be inserted as follows: Je ne me lève pas, tu ne te lèves pas, etc.

Command form ( l’imperatif ) conjugation. Page 171 There is one rule for an affirmative command (Do something!), and another rule for a negative command (Don’t do something!) For an affirmative command, the position of the extra word changes. Instead of going before the verb, it follows the verb, and it is separated from the verb by a hyphen. Also, for the tu command, te becomes toi. Lève-toi! Levez-vous! Levons-nous!

For a negative command, the position of the extra word goes back to its original position preceding the verb. Ne te lève pas! Ne vous levez pas! Ne nous levons pas!

In addition to se lever, you are also responsible for the reflexive verbs se réveiller (to wake up), se laver (to wash up), se raser (to shave), se brosser (to brush), s’habiller (to dress), se dépêcher (to hurry), and se coucher (to go to bed).