French Language Studies – Grammar Reference Resource Contents Nouns ................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction to Nouns ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 number: singular, plural ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Gender: Masculine, Feminine ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Voila vs. il y a .............................................................................................................................................................. 10 Temps, heure, fois ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 Determiners ...................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Introduction to Determiners .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Determiners: Definite Articles ...................................................................................................................................... 14 definite articles with physical characteristics ................................................................................................................ 17 Determiners: Indefinite Articles ................................................................................................................................... 18 determiners: partitive articles ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Possessive Determiners .............................................................................................................................................. 22 demonstrative determiners........................................................................................................................................... 23 determiners: expressions of quantity ............................................................................................................................ 25 tout .............................................................................................................................................................................. 27 indefinite determiners................................................................................................................................................... 29 Adverbs ............................................................................................................................................................................ 30 Introduction to Adverbs ................................................................................................................................................ 30 adverbs: formation and placement ............................................................................................................................... 31 placement of adverbs with passé compose .............................................................................................................. 34 comparative and superlative of adverbs ....................................................................................................................... 35 -il y a, ago ................................................................................................................................................................... 36 tôt, tard, en avance, en retard, à l'heure .................................................................................................................... 37 Adjectives ......................................................................................................................................................................... 38 Introduction to Adjectives............................................................................................................................................. 38 Adjective vs. adverb ..................................................................................................................................................... 39 Adjectives: Formation and Placement ......................................................................................................................... 40 Adjectives that proceed the nour .................................................................................................................................. 42 ordinal numbers: ......................................................................................................................................................... 42 beau, nouveau, vi eux ................................................................................................................................................ 42 Irregular adjectives ...................................................................................................................................................... 44 Adjectives whose meaning varies with placement ........................................................................................................ 46 Comparisons with adjectives ........................................................................................................................................ 48 comparative adjectives i ndicating more or l ess ........................................................................................................ 48 irregular adjectives ..................................................................................................................................................... 48 Superlative of adjectives .............................................................................................................................................. 49 Bon/meilleur vs. bien mieux ......................................................................................................................................... 51 Participles as adjectives ............................................................................................................................................. 54 Verbs ................................................................................................................................................................................ 55 Introduction to Verbs .................................................................................................................................................... 55 - er verbs (regular) present tense ................................................................................................................................ 58 - er verbs (stem changing) present tense .................................................................................................................... 60 -ir verbs (regular) present tense ................................................................................................................................... 62 -ir verbs (irregular) like ouvrir present tense ................................................................................................................. 63 - ir verbs (irregular) partir, sortir, and dormir ................................................................................................................. 64 -re verbs (regular) ....................................................................................................................................................... 65 -re verbs (irregular) like prendre ................................................................................................................................. 66 -re verbs (irregular) like mettre ................................................................................................................................... 67 -re verbs (irregular) like suivre and vivre .................................................................................................................... 68 1 French Language Studies – Grammar Reference Resource etre ‘to be’ ...................................................................................................................................................................... 69 avoir ‘to have’ ................................................................................................................................................................ 70 Avoir expresions .......................................................................................................................................................... 71 aller "to go" .................................................................................................................................................................. 72 faire "to do, to make" ................................................................................................................................................... 73 faire expressions 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