Posted by Chester Morton / Friday 10 February 2017 / No comments
The regular -RE verbs in the present tense and -ER verbs with spelling changes in French
Regular
-re Verbs
in the Present Tense
Regular
verbs with infi nitives ending in -re are conjugated in the present tense
as follows:
Present
Tense of attendre (to wait, wait for)
j’attends
nous attendons
tu attends
vous attendez
il/elle/on
attend ils/elles attendent
Elle
attend l’autobus, et nous attendons la conférence.
She
is waiting for the bus, and we are waiting for the the
lecture.
Mes
amis attendent les vacances.
My
friends are waiting for the holidays.
Be aware
of these details regarding regular -re verbs:
• The
third-person singular form (il/elle/on attend) of regular -re
verbs has no ending. To conjugate it, remove the infinitive ending (-re);
the stem of the verb is the conjugated form. In this form, the letter -d is
silent (not pronounced), and the word ends with the nasal vowel: elle attend
[ah-tAn], il vend [vAn]
• The
English verb to wait always uses the preposition for before a
noun. In French, attendre is followed directly by the noun.
J’attends mon ami.
I am
waiting for my friend
In French,
attendre does not mean to attend. To attend (a lecture,
a concert, etc.) is expressed by assister à (une conférence,
un concert, etc.). Other regular -re verbs
include:
défendre to
defend; to forbid descendre
to go down; to get off
entendre to
hear perdre to lose
perdre du
temps
to waste time rendre to give (back), to
return
répondre (à) to
answer rendre visite à to visit (a
person)
tendre to
stretch
(out)
(s.th.); to offer vendre to sell
Michel
vend sa vieille voiture. Michel
is selling his old car.
Nous
rendons visite aux voisins dimanche.
We are visiting the neighbors on Sunday.
Tu
entends? C’est ton portable. Do
you hear? That’s your cell phone.
—Je
réponds! —I
am answering!
Les
enfants perdent souvent les clés. Children
often lose the keys.
Où
est-ce qu’on descend de l’autobus? Where do we get off the
bus?
• Rendre
visite and répondre both require the preposition à before a noun.
Ils
répondent toujours à mes questions. They always answer my questions.
Tu
rends visite aux voisins? Are
you visiting the neighbors?
Use the
verb visiter _ noun to express a visit to a city, building, museum, natural
site, etc. Use rendre visite à for visits to people.
Inverted
Question Forms and liaison
In the inverted
question form, the -d of regular third-person singular –re verbs
is pronounced [t]. It links with the vowel in -il, -elle, or -on.
Vend-on...
? [vAn-tOn] Do they sell . . . ?
Attend-il?
[ah-tAn-teel] Is he waiting?
Perd-elle...
? [pehR-tehl] Does she lose . . . ?
The liaison
with the letter t [t] is also pronounced in the third-person
singular or plural, linking with the following subject pronoun that starts with
a vowel. This applies to verbs of all groups.
Vendent-elles...
? [vAn-d(uh)-tehl] Do they sell . . . ?
Aiment-ils...
? [ehm-teel] Do they love . . . ?
Choisit-on...
? [shwah-zee-tOn] Are we choosing . . . ?
Key Vocabulary
How often do
you do things? The following adverbs are used after verbs to tell how often or
how much you do something. You have already been using some of them.
Expressions
de temps (Expressions of Frequency and Time)
beaucoup
(a lot; often) toujours (always) quelquefois,
parfois (sometimes)
très
peu (rarely, hardly ever) rarement
(rarely) un peu (a little) souvent
(often)
J’étudie
toujours à la maison. I always
study at home.
Gaspard
réussit rarement. Gaspard
rarely succeeds.
Ils
ne répondent pas beaucoup. They
don’t answer much.
The expressions
below also help situate the action. They can all be used with the present
tense, sometimes with the meaning of the near future.
actuellement
presently, currently, nowadays; bientôt
soon
en ce moment
right now; maintenant now ; (un peu) plus tard (a little) later
prochain(e)
next (adj.) tout à l’heure in a little while
Où
est-ce que tu travailles actuellement? Where are you working nowadays?
Attends!
Je descends bientôt. Wait! I’m coming down soon.
On
rend visite à Sylvie tout à l’heure. We’re
visiting Sylvie in a little while.
Paul
quitte son boulot la semaine prochaine Paul is leaving his job next week.
.
Depuis Versus Since
The
word depuis, meaning for or since (in time) follows verbs
in the present tense. It precedes either a period of time (deux ans, cinq
minutes... ) or a beginning point in time (le 15 août, midi, cinq
heures, 2003, mon enfance, le début de l’année... )..
J’étudie le français depuis
un an.
I’ve been studying
French for a year.
Nous
attendons le bus depuis quelque
temps.
We’ve
been waiting for the bus for a while.
Mon
frère habite à Paris depuis mars.
My
brother has been living in Paris since March.
Ils
sont membres de ce groupe depuis 2002.
They’ve been members of this group since
2002.
•
In English the verbs in sentences with for or since are in the
present perfect, with have _ past participle or has been _ a
present participle (the -ing form of the verb): They’ve been members
. . . , I’ve been studying . . ., My brother has been living . .
. . French always uses the present tense with depuis (Ils
sont... , J’étudie... , Mon frère habite... ), if the action
is current and ongoing.
• To ask the
question Since when . . . ? with a point in time, say Depuis
quand...
?
Depuis
quand voyagez-vous? Since
when have you been traveling?
—Nous voyageons depuis le 25 janvier. —We
have been traveling since January 25.
To
ask the question For how long . . . ? or How long . . . ? with a span
of time say Depuis combien de temps... ?
Depuis combien de
temps habites-tu ici?
How long have
you been living (lived) here?
—J’habite ici depuis
six ans.
—I’ve lived here for six years.
Other French Expressions for Since
When
used with the present tense, the expressions (il y a... que... , voilà... que...
, and ça fait... que... ) have the same meaning as depuis (since,
for). These expressions—each one includes the time elapsed—precede
the main verb.
J’habite
à Paris depuis deux ans.
Il y a deux ans que j’habite
à Paris. _ I’ve lived (been
living) in Paris
Voilà deux ans que j’habite
à Paris. for two
years.
Ça
fait deux ans que j’habite à Paris.
-er Verbs
with Spelling Changes
The
conjugations of several groups of regular -er verbs have slight spelling
irregularities. There are six major patterns of spelling changes. Learn the
following
models,
and you will know the others in each group. Verbs like commencer (to
begin)
To keep the
soft [s] sound, verbs with infi nitives ending in -cer change -c- to
-ç- (c cedilla) when -c- occurs before -a- or -o-.
In the present tense, this change occurs in the nous form only (nous
commençons).
