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61. Personal Pronouns

Note:  You have already learned the subject pronouns.  They go before the conjugated verb forms.  The Direct and Indirect Object pronouns go before the verb even though in English they go after it.  They also go after the ne in a negative sentence and right before the verb. The disjunctive always go after prepositions, or can be used alone for emphasis.

Sample Sentences:  

Note:  When you have more than one pronoun; me, te, nous, or vous come first, then le, la, or les, then lui or leur.  Me, te, le, and la contract to m', t', and l' when they precede a vowel, the same way je does.  In commands, the pronouns go after the verb, connected with a hyphen.  And the pronoun order changes a little too:  Le, la, or les come first; then moi, toi, (Me and te become moi and toi in commands) nous, or vous; then lui, or leur.

If you have pronouns, they go before the complete verb in regular sentences; but after the ne and before the form of avoir in negative sentences.

In the passé composé with avoir, direct object pronouns only must agree in gender and number with the past participle.

Note:  Add an e if the pronoun is feminine, and an s if it is plural.  The l' could mean him or her, so you might not need to put the extra e on the past participle.  The same for nous and vous.  They must have an s because they are plural, but it is unclear as to whether they are masculine or feminine.

62. Parts of the Body / Les parties du corps

To say something hurts or that you have an ache, you can use avoir mal à (body part):

J'ai mal à la tête.  I have a headache.
J'ai mal à l'estomac.  I have a stomach ache.
Elle a mal au bras.  Her arm hurts.
Tu as mal au genou?  Your knee hurts?
Il a mal aux orteils.  His toes hurt.

However, if someone is causing you pain, use faire mal (to hurt) plus the indirect pronoun.

Tu me fais mal.  You're hurting me.
Ne lui faites pas mal.  Don't hurt him / her.

When describing hair color or eye color, you use blonds, châtain, bruns, roux for hair; and bleus, verts, marron, noirs for eyes. Notice that châtain and marron do not agree in gender or number.

Elle a les cheveux roux. Elle est rousse. She has red hair. She is a red-head.
Il a les yeux marron. He has brown eyes.

Combien mésures-tu ? / Combien fais-tu ? How tall are you?
Combien pèses-tu ? How much do you weigh?
Je fais 1m60. I am 1 m 60 cm.
Je pèse 50 kilos. I weigh 50 kilos.

1) Invert the subject and verb form and add a hyphen.  Instead of Vous parlez anglais? use Parlez-vous anglais?  But if you invert il, elle, or on, you must put a t between the verb form (if it ends in a vowel) and the subject for ease of pronunciation.  Parle-il anglais? is incorrect and must become Parle-t-il anglais?  And je is usually only inverted with pouvoir or devoir.  However, if je is inverted with pouvoir, you don't use peux, but puis.  Puis-je ? (pweezh) is Can I?

2)  Add n'est-ce pas ? (ness pah) to the end of the sentence.  It is equivalent to isn't it, don't you, aren't we, won't you, etc.

3)  If the question requires a yes or no answer, put Est-ce que (ess kuh) at the beginning.  It contracts to Est-ce qu' before a word beginning with a vowel, such as elle, il or on.  You can also use interrogative words (quand, comment, où, etc.) at the beginning of the sentence and then add est-ce que.

4) With interrogative words, you can also use inversion:  Quand tes parents partent-ils en vacances ?  Or you can use an interrogative with est-ce que and normal word order:  Pourquoi est-ce que vous êtes ici ?

5) Quel / Quelle / Quels / Quelles (which, what) agrees with the noun it modifies.  It precedes the noun or the verb être, it may follow a preposition, and it can be used with inversion or with est-ce que.  Quelle est la date ?  A quelle heure partez-vous ?  Quels bagages est-ce que vous prenez ?  Notice that the forms of quel can also be used in exclamatory sentences.  Quel beau jour !  / Quelle belle journée ! What a beautiful day!

6)  With negative questions, negative expressions remain in their usual place (i.e. around the verb, or verb and subject if inverted).  Tu ne travailles pas ?  Est-ce que te ne travailles pas ?  Ne travailles-tu pas ?  Pourquoi n'as-tu pas travaillé ?

Asking Questions with the Passé Composé
Only the auxiliary verb (avoir or être) and the subject pronoun are inverted.  The past participle follows.
A-t-il été surpris ?  Was he surprised?
T'es-tu amusé ?  Did you have fun?

64. Interrogative Pronouns

► Use of Inversion when Subject is Noun:
a. With qui and quoi, inversion pattern is regular.
Qui Marie a-t-elle vu?  Whom did Marie see?
De quoi Marc a-t-il besoin?  What does Marc need?

b. With que, the noun subject must be inverted directly.
Que veut Jean?  What does Jean want?
Que font les autres?  What are the others doing?

c.  However, if the sentence contains more than a subject and verb, or if the verb is in a compound tense (such as the passé composé), the short form is not used.
Qu'est-ce que Luc veut faire aujourd'hui?  What does Luc want to do today?
Qu'est-ce que les autres ont fait?  What did the others do?

► Verb Agreement:
a. Interrogative pronouns are usually masculine singular.
Les voitures font du bruit.  Qu'est-ce qui fait du bruit? Cars make noise. What makes noise?
Les enfants sont arrivés.  Qui est arrivé? The children arrived. Who arrived?

b.  Exception:  when qui is followed by a conjugated form of être, the verbs agrees with the noun that follows.
Qui étaient Les Trois Mousquetaires? Who were the three Musketeers?

► Qu'est-ce que (or qui) vs. Quel:
a. Qu'est-ce que c'est que is used to ask for a definition, and quel asks for specific information.
Qu'est-ce que c'est que le camembert?  What is "camembert"?
Quel est le problème?  What is the problem?

b. When followed by a conjugated form of être, quel is used if être is followed by a noun and qu'est-ce qui is used if être is followed by anything other than a noun.
Quelle est la date?  What is the date?
Qu'est-ce qui est bon?  What is good?

► Written vs. Spoken French with Questions

In spoken French, inversion and the use of est-ce que are usually dropped, but they must be used in written French. Additionally, some forms are contracted or the word order may differ. And it's very common to use qui c'est qui in place of qui or qui est-ce qui.

65. Forms of Lequel

Lequel is a pronoun that replaces the adjective quel and the noun it modifies.  It expresses Which one? as a question, but which in a statement (usually preceded by a preposition).

Lequel contracts with à and de in the plural and masculine singular forms:

66. Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns join sentences together.  These words signal a relative clause which explains the noun, called the antecedent.   If the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause (a verb immediately follows), use qui.  If the relative pronoun is the direct object of the clause (subject + verb follows), use que. If the verb of the dependent clause requires the preposition de, use dont to replace it. Also use dont to mean whose.  Qui, que, and dont can all mean that or who, depending on the sentence. If the antecedent is a place or time, use où to mean where or when. When there is no specific antecedent, ce is added as an artificial one before que, qui or dont; but it can refer to only things, not people.  Ce qui, ce que and ce dont generally mean what.

67. Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns translate to the one(s), or that/those when replacing a noun.  There are four forms, but they are not often used alone.  De, qui, que, dont and -ci or -là usually follow them.

Donnez-moi mon billet et celui de Guillaume.  Give me my ticket and William's. (or: the one of William)
Il porte ses propres livres et ceux de sa sœur.  He is carrying his own books and his sister's. (or: those of his sister)
Quelles fleurs aimes-tu, celles-ci ou celles-là?  Which flowers do you like, these (ones) or those (ones)?
Ceux qui travaillent dur réussissent.  Those who work hard succeed.
C'est celui dont je parle.  That's the one I'm talking about.

The indefinite demonstrative pronouns ceci (this), cela (that) and ça (this/that) refer to indefinite things or ideas.

J'aime ça.  I like that.
Prenez ceci.  Take this.

68. To Read, To Say / Tell, & To Laugh

The past participles are: lu, dit and ri, and all three are conjugated with avoir.

69. Disjunctive Pronouns

1. As mentioned above, disjunctives are mostly used after prepositions and can only replace people, not things.  However, if the preposition is à, there are two possible rules:

à + person = indirect pronoun

à + person + à = disjunctive pronoun, in these cases:

2. They can also be used alone, to emphasize a subject, with être à (to belong to) or in compound subjects.

Moi, j'ai faim.  Me, I am hungry.
Ses amis et lui, ils aiment manger.  His friends and he, they like to eat.
Ce livre est à moi !  That book is mine!

3. They can be added to -même to mean -self.

elle-même = herself

4. They are also used with ne...que.

Ce n'est que lui.  It's only him.

70. Y & En

Y and en are both pronouns that go before the verb.  Y (ee) means it or there.  En (awn) means some or some (of them), or of it.  They replace prepositional phrases.  In French, the phrases will begin with à (or any contraction of it), en, sur, sous, chez, devant, derrière, dans, etc. for y; and de (or any contraction of it) or a number for en.  They cannot replace people unless the person is introduced with an indefinite article, partitive, number or quantity.  Sometimes y and en have no direct translation in English. Remember that they go before the verb, except in a command, in which they follow the verb and are connected with a hyphen.  The -er verbs also add the -s they lost when forming the you (familiar) command.

71. To See, To Believe, & To Write

Verbs take a direct object if they do not need a preposition to connect it to the noun.  Verbs that take indirect objects use prepositions after the verb.  Voir-to see (vwahr) and croire-to believe (krwahr) take a direct and écrire-to write (ay-kreer) takes an indirect.

You can sometimes tell if a verb takes a direct or indirect object by using the verbs in English.  We say "I see her" or "She believes him" or "He writes to them."   In French, it would be "Je la vois" (direct), "Elle le croit" (direct) and "Il leur écrit." (indirect)  But don't always count on English to help you out.  Téléphoner (à) and obéir (à) both take indirect objects in French but you can't tell that in English.  In this case, you can tell by the à that follows the infinitive.

Writing Vocabulary

When typing in French, you must leave an extra space before a punctuation mark that has two components, such as a colon, semi-colon, question mark, exclamation point, etc.

72. Animals

Some adverbs such as actuellement (currently, now) and éventuellement (possibly, perhaps) can be deceiving. 

Adverbs are placed right after the verb in a simple tense.  Adverbs of opinion and time usually go at the beginning or end of the sentence.  When peut-être and sans doute begin a sentence or clause, they are usually followed by que.  With the passé composé, most adverbs are placed between the auxiliary verb and past participle.  In negative sentences, pas precedes the adverb, except with peut-être, sans doute, sûrement, and probablement.  Adverbs of time and place generally follow the past participle.

79. Tools & Hobbies

Other expressions related to hobbies/leisure time:

bavarder - to chat
bronzer - to tan
faire la grasse matinée - to sleep in late
faire la sieste - to take a nap
faire une pause - to take a break
faire une promenade - to take a walk
faire un tour - to go out for a while
prendre un bain de soleil - to sunbathe
prendre un verre - to go out for a drink
se détendre - to relax
se reposer - to rest

80. False Cognates

Les faux-amis or false cognates are a common pitfall among language students.  The following are some common words that you may be deceived by:

Abus is used to mean excess or overindulgence, and usually not abuse.
Disposer means to arrange or to have available, not to dispose of.
Une injure is an insult, not an injury.
Actuel and actuellement mean current and currently.
Avertissement is a warning, not an advertisement.
Une recette is a recipe, not a receipt.
Fournitures refers to supplies, not furniture.
Original means new or innovative.
Humeur means mood, not humor.
Formel is used to mean strict, not formal.