French 3 midterm review

1. REVIEW FOR FRENCH 3
MID-TERM EXAM
Take notes! Go back through the lessons! You won’t be sorry!

2. LE PASSÉ COMPOSÉ
• Probably your best prep for the passé composé will be to go back to the
announcements that were eloquently delivered about the passé composé. But this
is a synopsis.
• Passé composé = HELPING VERB + PAST PARTICIPLE
• Helping verb will be AVOIR or ÊTRE – (mrs. Dr vandertramp are the être verbs –
remember the announcement?)
• Past participle will be formed by dropping the ending from verbs and adding
something according to a general pattern (for regular verbs).
Parler – ER + é=
parlé
Finir – IR + i = fini
Vendre – RE + u =
vendu

3. JOIN THEM!
• Remember we said the passé composé is TWO THINGS – always. So it will be the
helping verb in the right form + the past participle, looking like this:
J’ai parlé
Tu as fini
On a vendu
Nous avons dansé
Vous avez choisi
Elles ont entendu

4. IRREGULAR PAST PARTICIPLES
• Remember, as all things with French, some past participles are irregular!
• Écrire – écrit
• Boire-bu
• Voir-vu
• Être – été
• Prendre- pris
• Comprendre – compris

5. ÊTRE VERBS
• The intransitive verbs of motion (Monter, rester, sortir, devenir, retourner, venir,
aller, naître, descendre, entrer, rentrer, tomber, revenir, arriver, mourir, partir)
will use the verb être instead of avoir to form the passé composé.
• When we use être, we also make the PAST PARTICIPLE “agree” (in gender /
number) with the subject (yes, just as we do with adjectives).
• You have to memorize which verbs will use être! There will not be a list on
the exam!!
• The next page here shows you what the être verbs would look like in the
passé composé.

6. ÊTRE VERBS AU PASSÉ
COMPOSÉ!
• Here you can see what the être verb looks like with agreement. We are
assumming that the subject of the JE and NOUS / Tu / VOUS are all FEMALES
– do you see the agreement made?
Je suis arrivée
Tu es devenue
Elle est allée
Nous sommes descendues
Vous êtes née
Elles sont entrées

7. ÊTRE VERBS AU PASSÉ
COMPOSÉ!
• Now we are assumming that the subject of the JE and NOUS / Tu / VOUS are
all male – do you see the agreement made?
Je suis arrivé
Tu es devenu
Il est allé
Nous sommes descendus
Vous êtes né
Ils sont entrés

8. SPECIAL PASSÉ COMPOSÉ
• If the direct object comes in front of the past participle – even if the verb is one that
uses AVOIR, we make the past participle agree with the subject.
➢C’est la lettre que ma tante a écrite.
➢Ce sont les garçons que nous avons vus.

9. L’IMPARFAIT
• The other past tense we learned is far less complicated. It is l’imparfait. It talks
about actions that were begun and or repeatedly happened in the past.
• It is frequently used to narrate in the past. Frequently, it is used to talk about:
➢Age
➢Appearance
➢Weather
➢Date
➢Locations
➢Time

10. LES FORMES
The stem of the imparfait is the first person plural (nous) form of the present tense, minus the -ons.
The imparfait stem is regular for all verbs except être:
verb present tense
'nous' form
imparfait
stem
-er verbs: parler nous parlons parl-
-ir verbs: finir nous finissons finiss-
-re verbs: descendre nous descendons descend-faire
nous faisons fais-prendre
nous prenons pren-partir
nous partons part-être
nous sommes ét-

11. THE ENDINGS
• To the stem, add the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, and -aient. Note that -ais, -
ais, -ait, and -aient are all pronounced alike. That means that the singular forms and
3rd person plural (the boot) all sound the same!
Je parlais
Tu parlais
Elle parlait
Nous parlions
Vous parliez
Ils parlaient

12. LE FUTUR
The future tense consists of a 'future stem', generally the same as the infinitive, plus an ending
depending on the subject. Here is the verb donner with all its future tense forms:
Subject Stem Ending Form Meaning
je donner- -ai je donnerai
I'll give, I'll be
giving
tu donner- -as tu donneras
you'll give, you'll be
giving
il donner- -a il donnera
I'll give, I'll be
giving
nous donner- -ons nous donnerons
we'll give, we'll be
giving
vous donner- -ez vous donnerez
you'll give, you'll be
giving
ils donner- -ont ils donneront
they'll give, they'll
be giving

13. MORE FUTUR
• Similarly, finir gives je finirai etc. Verbs that end in -re remove the -e of the
infinitive before adding the future tense endings: je vendrai, je mettrai, je boirai.
• These verbs have irregular future stems
Être Ser- Avoir Aur-
Venir Viendr- Voir Verr-
Aller Ir- Faire Fer-
Pouvoir Pourr- Savoir Saur-
Vouloir Voudr- Pleuvoir Pleuvr-
Falloir Faudr Mourir Mourr-

14. LE CONDITIONNEL
• The conditional is formed by adding the IMPERFECT TENSE ENDINGS to the
INFINITIVE FORM.
Verb Future stem Conditional form English translation
donner(to) give donner- je donneraistu donneraisil
donneraitnous
donnerionsvous
donneriezils donneraient
I'd giveyou'd giveetc
boire(to) drink boir- je boiraistu boiraisil
boiraitnous boirionsvous
boiriezils boiraient
I'd drinkyou'd drinketc
venir(to) come viendr- je viendraistu viendraisil
viendraitnous
viendrionsvous
viendriezils viendraient
I'd comeyou'd comeetc

15. PRONOUNS
Direct object Indirect object Reflexive
Me Me Me
Te Te Te
Le, la, l’ Lui Se
Nous Nous Nous
Vous Vous Vous
Les Leur Se
The DO answers the
The IO answers the
question WHO? Or WHAT?
question TO WHOM or
After the verb in your
FOR WHOM after the verb
sentence.
in your sentence.
The reflexive pronoun
comes in front of a
reflexive verb (je
m’appelle).

16. PRONOUN PLACEMENT
• If you have ONE verb in the sentence, the pronoun will go in front of that verb.
➢J’achète la voiture. Je l’achète.
➢If you have an affirmative command (telling someone to do something), hook the
pronoun on to the end of the verb.
➢ Achète la voiture! Achète-la!
➢If you have a negative command (telling someone NOT to do something), the
pronouns will go in front of the verb.
➢ N’achète pas la voiture! Ne l’achète pas!

17. Y / EN
• The object pronoun Y will replace à, sur, sous, chez, etc and a place.
➢ Je vais à Paris. J’y vais.
• The object pronoun EN will replace the partitive article, quantities, etc.
➢Nous avons trois chiens. Nous en avons trois.

18. LES ADJECTIFS
• Remember that adjectives change forms according to gender / number. Go back to
Les Sentiments page 1A to review several irregular adjective patterns we have
learned.
• Keep in mind about placement – the adjective in French generally goes behind the
noun. Some will go in front (BAGS – Beauty, Age, Gender, Size) + Good and Bad
always go in front.
➢C’est un petit garçon.
➢C’est une belle fille.
➢Ce sont des bons libres.
➢Ce sont des mauvaises classes.

19. QUI / QUE / DONT
• These are relative pronouns that will be used to join clauses like “that” or “which” or
“who” in English. The “next Word” (after the need for relative pronoun) can be a big
clue to help us figure these out.
• Qui will come in front of a VERB only.
➢C’est mon père qui a préparé le repas.
➢Ce sont les voitures qui coûtent beaucoup.
• Que will come in front of a SUBJECT PRONOUN Or NOUN only.
➢C’est le livre que mon prof a lu.
➢Voici les garçons que nous avons connus.
➢(Do you remember why we need “connus” on the last one?)

20. DONT
• Dont will be used when the verb used WOULD have been followed by DE.
➢Especially you will use this with: avoir envie DE; avoir besoin DE…parler DE
➢La fille dont tu parles est ma copine.
➢Le café dont ils ont envie est dans ce café.
➢Les cahiers dont les étudiants ont besoin sont chez le prof.
➢If the verb would need to be followed by DE to complete it’s thought, use DONT.
➢In all of those examples you can see the verb would have needed to be tu parles
de….ils ont envie de….les étudiants ont besoin de….so we have to use DONT.

21. CE QUI, CE QUE, CE DONT
• We will follow the same basic rules for these, except now, NOTHING SPECIFIC is
going to be referred to in the first clause.
➢C’est exactement ce dont j’ai envie. (That’s exactly what I want.
WHAT? Nothing specific is referred to. Use CE DONT.)
➢Voici ce que j’ai fait. (Here is what I did. WHAT? Nothing specific is
referred to. Use CE QUE.)
➢Voilà ce qui est dans mon sac. (There is what’s in my bag. WHAT?
Nothing specific is referred to. Use CE QUI.)

22. LES ADVERBES
• Generally we will take the adjective in the feminine form and add – ment to it to
make the adverb. The next slide shows others that are very commonly used in
French.
• Adverbs are placed directly before the adjective or adverb that they modify.
• Adverbs are usually placed immediately after the conjugated verb. If the verb is
negative, the adverb is placed after the negation.
• The adverb in French usually follows the conjugated verb. Thus, in all compound
tenses (i.e. tenses where an auxiliary is required, such as the passé composé),
adverbs are placed right after the auxiliary and just before the past participle.

23. PLUS AVEC LES ADVERBES
manner bien, well mal, badly vite, quickly
time souvent, often quelquefois, sometimes toujours, always
jamais, never tôt, early tard, late
bientôt, soon aujourd'hui, today hier, yesterday
maintenant, now déjà, already demain, tomorrow
place dedans, inside dehors, outside ici, here
là, there partout, everywhere quelque part, somewhere
quantity or degree beaucoup, a lot très, very trop, too much
assez, enough peu, little, not much peut-être, maybe
sequence d'abord, at first puis, then, next alors, then, so
donc, thus enfin, finally

24. L’IMPÉRATIF (COMMANDS)
There are three forms of the imperative: tu, nous and vous.
For all verbs, the imperative is formed by taking the corresponding forms of the regular present tense,
but without subject pronouns. The lack of a subject pronoun is what identifies the imperative mood.
finir 'to finish'
present imperative translation
tu finis finis finish (you, familiar)
nous
finissons
finissons let's finish
vous finissez finissez finish

25. PLUS AVEC L’IMPÉRATIF
• The tu form is used to give an order to a child or when the speaker is on familiar
terms with the person addressed. The vous form is used to give an order to a group
of people or to address one person in the vous form. The nous form is used to give
an order that involves oneself as well as others, though it often expresses a
suggestion as its translation (Let's ... ) indicates.
• Drop the final s in the tu forms of the imperative for -er verbs, including aller, and -ir
verbs like ouvrir and other verbs whose present indicative form of tu ends in -es:
Present Imperative Translation
Tu regardes Regarde! Watch, look at
Tu ouvres Ouvre Open
Tu vas Va go

26. REMEMBER – WITH COMMANDS
• We will hook on pronouns to affirmative commands.
• We will put pronouns in front of negative commands.
➢Watch it – regarde-le!
➢Give me – Donne-moi!
➢Go there- Allez-y
➢Don’t watch it – Ne le regarde pas.
➢Don’t give me. Ne me donne pas!
➢Don’t go there. N’y allez pas!

27. • Go through your lesson material to find these irregular verb forms.
Avoir Être Savoir vouloir

28. QUEL VS. LEQUEL
• Remember that these have to agree in gender / number with the nouns they either
modify or replace.
➢Quel livre? Quelle voiture? Quels libres? Quelles voitures?
• LEQUEL (and other forms) are the PRONOUNS. They cannot be followed by a
NOUN. They replace a NOUN since that is the function of a pronoun.

29. HISTOIRE & CULTURE
• Your exam also has history and cultural material from the five units.
• Please be sure to go back through this material to practice and review.
• Let me know what questions you have.