Elle est Marie-Renée Bernard. Elle est gothique, jolie femme. Elle adore les jeux de société.
| quoi | [kwa] | what |
| que | [kə] | complementizer particle (?); what (?) |
| qui | [ki] | complementizer particle (?); who |
| ce(t)/cette (pl. ces) | [sə, sɛt, sɛt, se] |
general demonstrative; general demonstrative pronoun
The masculine singular changes form before a vowel. |
| à | to | |
| de | of | |
| je re (je reviens) | be right back | |
| re (je suis revenu) | I'm back | |
| truc | [tʀyk] | (informal) thing |
| en tant que | [ɑ̃ tɑ̃ kə] |
(literally) being, in the position that (of)
Similar to comme, en tant que is often translated as "as." The phrase seems to come historically from "in the capacity that (of), inasmuch that (of), insofar that (of)." |
| En tant que chat j'aime le poisson. | Being a cat, I love fish. | |
| autant que | [otɑ̃ kə] | as much as (in quantity) |
| Autant que chat j'aime le poisson. | As much as a cat, I love fish. |
| plus | [ply] | adverb |
| Une grosse femme. | A fat woman. | |
| Une plus grosse femme. | A fatter woman. | |
| La plus grosse femme. | The fattest woman (there seems to be no way of saying 'the fatter woman'). | |
| trop | [tʀo] | adverb (unlike English too, French trop can modify both adjectives and verbs) |
| Elle est trop grosse. | She is too fat. | |
| Elle a trop mangé. | She was eating too much. | |
| trop de | adjective | |
| Elle a mangé trop de pomme. | She was eating too many apples. |
plus has a lot more uses
| Definite | Indefinite | Partitive | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | à + _ | de + _ | |||
| Masculine | le [lə], l' | au | un [œ̃] | du, de l' | |
| Feminine | la [la], l' | à la | une [yn] | de la, de l' | |
| Plural | les [le] | aux | des | des | des |
It seems that, even though [y] precedes [n] in une, it is not nasalized.
suis [sɥi]
Seem to mainly be a pronoun-verb (ex. c'est, j'aime) AND determiner-noun (ex. l'abeille) thing when the latter begins with a vowel sound.
Verbs agree in number, gender, and person (?).
The lemma is the infinitive.
Is there a past perfective? I do not know.
The compound past has the same meaning as the imperfect but is more archaic. Its use has largely been replaced by the imperfect.
There are two auxiliary verbs to indicate the compound past — which auxiliary verb is used for which verb must be memorized.
Some verbs use avoir (infinitive, to have).
| J'ai envoyé | I was sending |
| Tu as envoyé | You were sending |
| Tu m'as envoyé | You were sending (to) me |
| Il/elle a envoyé | He/she/it was sending |
Other verbs use être (infinitive, to be).
| Je suis parti/partie | I was leaving |
| Tu es parti/partie | You (sg) were leaving |
| Il/elle est parti/partie | He/she/it was leaving |
| Nous sommes partis/parties | We were leaving |
| Vous êtes partis/parties | You (pl) were leaving |
| Ils sont partis/parties | They (pl) were leaving |
The only difference from the compound past is the tense of the auxiliary verb, which changed from present to imperfect. This is why the pluperfect "happens earlier" than the compound past.
J'avais envoyé -- To my past self, I was sending