Glossary

What this glossary defines, and how

Accord to conjuguer

The entries follow the alphabetical order of French, from one block to the next.

Accord

Agreement. The fact, for a word, of taking the mark that another word in the sentence imposes on it. A verb agrees with its subject; a past participle used with the auxiliary être also agrees with the subject.

Adjectif

Adjective. A word that goes with a noun and says what the thing it names is like: une grande maison, des rues désertes. It takes the gender and the number of the noun it relates to.

Auxiliaire

Auxiliary. The verb être or the verb avoir used in front of a past participle to form a compound tense. In "nous avons chanté", the auxiliary is "avons". An auxiliary does not keep its ordinary meaning: in "elle est partie", the verb être does not say a state.

Complément

Complement. A group of words that completes the verb or the sentence. In "le facteur distribue le courrier", "le courrier" is a complement. It never commands the agreement of the verb, which obeys its subject alone.

Complément direct

Direct object. A complement attached to the verb with no linking word, and answering the question "qui ?" or "quoi ?" put after the verb. This workbook names it in order to say what it does not deal with: the agreement of the past participle when that object stands before the verb.

Conjuguer

To conjugate. To produce the possible forms of a verb according to mood, tense and person. Conjugating always comes down to sticking the right ending onto the right stem.

Désinence to radical

The entries continue, still in alphabetical order.

Désinence

Inflectional ending. The scholarly name for the ending. This workbook uses the word terminaison, which school usage allows in its place.

Déterminant

Determiner. A small word placed in front of a noun to introduce it: le, la, les, un, des, ce, ces, mon, son, leur. It takes the gender and the number of the noun it goes with.

Féminin

Feminine. One of the two genders of French. A past participle used with the auxiliary être takes an e when the subject is feminine: elle est partie.

Futur

Simple future. A simple tense of the indicative that places the action after the moment of speaking. It is built on the whole infinitive for most verbs, and an r always comes before its ending: je chanterai, nous partirons.

Genre

Gender. The masculine or feminine character of a noun, and of the words that agree with it. The gender decides the mark taken by a past participle used with the auxiliary être.

Groupe

Group. The traditional sorting of verbs into three families: first group for infinitives in -er, second for those in -ir whose stem lengthens with -iss- like finir, third for all the others. This workbook does not use that sorting, because it prefers to name the families by their model; the entry is here because the reader will meet these words everywhere else.

Imparfait

Imperfect. A simple tense of the indicative that places the action in the past and shows it in the course of happening, without saying when it begins or when it ends. Its endings are the same for every verb in the language.

Indicatif

Indicative. The mood of the verb that places the action in the past, in the present or in the time to come. It is the mood the four tenses of this workbook belong to.

Infinitif

Infinitive. The form of the verb that carries neither person nor tense, the one under which it is listed in a dictionary: chanter, finir, prendre. It is the name of the verb, and it is also what serves to build its futur.

Marque de personne

Person marker. The part of the ending that says who is doing the action. In "ils chantaient", the final -ent is the marker of the third person plural, the one found again in "ils chantent".

Marque de temps

Tense marker. The part of the ending that says the tense. In "ils chantaient", the -ai- is the marker of the imparfait, and it is found again in "je chantais" and in "il chantait". In the persons "nous" and "vous", it is an i that plays that part: nous chantions, vous chantiez.

Masculin

Masculine. One of the two genders of French. A past participle used with the auxiliary être takes no mark of gender when the subject is masculine: il est parti.

Mode

Mood. A broad category of verb forms. This workbook works on one mood only, the indicative; the infinitive and the participle are moods too, but they do not vary according to the person.

Mot invariable

Invariable word. A word always written the same way, whatever the words around it: à, et, jamais, souvent, très. Among the look-alikes of the forms of être and of avoir, "à" and "et" are of this kind; "on", which is a pronoun, does not change form either; only "son" varies: son, sa, ses. So it is not invariability that unmasks a look-alike, but the change-of-tense test.

Nom

Noun. A word that names a person, an animal, a thing or an idea: le facteur, le train, la patience. It carries a gender and a number, and it commands the agreement of the words that go with it.

Nombre

Number. The singular or plural character of a word. The number of the subject decides the ending of the verb, and it also decides the mark of the past participle used with the auxiliary être.

Participe passé

Past participle. The form of the verb used behind an auxiliary to build a compound tense: chanté, fini, pris, vu, été. It then behaves like an adjective when the auxiliary is être, and it agrees with the subject.

Passé composé

Perfect tense. A compound tense of the indicative, built with the auxiliary avoir or être conjugated in the présent, followed by the past participle. It shows a completed action: "elle a dormi" rather than "elle dort".

Personne

Person. The rank of the subject, from the first to the third, singular or plural. It is stated with the pronouns je, tu, il or elle, nous, vous, ils or elles. The pronoun "on" is always conjugated in the third person singular.

Pluriel

Plural. The mark that says there are several beings or several things. A plural subject brings a plural ending on the verb, and an s on the past participle used with the auxiliary être.

Préposition

Preposition. A small invariable word that introduces a complement: à, de, pour, dans, sur, par. The preposition "à" merges to the ear with the form "a" of the verb avoir, and the change-of-tense test separates them.

Présent

Present tense. A simple tense of the indicative that places the action at the moment of speaking. It also serves to say what is true at all times, and sometimes what is planned: "je pars demain".

Pronom personnel sujet

Subject personal pronoun. A small word that holds the place of a subject and carries its person: je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles. It commands the agreement of the verb exactly as a group of words would.

Radical

Stem. The part of the verb that carries its meaning and that stands in front of the ending. In "chantais", the stem is chant-. Some verbs have several stems: je viens, nous venons, je viendrai.

Singulier to verbe conjugué

The last entries of the glossary.

Singulier

Singular. The mark that says there is only one being or one thing. A singular subject brings a singular ending on the verb. The pronoun "on" is always conjugated in the singular, even when it names several people.

Sujet

Subject. The group of words that commands the agreement of the verb. You find it by putting the question "qui est-ce qui ?" or "qu'est-ce qui ?" in front of the verb. The word placed just before the verb is not always the subject, and that is where most agreement mistakes come from.

Temps

Tense. The form of the verb that places the action in relation to the moment of speaking. This workbook works on four: le présent, l'imparfait, le futur and le passé composé.

Temps composé

Compound tense. A tense conjugated with an auxiliary followed by the past participle. The passé composé is the only one this workbook works on.

Temps simple

Simple tense. A tense conjugated without an auxiliary, in one word. The présent, the imparfait and the futur are simple tenses.

Terminaison

Ending. The part of the verb placed behind the stem, which changes according to the tense and according to the person. In "chantais", the ending is -ais. Scholarly grammars call it désinence.

Verbe

Verb. A word that says what is happening: an action, a state, a change. It is the only word in the sentence that changes form according to the moment and according to the person.

Verbe conjugué

Conjugated verb. A verb that carries a person and a tense, as against the infinitive. In "nous partons demain", the conjugated verb is "partons" and the infinitive is partir.