U4 French: writing revision and practice.
1) Adjectives. You will need to know the position of different adjectives (before or after the noun
they describe) and how to make them agree with a masculine/feminine singular/plural noun.
Position. Most adjectives come after the noun the describe
Eg ‘un livre intéressant’ (an interesting book)
Some adjectives come before the noun. They are usually adjectives for:
-
Beauty (such as ‘beau’)
Age (such as ‘vieux’)
Good or bad (such as ‘bon’ and ‘mauvais’)
Size (such as ‘grand’ and ‘petit’)
Agreement. Adjectives have to agree in gender and number with the noun they describe. This
means that when you look an adjective up in the dictionary, you will be given the version for
masculine singular nouns.
Eg ‘intéressant’ (interesting). Like in the previous example, ‘un livre’ is a masculine singular noun.
The general rule is that if an adjective describes a feminine noun, you add an ‘e’. For plural
nouns, add an ‘s’ (after the ‘e’ if the noun is feminine).
-
If the adjective already ends in an ‘s’ you do not need to add another ‘s’.
Similarly, if the adjective already ends in an ‘e’ you do not need to add another ‘e’. (BUT: if
the adjective end in é you do add an extra e.)
Eg ‘Rouge’ is the same in the masculine and feminine singular forms.
Some adjectives are irregular, which means that they do not follow this pattern. These adjectives
just have to be learned and practised.
Some regular examples:
Masculine singular
Grand
Petit
Masculine plural
Grands
Petits
Feminine singular
Grande
Petite
Feminine plural
Grandes
Petites
Some common irregular examples:
Masculine
singular
Sportif
Paresseux
Bon
Mauvais
Heureux
Blanc
Idéal
Gentil
Mignon
Beau (‘bel’ before
a vowel or ‘h’)
Masculine plural
Sportifs
Paresseux
Bons
Mauvais
Heureux
Blancs
Idéaux
Gentils
Mignons
Beaux
Feminine
singular
Sportive
Paresseuse
Bonne
Mauvaise
Heureuse
Blanche
Idéale
Gentille
Mignonne
Belle
Feminine plural
Translation
Sportives
Paresseuses
Bonnes
Mauvaises
Heureuses
Blanches
Idéales
Gentilles
Mignonnes
Belles
Sporty
Lazy
Good
Bad
Happy
White
Ideal
Kind
Cute
Beautiful
Vieux (‘vieil’
before a vowel or
‘h’)
Vieux
Vieille
Vieilles
Old
2) Prepositions
Prepositions are often used to say where a person or thing is located. The main ones are à, de, en
and chez. Some of them change depending on whether they refer to masculine/feminine and
singular/plural nouns. Some also have a different version when they come before a word
beginning with a vowel or ‘h’.
Masculine
singular
Feminine
singular
au
du
à la
de la
Before a vowel
(whether
masculine or
feminine)
à l’
de l’
Plural (whether
masculine or
feminine)
Translation
aux
des
At the / to the
Of the / from
the
Some that do not change: 
En
Chez
Dans
Derrière
Sur
Sous
Entre
Devant
By, in, to, made of… (you
can tell from the context)
To, at the house of
In
Behind
On
Under
Between
In front of
Prepositions and towns or cities
To say ‘in/to [a city], use à e.g. ‘je veux aller à Édimbourg’. It does not change for
masculine/feminine 
Prepositions and countries
To say ‘in/to [a country]’, use en, au or aux according to the following rules:
-
For feminine countries, use en e.g. ‘je vais en France cet été’
For masculine countries, use au eg ‘mon ami habite au Canada’
For all plural countries, use aux eg ‘je suis allé aux États-Unis’, ‘je suis allé aux Pays Bas’
How can you tell if a country is masculine or feminine? Almost all feminine countries end in ‘e’ so
while this is not normally a good way to tell gender, with countries it is a fairly safe bet.
3) The perfect tense
As you know, the perfect tense is formed with three parts, as follows:
Nous avons regardé (we watched OR we have watched)
-
Subject pronoun (such as ‘je’ or ‘il’)
Auxiliary verb (a part of ‘avoir’ or ‘être’)
Past participle (such as ‘acheté’)
Subject pronouns
Je or J’
before a
vowel /h
I
Tu
You
(singular)
Vous
Il / elle
He / she
Ils / elles
Nous
We
You (plural or
polite
singular)
They (all
boys or
mixed) / They
(all girls)
Auxiliary verbs: Most verbs take a part of avoir. Those that instead take être are the MRS VAN
DER TRAMP verbs and reflexive verbs
Make a list of MRS VAN DER TRAMP words shown in the picture below.
Avoir and être
Avoir:
Être :
j’ai, tu as, il/elle a, nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont
je suis, tu es, il/elle est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils/elles sont
Past participles. Most verbs are regular. For regular verbs, take the infinitive, remove the –er, -ir
or –re and add the following endings
-er  é
-ir  i
-re  u
Some past participles are irregular, meaning that their stem changes (the bit before the –er, -ir or –
re). Here are some common examples:
Infinitive in
English
To write
To take
To have to
To do / make
To
understand
Infinitive in
French
Écrire
Prendre
Devoir
Faire
Comprendre
Past participle
Écrit
Pris
Dû
Fait
Compris
Infinitive in
English
To see
To drink
To put
To say
To learn
Infinitive in
French
Voir
Boire
Mettre
Dire
apprendre
Past
participle
Vu
Bu
Mis
Dit
appris
BUT NOTE: if the verb is takes être as the auxiliary verb (see above for the explanation), then the
past participle has to agree with the person doing the action.
When one girl is doing the action, add ‘e’. (eg je suis allée)
When several girls are doing the action, add ‘es’. (eg nous sommes parties)
When one boy is doing the action, add nothing. (eg il est resté)
When several boys or a mixture of boys and girls are doing the action, add ‘s’ (eg ils sont
sortis)
4) The near future tense
This is used to talk about things you are going to do in the near future. It is the equivalent of
sentences like ‘I am going to bake a cake’ where you use the verb ‘go’ plus an infinitive (here, ‘to
bake’).
In French, start with the verb ‘to go’ in the present tense:
Je
vais
Nous
allons
Tu
Il / elle
vas
va
Vous
Ils / elles
allez
vont
Then add your verb in the infinitive, e.g. ‘je vais manger une banane’
Opinion and justification:
The easiest way to give your opinion is to use a verb such as “j’aime/je n’aime pas” and justify by
using an adjective after “c’est” for example: “j’aime le style rappeur, c’est trop cool” but to make
your writing more interesting you could use expressions such as:
- Je trouve que… I find
- Je pense que… I think
- Je crois que… I believe
- À mon avis In my opinion
- selon moi/d’après moi
according to me
Using connectives makes your writing more ambitious. Here are a few:
- however: ………………………………
- on one hand… on the hand: d’un côté… d’un autre côté
- in addition : de plus, en outre
- firstly : ………………………………………………….
- Then : ………………………………………………….
- Finally : …………………………………………………
Test yourself
1) Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the adjective.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)
Ma mère a acheté un pull __________. (bleu)
Je porte aujourd'hui un pantalon et une chemise __________. (noir, blanc)
Tu as vu mes chaussures __________? (noir)
Mon frère cherche sa cravate __________. (vert)
Samedi soir j'ai regardé un film __________ au cinéma. (intéressant)
Ma mère est très __________. (intelligent)
Après le voyage nous étions vraiment __________. (fatigué)
Les filles que tu as rencontrées sont __________. (français)
Madame, votre glace est __________. (excellent)
2) Fill in the gaps with the correct preposition
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Elle habite _____ Espagne
Je vais à l’école _____ voiture
Nous avons acheté une maison _____ Manchester
Je pars en vacances ____ Canada l’année prochaine
Vous allez ___ Pays Bas ?
3) Using the perfect tense, fill in the correct form of the verb in brackets
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
J’ ___ ______ ma chambre hier (ranger)
Nous ___ ________ des promenades à la plage (faire)
Elle ___ ________ un magazine passionnant (lire)
Tu ___ _______ en vacances en Turquie (partir)
Ils ___ _______ de leur vélo (tomber)
Moi et mon frère ___ ______ au centre commercial (aller)
J’___ _______ une nouvelle trousse (acheter)
Jean et Fatima ___ _______ du jardin (rentrer)
4) Using the near future tense, fill in the correct form of the verb in brackets
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Le week-end prochain, je _____ _____ au volley (jouer)
Samedi prochain, elle _____ _____ de l’équitation (faire)
Dans deux semaines, nous _____ _____ une soirée en famille (passer)
Demain je _____ _____ sur mon ordinateur (jouer)
Demain soir tu _____ _____ les devoirs (faire)