-ER Verbs (Regular)

There are three major groups of regular verbs in French: verbs with infinitives ending in -er, verbs with infinitives ending in -ir, and verbs with infinitives ending in -re. Since -er verbs are the most numerous, they are considered the first conjugation. To conjugate these verbs, drop the -er from the infinitive to form the stem. Next, add the -erendings to the stem. Different tenses have different endings. The endings given below (-e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent) are for forming the present tense. The endings (-e, -es, -e, and -ent) are all silent. The only endings that are pronounced are the nous (-ons) and the vous (-ez) endings. The four silent endings form a boot shape in the verb conjugation.

parler 'to speak'
je parle
nous parlons
tu parles
vous parlez
il/elle/on parle
ils/elles parlent
past participle: parlé

Listen carefully to the following sentences. Note that the pronunciation of each of the verbs is the same even though the conjugations are spelled differently.

Tex, il parle français? Mais c'est un tatou. Tex speaks French? But he's an armadillo.

Tex: Bien sûr jeparle français etTammy, elle aussi, elle parle français.
Tex: Of course, I speak French and Tammy,too, she speaks French.

Eh bien dis donc, même les tatous parlent français au Texas?
Well, I'll be, even the armadillos speak French in Texas?

Here is a list of common -er verbs:

adorer, to adore habiter, to live
aimer, to like jouer, to play

aimermieux, to prefer montrer, to show

chanter, to sing présenter, tointroduce

chercher,to look for regarder, to watch

danser, to dance rencontrer, to meet (by chance)

demander,to ask rester, to stay,remain

détester,to hate, to detest téléphoner,to telephone

donner,to give travailler, to work

écouter, to listen to trouver, to find

étudier, to study

Je changes to j' before a verb starting with a vowel or a silent h (ex.j'adore, j'habite). This phenomenon is known as élision. Listen to the following sentences. Can you hear the élision in the first two examples?

Tex: J'adore la musique rap et j'écoute souvent de la musique dans les clubs.
I love rap music and I often listen to music in clubs.

Je chante et je danse aussi.
I sing and I dance, too.

Note also that the s in plural pronouns (nous, vous, and ils/elles) is usually silent except when it is followed by a verb that begins with a vowel sound. In such a case the silent s is pronounced as a /z/ and links the pronoun to the verb. This phenomenon is called liaison ('linking') and is very characteristic of French. Listen carefully to the sentences below. Which sentences contain examples of liaison?

Tex et Tammy, ils écoutent de la musique cadienne avec Paw-Paw!
Tex and Tammy, they listen to Cajun music with Paw-Paw!

Tammy: Nous adorons danser.
Tammy: We love to dance

Tex: Oui, oui, c'est vrai. Nous dansons beaucoup.
Tex: Yes, yes, that's true. We dance a lot.

ขนมปังน่ากินทั้งน้านนนน

"Conjunction"

A conjunction is a word used to link or 'conjoin' words or phrases into a coherent whole. There are two classes of conjunctions: coordinate and subordinate.

coordinating conjunctions
A coordinating conjunction 'coordinates' two equivalent elements in a sentence, that is, words belonging to the same grammatical category (nouns + nouns, verbs + verbs, independent clause + independent clause, etc.). The most commonly used coordinating conjunctions in French are:

mais	but
ou	or
et	and
donc	so, thus
or	so, now
ni ... ni	neither ... nor
car	for
puis	then

Edouard n'aime ni le barbecue ni les hamburgers.	Edouard likes neither barbecue nor hamburgers.
Tex fume des cigarettes et boit du vin rouge.	Tex smokes cigarettes and drinks red wine.

subordinating conjunctions
A subordinating conjunction links an independent clause to a dependent clause. In other words, a subordinating conjunction joins two unequivalent clauses (independent and dependent). An independent clause is any clause that can stand alone to form a grammatical sentence. A dependent clause, on the other hand, cannot stand alone and thus 'depends' on the main clause in order to form a complete thought.

The most commonly used subordinate conjunctions:

que	that
pendant que	as, while
quand lorsque	when when
depuis que	since (indicating time)
tandis que	while, whereas
puisque	since
parce que	because

Il est évident que Tex fume trop. (dependent) . ... .(independent)

It is obvious that Tex smokes too much.