Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Translating French Verbs to English Imperfect Science
This lesson is an overview of how French and English verb forms match up, and we illustrate points with examples: the je form of prendre (to take) and the vous form of aller (to go). Make sure you know how regular verbs are fully conjugated in the simple and compound tenses and how the irregular verbs prendre and aller are fully conjugated in the simple and compound tenses. French has many different tenses and moods, which come in two forms: simple (one word) and compound (two words). Translating French verbs into English, and vice versa, can be difficult for several reasons: The two languages dont have the same verb tenses and moods.Some simple forms in one language are compound in the other.English has modal verbs (unconjugated auxiliary verbs such as could, might and must, that express the mood of the verb that follows), but French does not. Many verbal constructions have more than one possible equivalent in the other language, depending on the context. 1. Simple Verb Tenses Simple tenses consist of only one word. Compound tenses consist of more than one word: usually an auxiliary, or helping, word and a past participle. Present Tense     je prends I take, I am taking, I do take   vous allez you go, you are going, you do go Future    je prendrai I will take   vous irez you will go Conditional    je prendrais I would take   vous iriez you would go Imperfect    je prenais I was taking   vous alliez you were going Passà © Simple (literary tense)   je pris I took   vous allà ¢tes you went Subjunctive    (que) je prenne (that) I take, me to take   Il est important que je prenne... Its important that I take...   Veut-elle que je prenne...? Does she want me to take...?   (que) vous alliez (that) you go, you to go   Il est important que vous alliez... Its important that you go...   Veut-elle que vous alliez...? Does she want you to go...? Imperfect Subjunctive (literary tense)    (que) je prisse (that) I took   (que) vous allassiez (that) you went 2. Compound Tenses As we did with simple (one-word) tenses, for compound tenses, which consist of an auxiliary verb and a past participle, we will be using examples: the je form of prendre (to take) and the vous form of aller (to go). Remember that these are irregular verbs and that prendre needs avoir as the auxiliary verb, while aller requires à ªtre. To properly absorb this lesson, make sure you understand how to fully conjugate compounds verbs in every tense and mood, in particular the compound versions of the example words: prendre and aller. Passà © composà ©    jai pris I took, I have taken, I did take   vous à ªtes allà ©(e)(s) you went, you have gone, you did go Future perfect   jaurai pris I will have taken   vous serez allà ©(e)(s) you will have gone Conditional Perfect    jaurais pris I would have taken   vous seriez allà ©(e)(s) you would have gone Second Form of the Conditional Perfect (literary tense)    jeusse pris I would have taken   vous fussiez allà ©(e)(s) you would have gone The following French compound conjugations all translate to the English past perfect, because these tense distinctions, which are so important in French, arent made in English. In order to understand how the French verb forms are different in meaning and usage, please follow the links. Pluperfect   javais pris I had taken  vous à ©tiez allà ©(e)(s) you had gone Past subjunctive    (que) jaie pris I had taken   (que) vous soyez allà ©(e)(s) you had gone Pluperfect subjunctive (literary tense)    (que) jeusse pris I had taken   (que) vous fussiez allà ©(e)(s) you had gone Past anterior (literary tense)    jeus pris I had taken   vous fà »tes allà ©(e)(s) you had gone 3. Impersonals and Imperatives To illustrate a comparison of these French and English verb forms, we will again use examples: the nous form of prendre (to take) and the vous form of aller (to go). a. Imperatives Imperatives are a verb mood thats used to: give an orderexpress a desiremake a requestoffer advicerecommend something Imperative    (nous) prenons lets take   (vous) allez - go Past imperative    (nous) ayons pris lets have (something) taken   (vous) soyez allà ©(e)(s) have gone b. Impersonals Impersonal means that the verb does not change according to grammatical person. Why? Because no person or other living being carries out the action. Therefore, impersonal verbs have only one conjugation: the third person singular indefinite, or il, which in this case is equivalent to it in English. They include expressions like il faut (its necessary) and weather terms such as il pleut (its raining). Simple impersonal conjugations: Present participle    prenant taking   allant going Past participle    pris took, taken   allà ©Ã‚ gone, went Compound impersonal conjugations: Perfect participle    ayant pris having taken   à ©tant allà ©(e)(s) having gone Past infinitive    avoir pris have taken, having taken   à ªtre allà ©(e)(s) have gone, having gone
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