Use of the verb to be in French. Verb "to be"

Remember that everything you learn must be spoken out loud, listening to the voiceover of both the lesson itself and the answers to the exercises. Don’t be afraid if you are not yet strong in the rules of reading - just repeat after the announcer and return to the French phonetics course.
The pronunciation will pick up on its own in the process of working with the French language.

  Listen to the audio lesson with additional explanations

In French, as in all other European languages, you cannot simply say:

I'm beautiful, he's weird, they're at home, you're at work.

Get used to what any foreigner will say:

I There is beautiful, she There is weird, they There is at home, you There is At work.

The so-called verb be– one of the most important verbs in any foreign language.

The English have “to be.” The Germans have sein.
The Italians have essere. For the French, être means to be.

Conjugation of the verb être (to be)

The French language has the following pronouns:

Negative form of the verb être (to be)

Before the verb - ne, after the verb - pas:

ne + verb+pas

Interrogative form of the verb être (to be)

How the question is asked depends on the situation and who you are asking.

The best interrogative phrase is the one with est-ce que.

Set expressions with the verb être (to be)

There are a lot of fixed expressions with the verb être in French that will greatly decorate and enrich your speech at the start of learning French:

Good, verb be You will always use with:

• nouns- "Who? what?”: je suis femme au foyer (I am a housewife), il est un chômeur (he is unemployed), c"est ma soeur (this is my sister), c"est mon mari (this is my husband), c"est notre maison (this is our house) ;
• adjectives- "Which? which? which one?”: elle est gaie (she is cheerful), il est riche (he is rich), la maison est vieille (the house is old);
• adverb- “how?”: c"est compliqué (it’s difficult), c"est intéressant (it’s interesting), c"est bien / bon (this is good), c"est mauvais / mal (this is bad);
• or when answer the question " where?”: il est dans le parc (he’s in the park), je suis à la maison (I’m at home), mon mari est au travail (my husband is at work), ils sont en vacances (they are on vacation).

Coordination

What to pay attention to. In Russian we say:

I'm healthy, I'm healthy A, they are healthy s,
I'm busy, I'm busy A, they're busy s.

In grammar language this is called agree adjective in gender and number. If it’s simpler, then you need to put the correct endings.

It turns out that:

a man will always talk without ending
(i.e. as written in fixed expressions),
woman - ending -e,
they, we - with the ending -s.

Je suis content(-). - I'm pleased.
Je suis contente. - I'm happy.
Ils sont contents. – They are satisfied (men, m + f).
Elles sont contentes. – They are happy (women).

To summarize what you need to learn in this lesson:

• verb conjugation be and cases when it should be in a sentence,
• negation: before the verb – ne, after the verb – pas,
• question: turnover est-ce que,
• approval:
  - the man says without ending,
  – woman – with ending -e,
  – men – with the ending -s,
  – women – with the ending -es.

That's it!

Additionally, learn words from the lesson and from the exercises, look at additional grammar topics on the website, listen to the phonetics course, and most importantly, start speaking and using the knowledge from this lesson now in your life.

Good afternoon friends! Today I will tell you about one of the frequently used verbs in French - être. This word perfectly shows all the unusualness, diversity and variability. After all, it can be not only a verb, but also a noun, it can be translated or omitted during translation, it can be read in its entirety or give only one sound.

One thing is for sure: the French verb être is the first action word we are introduced to when we begin to learn the language.

From this article you will learn:

Subtleties of change

In French speech, unlike Russian, there are practically no statements without a predicate. Therefore, it is often être that takes the place of the untranslatable predicate. It can be translated (or mean): is, be, live, represent, is, exists.

If after “is” there is a definition, then its person and number must be the same as that of the subject:

Elle est grande. - She's tall.

Ils sont grands. - They are tall.

If you want to say an impersonal sentence, then use the pronoun Il as the subject: Il est matin. - Morning.

In all of these examples, “is” is used in the simple present tense. But its conjugation does not occur according to the rules, because it belongs to the third group, that is, it is incorrect. To use it in speech, you need to remember the conjugation tables, the present simple (first column) is especially important:

Conjugation of the verb etre

Pay attention to the third tense. The verb used to form Passé compose in French is , so in this column you will find the conjugation of avoir with the verb être in the appropriate form – été.

If you study the table in more detail, you will see that in all complex tenses the two-part predicate consists of an inflected part, which is always inherent for a given tense and form of the verb être. What about you?
In general, the conjugation rules are quite simple and are not difficult to remember.

How to ask?

Interrogative sentences using “is, to be” are constructed in the same way as in all other cases:

1. Using reverse word order: Êtes-vous à la maison? – Are you at home?
2. Using the interrogative phrase est-ce que: Est-ce que tu es marié? -Are you married?
3. Make a statement with a questioning intonation.

Negation

If you want to get a negative statement, use the rule of two negative particles, characteristic of French speech. The diagram will help you:

Subject (noun or pronoun) +ne+ verb+ pas+ object, circumstance.

At the same time, remember the rules for replacing articles (un/une with the preposition de). And, of course, everything that concerns the merging of the first and last sounds of a word is appropriate in such phrases. This is what we get:

Let's check the result

If you carefully read my story and looked at the tables, try the following exercise:
Match the conjugated forms of être in Imparfait with the correct pronoun.

a) j'
b)il
c)elles
d) nous
e)vous

Well, how did everything work out? If not, then go back to the first table and find the appropriate time there. If you still have questions, write in the comments, I will definitely answer.

Today I tried to tell you about the significance of être in French and the rules for its use. A basic French course via Skype, designed for 20 weeks, will help you better master these rules and easily use them in speech.

Here are the answers to the exercise above:

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In French, as in many European languages, there is a verb “to be, is”, which in the present tense, as a rule, is not translated into Russian.
If in Russian sentences like “The house is big”, “The woman is very beautiful”, “She is sick” do without a verb, then in French the so-called connective will definitely appear - the verb “etre”. It is this linking verb that we will talk about in this lesson.

The verb “etre” is conjugated in persons and numbers.

Personal pronouns

To correctly conjugate this verb, check out the table of personal pronouns in French. As in Russian, in French there are three persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and two numbers (singular and plural) of pronouns. There is no neuter gender in French - only masculine and feminine.

Please note that in French there is no single pronoun for masculine and feminine plurals.
Each plural gender has its own pronoun.

Conjugation of the verb "Etre" (listen)

So, now let’s conjugate the verb “etre”. This verb has six different forms - for each pronoun.

*nasal sounds are indicated by transcription signs given in lesson 4. The remaining transcription sounds are indicated by Russian sounds.

It is important to note that when pronouncing the phrase "vous etes" the so-called binding occurs: [vuzet]. Phrases "il est" And "elle est" are also pronounced together: [tyue] and [ile].

To form a negative in French, the phrase is used "ne...pas", while "ne" must come before the verb, and "pas"- after.

For example: tu n'es pas malade(You're not sick).

As you noticed, the letter “e” before another vowel is shortened and replaced by an apostrophe “’”.

To ask a question, you can use not one, but three ways!

• First, you need to swap the subject and predicate, in this case, the pronoun and the desired form of the verb “etre”. In this case, a dash will be written between these two words.

For example:
Es-tu malade?[this little guy] (Are you sick?)

Est-il malade?[ethyl malyad] (Is he sick?)

Notice that the letter "t" before the vowel becomes pronounced.

• The second method is the easiest. There is no need to change anything, just add the intonation of the question to the sentence. Of course, this method is popular for colloquial speech.
• And finally, to ask a question in French you can use the popular expression "Est-ce-que"[esko]. It is not translated into Russian, but allows you to preserve the direct word order of the French sentence.

For example:
Est-ce qu'il est malade?[eskile malyad] - Is he sick?

Est-ce que vous êtes malades?[esko vuzet malyad] - Are you sick?

Notice that the vowel “e” before the pronoun “il” is dropped again.

But where did the ending “s” in the word “malade” come from, you ask. This is another feature of the French language - coordination . In Russian we do the same thing, we say “I’m sick”, “he’s sick”, “we’re sick”. In French, the masculine gender does not receive any endings, the feminine gender is added with the ending “e”, and the plural – the ending “s”.
For example:
Il est intelligent [ile ɛ̃telizhɑ̃]. - He's smart.

Elle est intelligente [ele ɛ̃telizhɑ̃t]. - She's smart.Elles sont intelligentes [el sɔ̃ ɛ̃telizhɑ̃]. - They are smart. (about women)

Note that the final unpronounceable consonant "t" in feminine pronounced because of the added letter “e”.

Ready to consolidate what you've learned? Do some exercises!

Lesson assignments

Exercise 1. Use the correct form of the verb "etre".

1. Il... fatigué (tired).
2. Je... étudiante (student).
3. Ma chambre (my room) ... grande (large).
4. Ils... charmantes.
5. Est-ce que tu… médecin? (doctor).
6. Nous... sûrs (sure).
7. Elle... désolées (sad).
8. Il...marié (married).
9. …-nous en retard?
10. Elle... brune (brunette).

Exercise 2. Make up questions for the sentences using inversion or the phrase “Est-ce que”.

1. Tu es mariée (married).
2. Il est libre (free).
3. Vous etes prêts.
4. Elle est triste (sad).
5. Nous sommes malades.

Exercise 3. Complete the sentences by matching adjectives with pronouns.

1. Ills sont…. (content - satisfied).
2. Elle est... (fatigué).
3. Elles sont…. (fort).
4. Il est... (grand).
5. Ills sont... (médecin).

Answer 1.
1st
2.suis
3.est
4. sont
5.es
6. sommes
7. sont
8.est
9. sommes
10.est Answer 2.
1. Est-ce que tu es mariee? - Es-tu mariee?
2. Est-ce qu’il est libre? - Est-il libre?
3. Est-ce que vous etes prêts? — Êtes-vous prêts?
4. Est-ce que elle est triste? - Est-elle triste?
5. Est-ce que nous sommes malades? - Sommes-nous malades? Answer 3.
1. contents
2. fatiguee
3.fortes
4.grand
5. medecins

The French verb être is one of the most common verbs in the French language. Typically, it is translated as “to be, exist, live, eat, represent, appear,” although other forms of translation exist. It is often used to describe a state, indicate an object, its property or attribute, location, time frame, or indicate an activity. When using the verb être to denote a profession or occupation, the article is not placed before the noun. For example:

Être fatigué - to be tired

Être élève - to be a student

But if given name the noun is used with an object, then the indefinite article is used. For example:

Il est un bon élève – He is a good student

Note: the adjective after the verb être agrees with the control word in gender and number. For example:

Il est grand - he is big

Elle est grande - she is big

The French verb être belongs to the verbs of the third group, namely irregular verbs, accordingly, does not have any analogy of conjugation and is characterized by the following form of conjugation:

je suis - I am

tu es - you exist

il est - he exists

nous sommes - we are

vous êtes - you exist

ils sont - they exist

Note: It should also be noted that most often when translating into Russian in order to comply with the rules of the Russian language, according to which the predicate in a sentence can be omitted within the framework of the correct transmission of meaning, this verb cannot be translated.

Il est tres haut - he is too tall

Vous êtes forts – you are strong

Its characteristic feature is the ability to be used not only as the verb “to be” and its synonyms, but also as an auxiliary verb, as well as an integral part of the predicate. As an auxiliary verb, the French verb être is used to conjugate verbs in the past tense, in passive designs, that is, in constructions with the passive participle, as well as in the conditional mood. For example:

Je suis allé à bicyclette – I came by bicycle.

Cette maison a été construit en 1987 – This house was built in 1987.

Si j'avais été chez moi avant-hier, je serais allé visiter ma tante - If I had been at home the day before yesterday, I would have visited my aunt.

The French verb être is often used together with the preposition à. If a pronoun follows this preposition, then it indicates that the subject belongs to another object, its relationship to another object. For example:

Ce livre est à toi – this book belongs to you

Je suis à vous dans un moment - in a minute I will be at your service

If it is followed by an infinitive, then this indicates (1) the necessity of the phenomenon and engagement in the action expressed by this infinitive, (2) the repetition, the commonness of the phenomenon expressed by the infinitive.

C’est à écrire – This must be written

Il est toujours à travailler – it always works

When combined French verbêtre with the pronoun il, the above is often translated as an impersonal construction. For example:

Il est trois heures du matin - Three o'clock in the morning.

Il est matin. - It's light.