nephew
la fille
daughter
la nièce
niece
le fils
son
le/la cousin(e)
cousin (m or f)
Step Family
la belle-mère stepmother
la demi-soeur
half sister
le beau-père stepfather
le demi-frère
half brother
To speak about more complex family relations, such as "my grandmother's cousin", you must use the de mon/ma/mes form - "le cousin de ma grandmère".
G: Direct Object Pronouns le, la, and les
le, la, and les are called direct object pronouns, because they are pronouns that are, you guessed it, used as direct objects. A direct object is a noun that is acted upon by a verb.
Il lance la balle. - He throws the ball.
In the above sentence la balle is the direct object.
You have learned earlier that names and regular nouns can be replaced by the subject or nominative pronouns "I, you, he..." ( je, tu, il...). Similary, direct objects, such as "la balle", can be replaced by pronouns.
These are a different set of pronouns (accusative). As in English, you would say "She gave him," and not
"Her gave he." He/she are subjects used in the nominative case, while him/her are direct objects used in the accusative case.
le - replaces a masculine singular direct object
la - replaces a feminine singular direct object
l' - replaces le and la if they come before a vowel les - replaces plural direct objects, both masculine and feminine The direct object pronouns come before the verb they are linked to.
Il la lance. - He throws it.
Il les lance. - He throws them.
Le, la, and les can replace either people or inanimate objects.
Lesson 1.05 - Recreation
G: Regular -er Verbs
Formation
Most French verbs fall into the category of -er verbs. To conjugate, drop the -er to find the "stem" or "root".
Add endings to the root based on the subject and tense.
jouer - to play
French Grammar ? Print version ?
audio (info ?184 kb ? help)
-er Verb Formation Formation de verbes en -er
pronoun
ending
verb
je
-e
joue
tu
-es
joues
il/elle
-e
joue
nous
-ons
jouons
vous
-ez
jouez
ils/elles
-ent
jouent
Elision and Liaison
In all conjugations, je changes to j ' when followed by a vowel or silent h. Example: J'attends, J'habite... . If a phrase is negative, ne changes to n' .
