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List of French verb combinations | ||
Tags: Verbs/Conjugation | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| cezah Newbie Belgium Joined 5831 days ago 19 posts - 21 votes Studies: French, Italian | Message 1 of 4 18 March 2009 at 11:06am | IP Logged |
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Hello,
I have a question which will either be a really stupid one or will be really obvious, anyhoo here goes. I was wondering if there is a straightforward list of how to use French verbs within different sentences. For example in a 'Si' sentence you would use the imparfait and then the conditionnel eg. "Si je gagnais le lotto, j'acheterais une nouvelle voiture" Or, when you use the imparfait and then the pass compose eg. "Je sortais le métro quand j'ai vu mon ami" Its beginning to dawn on me that there are set rules and sentences (possibly more so than in English?). As a man who needs lists and things to compare, I was wondering if there was a set of lists of set rules, or 'templates' I suppose, for sentence structure that cuts through the usual 'learn this tense then learn this tense' and cuts straight to sentence formation. A list with formulae such as "Si+imparfait puis conditionnel", or "imparfait+quand puis passe compose". All the books I have seem to rely on learning one tense after another which isn't exactly rocket science, the problem when putting them together correctly and learning how to use them is more dificult . Perhaps I'm overthinking it? Thanks, by the way not sure if this is the right forum to post 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 5976 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes  5 sounds | Message 2 of 4 18 March 2009 at 12:10pm | IP Logged |
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You can't reduce the whole languages to templates but there are a few useful ones in expressions with Si:
Si + présent + futur simple ( L'hypothèse sur le futur <-> lack of certainty) Si + imparfait + conditionnel present ( L'hypothèse sur le présent <-> impossible event i.e. for an alternative "present") Si + imparfait ? ( Suggestion; let's do something ) Si + présent + présent. ( Expressing a commonly known truth ) The last one is often used in proverbs and sayings: "Si tu veux la paix, prépare la guerre." Edited by Sennin on 18 March 2009 at 12:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gatsby Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6104 days ago 57 posts - 129 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch | Message 3 of 4 23 March 2009 at 7:32am | IP Logged |
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Try going to french.about.com. (Sorry, don't know how to make a link). There is a list titled "Sequence of tenses - Concordance des temps" that explains complex sentences and which tenses to use in subordinate clauses depending on what tense is used in the main clause (and if the action of the verb in the main clause precedes, is concurrent with, or is after the action of the verb in the subordinate clause).
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| cezah Newbie Belgium Joined 5831 days ago 19 posts - 21 votes Studies: French, Italian | Message 4 of 4 06 May 2009 at 4:04pm | IP Logged |
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Sorry to return to this thread but I have found the link it is here and was just what I was looking for!
http://french.about.com/library/weekly/bl-concordancedestemp s.htm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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