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French subjonctif | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6904 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes  5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 1 of 17 26 November 2013 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
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Shame on me, I've never really learnt the French subjunctive properly, and it's high time I did something about it. Pure exposure is not enough, I need to study some grammar materials. There are lots and lots websites and grammar books, so I am wondering if you could recommend me something specific.
I am analytically oriented (rules are what I love :)) and would like to have a nice overview of all relevant issues (most important expressions which require subjunctive, forms of common irregular verbs etc.,). The materials might be in French, English, German or Polish. Edited by Julie on 26 November 2013 at 9:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5533 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 17 26 November 2013 at 9:25pm | IP Logged |
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There's a lot of good free stuff at french.about.com, including their subjunctivator.
The French subjunctive is very rule driven, almost mechanical. Generally, you only need to look up the "context" of the verb and see whether it takes the subjunctive. There are relatively few situations in modern French where the subjunctive is "optional", and the precise meaning of the sentence would vary depending on whether or not you use it. You might want to start by picking out a few highly useful contexts that take the subjunctive, such as Il faut que… and avant que…, and get the hang of using the subjunctive verb forms on a regular basis. Among the irregular verbs, you really need to know the subjunctives of faire, être, avoir, aller and pouvoir, and you need to remember that the subjunctive normally uses the third-person (EDIT:) plural stem for the vast majority of verbs. Given a few high-frequency contexts like Il faut que…, and a the subjunctive forms of a few high frequency verbs, you should get the basics down quickly. Edited by emk on 27 November 2013 at 2:02am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4291 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 3 of 17 26 November 2013 at 11:32pm | IP Logged |
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All of the Romance languages have this mood, and I do not think even exposure for a
decade without proper grammar learning will help--as said above, certain expressions of desire, emotion, negation, etc., almost invariably preceded by "que", elicit the need for one of the subjunctive tenses. Short example: Je croix qu'elle vient. (I believe that she is coming, affirmative) Je ne croix pas qu'elle vienne. (I do not believe that she is coming, negative) It was not difficult for me, because I learnt the subjunctive in Spanish and Portuguese already, so the patterns and concepts were often very similar, and sometimes completely identical. I even bought a book on the subjunctive a while ago: Subjunctive/dp/0071754008/ref=la_B001HCZ082_1_6?s=books&ie=U TF8&qid=1385505132&sr=1- 6">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practice-Makes-Perfect-French- Subjunctive/dp/0071754008/ref=la_B001HCZ082_1_6?s=books&ie=U TF8&qid=1385505132&sr=1- 6 Without any exposure to the Romance subjunctive, it took me months to master it for Spanish. If you learnt any other Romance languages, your experience there should help tremendously with the mood. It cannot be mastered in one week, though; I suppose that is evident from the fact that even an entire book was therefore written. Edited by 1e4e6 on 26 November 2013 at 11:36pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 17 27 November 2013 at 12:33am | IP Logged |
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A correction that even I would dare give for French:
je crois! une croix = a cross 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 5 of 17 27 November 2013 at 5:21pm | IP Logged |
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The subjunctive unfortunately has to be learned for every new language. I sense it is
much less used in French than in Portuguese (with Spanish standing closer to French), yet the rules are different. And so are they in Georgian, for example. It is better to keep some core sentences annotated so you can check them whenever you are in doubt. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 17 28 November 2013 at 2:49pm | IP Logged |
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By the way, in Romanian, you use the subjunctive way more extensively than in the other
Romance languages - even when you are not expressing a wish, because Romanian hates infinitives with a passion. Every 2nd verb is basically a subjunctive in Romanian. (Ok not every one, but most of them.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 7 of 17 28 November 2013 at 3:17pm | IP Logged |
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This is a feature of the Balkanic Sprachbund, tarvos. Most of these usages are also
possible in Portuguese, but we on the contrary prefer the infinitive in serial verbs, to the extent that we have a personal infinitive. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 8 of 17 28 November 2013 at 3:27pm | IP Logged |
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I was referring in comparison to the other Romance languages, where it clearly expresses
something else. I don't speak Bulgarian, Greek or Albanian so... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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