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French verb placement | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Jase27 Newbie United States Joined 5464 days ago 21 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, French | Message 1 of 3 16 August 2010 at 3:02am | IP Logged | ||
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So I just finished the beginning course on French from Michel Thomas. Right now I'm on lesson 8 of French with
Ease. I've noticed some differences between the two. One of the most notable is verb placement. Michel Thomas always taught that to start a sentence with the verb, you use the conjugated verb followed by the pronoun. For example, Voulez-vous venir avec moi? Or Avez-vous le temps si'l vous plait? The only time he put the pronoun before the verb is if you started with the question form, like "Est-ce que vous avez le temps? Or Qu'est-ce que vous voulez dire? But in Assimil, at least at this point, they always start with the pronoun - so Vous voulez parler avec elle? I always thought you were supposed to invert the verb when asking a question. Which way is more correct? Edited by Jase27 on 16 August 2010 at 3:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| michaelmichael Senior Member Canada Joined 5052 days ago 167 posts - 202 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 3 16 August 2010 at 3:19am | IP Logged | ||
3 ways to ask a question (exluding question words like "when" etc...). One is inversion, one is est-ce que with the affirmative and one is the affirmative with inflection in the voice. English is sort of the same (at least with the "to be" verb). We can say "are you going to the movies?" or "you are going to the movies? " which you say quite differently from "you are going to the movies. " . in a question without inversion, you need to raise your voice at the end of the sentence. Inversion is considered formal/ more polite inflection is considered more informal/familiar Edited by michaelmichael on 16 August 2010 at 3:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rob Harris Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5063 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 3 of 3 16 August 2010 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
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And the third way is to add "Est-ce que"
- Est-ce que vous ecoutez souvent les concerts a la radio? If the third person singular (il or elle) ends in a vowel, you add -t Parle-t-il francais? A-t-elle envie de sortir? And if there are nouns in an inverted question, they go before the verb: Les etudiants tutoient-ils leur professeur? A fourth way, I suppose is to add n'est pas? at the end of the sentence. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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