French Grammar For Dummies

The easy way to master French grammar French Grammar For Dummies is a logical extension and complement to the successful language learning book, French For Dummies. In plain English, it teaches you the grammatical rules of the French language, including parts of speech, sentence construction, pronouns, adjectives, punctuation, stress and verb tenses, and moods. Throughout the book, you get plenty of practice opportunities to help you on your goal of mastering basic French grammar and usage.

• Grasp the grammatical rules of French including parts of speech, sentence construction, and verb tenses
• Enhance your descriptive speech with adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions
• Benefit from plenty of practice opportunities throughout the book

• Use the French language confidently and correctly
  Whether you're a student studying French or a professional looking to get ahead of the pack by learning a second language, French Grammar For Dummies is your hands-on guide to quickly and painlessly master the written aspect of this popular language.

Auteur

Véronique Mazet has a doctorate in French from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of two successful grammar books. She currently teaches French at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas.

Contenu

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Started with French Grammar 5

Chapter 1: French Grammar in a Nutshell 7

Chapter 2: Sounding Out French Words 17

Chapter 3: Using Nouns and Determiners 35

Chapter 4: Describing Nouns with Adjectives 55

Chapter 5: Dealing with Numbers, Dates, and Times 69

Part II: Constructing Sentences, Saying No, and Asking Questions 85

Chapter 6: Acquainting Yourself with the Present Tense 87

Chapter 7: Acting on Oneself and on Each Other: Pronominal Verbs 107

Chapter 8: Just Say No: Negative Words and Phrases 119

Chapter 9: Handling Questions and Exclamations 131

Part III: Beefing Up Your Sentences 155

Chapter 10: Saying Where, When, and How with Adverbs 157

Chapter 11: Picking Up Prepositions 171

Chapter 12: It's All Relative: Making Comparisons 187

Chapter 13: Using Pronouns 203

Chapter 14: Adding the Gerund and the Passive to Your Repertoire 227

Part IV: Talking about the Past or Future 237

Chapter 15: Noting Past Actions with the Present Perfect 239

Chapter 16: Reminiscing and Describing Ongoing Past Actions with the Imperfect 253

Chapter 17: Projecting Forward with the Future 265

Part V: Expressing Conditions, Subjectivity, and Orders 283

Chapter 18: Wondering with the Conditional 285

Chapter 19: Surveying the Subjunctive 301

Chapter 20: Giving Orders with the Imperative 319

Chapter 21: Discovering Compound Tenses 333

Part VI: The Part of Tens 341

Chapter 22: Ten Common French Grammar Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) 343

Chapter 23: Ten (Or So) Useful French Idioms 349

Index 353