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1 Usage note : be
I am tired= je suis fatiguéCaroline is French= Caroline est françaisethe children are in the garden= les enfants sont dans le jardinIt functions in very much the same way as to be does in English and it is safe to assume it will work as a translation in the great majority of cases.Note, however, that when you are specifying a person’s profession or trade, a/an is not translated:she’s a doctor= elle est médecinClaudie is still a student= Claudie est toujours étudianteThis is true of any noun used in apposition when the subject is a person:he’s a widower= il est veufButLyons is a beautiful city= Lyon est une belle villeFor more information or expressions involving professions and trades consult the usage note Shops, Trades and Professions.For the conjugation of the verb être see the French verb tables.Grammatical functionsThe passiveêtre is used to form the passive in French just as to be is used in English. Note, however, that the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject:the rabbit was killed by a fox= le lapin a été tué par un renardthe window had been broken= la fenêtre avait été casséetheir books will be sold= leurs livres seront vendusour doors have been repainted red= nos portes ont été repeintes en rougeIn spoken language, French native speakers find the passive cumbersome and will avoid it where possible by using the impersonal on where a person or people are clearly involved : on a repeint nos portes en rouge.Progressive tensesIn French the idea of something happening over a period of time cannot be expressed using the verb être in the way that to be is used as an auxiliary verb in English.The presentFrench uses simply the present tense where English uses the progressive form with to be:I am working= je travailleBen is reading a book= Ben lit un livreIn order to accentuate duration être en train de is used: je suis en train de travailler ; Ben est en train de lire un livre.The futureFrench also uses the present tense where English uses the progressive form with to be:we are going to London tomorrow= nous allons à Londres demainI’m (just) coming!= j’arrive!I’m (just) going!= j’y vais!The pastTo express the distinction between she read a newspaper and she was reading a newspaper French uses the perfect and the imperfect tenses: elle a lu un journal/elle lisait un journal:he wrote to his mother= il a écrit à sa mèrehe was writing to his mother= il écrivait à sa mèreHowever, in order to accentuate the notion of describing an activity which went on over a period of time, the phrase être en train de (= to be in the process of) is often used:‘what was he doing when you arrived?’‘he was cooking the dinner’= ‘qu’est-ce qu’il faisait quand tu es arrivé?’ ‘il était en train de préparer le dîner’she was just finishing her essay when …= elle était juste en train de finir sa dissertation quand …The compound pastCompound past tenses in the progressive form in English are generally translated by the imperfect in French:I’ve been looking for you= je te cherchaisFor progressive forms + for and since (I’ve been waiting for an hour, I had been waiting for an hour, I’ve been waiting since Monday etc.) see the entries for and since.ObligationWhen to be is used as an auxiliary verb with another verb in the infinitive ( to be to do) expressing obligation, a fixed arrangement or destiny, devoir is used:she’s to do it at once= elle doit le faire tout de suitewhat am I to do?= qu’est-ce que je dois faire?he was to arrive last Monday= il devait arriver lundi derniershe was never to see him again= elle ne devait plus le revoir.In tag questionsFrench has no direct equivalent of tag questions like isn’t he? or wasn’t it? There is a general tag question n’est-ce pas? (literally isn’t it so?) which will work in many cases:their house is lovely, isn’t it?= leur maison est très belle, n’est-ce pas?he’s a doctor, isn’t he?= il est médecin, n’est-ce pas?it was a very good meal, wasn’t it?= c’était un très bon repas, n’est-ce pas?However, n’est-ce pas can very rarely be used for positive tag questions and some other way will be found to express the extra meaning contained in the tag: par hasard ( by any chance) can be very useful as a translation:‘I can’t find my glasses’ ‘they’re not in the kitchen, are they?’= ‘je ne trouve pas mes lunettes’ ‘elles ne sont pas dans la cuisine, par hasard?’you haven’t seen Gaby, have you?= tu n’as pas vu Gaby, par hasard?In cases where an opinion is being sought, si? meaning more or less or is it? or was it? etc. can be useful:it’s not broken, is it?= ce n’est pas cassé, si?he wasn’t serious, was he?= il n’était pas sérieux, si?In many other cases the tag question is simply not translated at all and the speaker’s intonation will convey the implied question.In short answersAgain, there is no direct equivalent for short answers like yes I am, no he’s not etc. Where the answer yes is given to contradict a negative question or statement, the most useful translation is si:‘you’re not going out tonight’ ‘yes I am’= ‘tu ne sors pas ce soir’ ‘si’In reply to a standard enquiry the tag will not be translated:‘are you a doctor?’ ‘yes I am’= ‘êtes-vous médecin?’ ‘oui’‘was it raining?’ ‘yes it was’= ‘est-ce qu’il pleuvait?’ ‘oui’ProbabilityFor expressions of probability and supposition ( if I were you etc.) see the entry be.Other functionsExpressing sensations and feelingsIn expressing physical and mental sensations, the verb used in French is avoir:to be cold= avoir froidto be hot= avoir chaudI’m cold= j’ai froidto be thirsty= avoir soifto be hungry= avoir faimto be ashamed= avoir hontemy hands are cold= j’ai froid aux mainsIf, however, you are in doubt as to which verb to use in such expressions, you should consult the entry for the appropriate adjective.Discussing health and how people areIn expressions of health and polite enquiries about how people are, aller is used:how are you?= comment allez-vous?( more informally) comment vas-tu?( very informally as a greeting) ça va?are you well?= vous allez bien?how is your daughter?= comment va votre fille?my father is better today= mon père va mieux aujourd’huiDiscussing weather and temperatureIn expressions of weather and temperature faire is generally used:it’s cold= il fait froidit’s windy= il fait du ventIf in doubt, consult the appropriate adjective entry.Visiting somewhereWhen to be is used in the present perfect tense to mean go, visit etc., French will generally use the verbs venir, aller etc. rather than être:I’ve never been to Sweden= je ne suis jamais allé en Suèdehave you been to the Louvre?= est-ce que tu es déjà allé au Louvre?or est-ce que tu as déjà visité le Louvre?Paul has been to see us three times= Paul est venu nous voir trois foisNote too:has the postman been?= est-ce que le facteur est passé?The translation for an expression or idiom containing the verb to be will be found in the dictionary at the entry for another word in the expression: for to be in danger see danger, for it would be best to … see best etc.This dictionary contains usage notes on topics such as the clock, time units, age, weight measurement, days of the week, and shops, trades and professions, many of which include translations of particular uses of to be. -
2 Usage note : have
When used as an auxiliary in present perfect, future perfect and past perfect tenses, have is normally translated by avoir:I have seen= j’ai vuI had seen= j’avais vuHowever, some verbs in French, especially verbs of movement and change of state (e.g. aller, venir, descendre, mourir), take être rather than avoir in these tenses:he has left= il est partiIn this case, remember the past participle agrees with the subject of the verb:she has gone= elle est alléeReflexive verbs (e.g. se lever, se coucher) always conjugate with être:she has fainted= elle s’est évanouieFor translations of time expressions using for or since (he has been in London for six months, he has been in London since June), see the entries for and since.For translations of time expressions using just (I have just finished my essay, he has just gone), see the entry just1.to have to meaning must is translated by either devoir or the impersonal construction il faut que + subjunctive:I have to leave now= il faut que je parte maintenant or je dois partir maintenantIn negative sentences, not to have to is generally translated by ne pas être obligé de e.g.you don’t have to go= tu n’es pas obligé d’y allerFor examples and particular usages see the entry have.When have is used as a straightforward transitive verb meaning possess, have (or have got) can generally be translated by avoir, e.g.I have (got) a car= j’ai une voitureshe has a good memory= elle a une bonne mémoirethey have (got) problems= ils ont des problèmesFor examples and particular usages see entry ; see also got.have is also used with certain noun objects where the whole expression is equivalent to a verb:to have dinner = to dineto have a try = to tryto have a walk = to walkIn such cases the phrase is very often translated by the equivalent verb in French (dîner, essayer, se promener). For translations consult the appropriate noun entry (dinner, try, walk).had is used in English at the beginning of a clause to replace an expression with if. Such expressions are generally translated by si + past perfect tense, e.g.had I taken the train, this would never have happened= si j’avais pris le train, ce ne serait jamais arrivéhad there been a fire, we would all have been killed= s’il y avait eu un incendie, nous serions tous mortsFor examples of the above and all other uses of have see the entry. -
3 would
would [wʊd]1. modal verba.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When would is used to form the conditional, the French conditional is used.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I wouldn't worry, if I were you à ta place, je ne m'inquiéterais pas• to my surprise, he agreed -- I never thought he would à ma grande surprise, il a accepté -- je ne l'aurais jamais pensé• who would have thought it? qui l'aurait pensé ?• I said I'd go, so I'm going j'ai dit que j'irais, alors j'y vais• I said I'd go, so I went j'avais dit que j'irais, alors j'y suis allé━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• if you would come with me, I'd go to see him si vous vouliez bien m'accompagner, j'irais le voir━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━would you wait here please! attendez ici s'il vous plaît !• would you close the window please voulez-vous fermer la fenêtre, s'il vous plaît► would you like ( = do you want)would you like some tea? voulez-vous du thé ?• would you like to go for a walk? est-ce que vous aimeriez faire une promenade ?• 50 years ago the streets would be empty on Sundays il y a 50 ans, les rues étaient vides le dimanche• I saw him come out of the shop -- when would this be? je l'ai vu sortir du magasin -- quand ?d. (inevitability) you would go and tell her! évidemment tu es allé le lui dire !• it would have to rain! évidemment il fallait qu'il pleuve !e. (conjecture) it would have been about 8 o'clock when he came il devait être 8 heures à peu près quand il est venu2. modifier* * *[wʊd, wəd]Note: When would is used with a verb in English to form the conditional tense, would + verb is translated by the present conditional of the appropriate verb in French and would have + verb by the past conditional of the appropriate verb: I would do it if I had time = je le ferais si j'avais le temps; I would have done it if I had had time = je l'aurais fait si j'avais eu le temps; he said he would fetch the car = il a dit qu'il irait chercher la voitureFor more examples, particular usages and all other uses of would see the entry below1) (in sequence of past tenses, in reported speech)if we'd left later we would have missed the train — si nous étions partis plus tard nous aurions raté le train
wouldn't it be nice if... — ce serait bien si...
they couldn't find anyone who would take the job — ils n'arrivaient pas à trouver quelqu'un qui accepte le poste
5) (expressing desire, preference)switch off the radio, would you? — éteins la radio, tu veux bien?
8) ( when giving advice)9) ( expressing exasperation)‘he denies it’ - ‘well he would, wouldn't he?’ — ‘il le nie’ - ‘évidemment!’
‘she put her foot in it (colloq)’ - ‘she would!’ — ‘elle a mis les pieds dans le plat (colloq)’ - ‘tu m'étonnes!’
10) ( expressing an assumption)let's see, that would be his youngest son — voyons, ça doit être son plus jeune fils
11) (indicating habitual event or behaviour in past: used to) -
4 Usage note : since
In time expressionssince is used in English after a verb in the present perfect or progressive present perfect tense to indicate when something that is still going on started. To express this French uses a verb in the present tense + depuis:I’ve been waiting since Saturday= j’attends depuis samediI’ve lived in Rome since 1988= j’habite à Rome depuis 1988I had been waiting since nine o’clock= j’attendais depuis neuf heuresIn negative time expressionsAgain since is translated by depuis, but in negative sentences the verb tenses used in French are the same as those used in English:I haven’t seen him since Saturday= je ne l’ai pas vu depuis samediI hadn’t seen him since 1978= je ne l’avais pas vu depuis 1978As a conjunctionIn time expressionsWhen since is used as a conjunction, it is translated by depuis que and the tenses used in French parallel exactly those used with the preposition depuis (see above):since she’s been living in Oxford= depuis qu’elle habite à Oxfordsince he’d been in Paris= depuis qu’il était à ParisNote that in time expressions with since French native speakers will generally prefer to use a noun where possible when English uses a verb:I haven’t seen him since he left= je ne l’ai pas vu depuis son départshe’s been living in Nice since she got married= elle habite à Nice depuis son mariageFor particular usages see the entry since.Meaning becausesince she was ill, she couldn’t go= comme elle était malade or étant donné qu’elle était malade, elle ne pouvait pas y allerAs an adverbhe hasn’t been seen since= on ne l’a pas vu depuisFor particular usages see C in the entry since. -
5 Usage note : which
In questionsWhen which is used as a pronoun in questions it is translated by lequel, laquelle, lesquels or lesquelles according to the gender and number of the noun it is referring to:there are three peaches, which do you want?= il y a trois pêches, laquelle veux-tu?‘Lucy’s borrowed three of your books’ ‘which did she take?’= ‘Lucy t’a emprunté trois livres’ ‘lesquels a-t-elle pris?’The exception to this is when which is followed by a superlative adjective, when the translation is quel, quelle, quels or quelles:which is the biggest (apple)?= quelle est la plus grande?which are the least expensive (books)?= quels sont les moins chers?In relative clauses as subject or objectthe book which is on the table= le livre qui est sur la tablethe books which are on the table= les livres qui sont sur la tablethe book which Tina is reading= le livre que lit TinaNote the inversion of subject and verb ; this is the case where the subject is a noun but not where the subject is a pronoun:the book which I am reading= le livre que je lisIn compound tenses such as the present perfect and past perfect, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the noun que is referring to:the books which I gave you= les livres que je t’ai donnésthe dresses which she bought yesterday= les robes qu’elle a achetées hierIn relative clauses after a prepositionHere the translation is lequel, laquelle, lesquels or lesquelles according to the gender and number of the noun referred to:the road by which we came or the road which we came by= la route par laquelle nous sommes venusthe expressions for which we have translations= les expressions pour lesquelles nous avons une traductionRemember that if the preposition would normally be translated by à in French (to, at etc.), the preposition + which is translated by auquel, à laquelle, auxquels or auxquelles:the addresses to which we sent letters= les adresses auxquelles nous avons envoyé des lettresWith prepositions normally translated by de (of, from etc.) the translation of the preposition which becomes dont:a blue book, the title of which I’ve forgotten= un livre bleu dont j’ai oublié le titreHowever, if de is part of a prepositional group, as for example in the case of près de meaning near, the translation becomes duquel, de laquelle, desquels or desquelles:the village near which they live= le village près duquel ils habitentthe houses near which she was waiting= les maisons près desquelles elle attendaita hill at the top of which there is a house= une colline au sommet de laquelle il y a une maisonAs a determinerIn questionsWhen which is used as a determiner in questions it is translated by quel, quelle, quels or quelles according to the gender and number of the noun that follows:which car is yours?= quelle voiture est la vôtre?which books did he borrow?= quels livres a-t-il empruntés?Note that in the second example the object precedes the verb so that the past participle agrees in gender and number with the object. -
6 BE
be [bi:]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. link verb3. modal verb6. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. link verba. être• who is that? -- it's me! qui est-ce ? -- c'est moi !• if I were you I would refuse si j'étais vous, je refuserais━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The following translations use ce + être because they contain an article or possessive in French.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► No article is used in French, unless the noun is qualified by an adjective.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• how are you? comment allez-vous ?d. ( = cost) coûter• how much is it? combien ça coûte ?e. ( = equal) fairef.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• to be cold/hot/hungry/thirsty/ashamed/right/wrong avoir froid/chaud/faim/soif/honte/raison/tort━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note how French makes the person, not the part of the body, the subject of the sentence in the following.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━g. (with age) avoir• how old is he? quel âge a-t-il ?► to be + -ing━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► French does not distinguish between simple and continuous actions as much as English does.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I'm coming! j'arrive !• what have you been doing this week? qu'est-ce que tu as fait cette semaine ?• will you be seeing her tomorrow? est-ce que vous allez la voir demain ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► être en train de + infinitive emphasizes that one is in the middle of the action.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I haven't got time, I'm cooking the dinner je n'ai pas le temps, je suis en train de préparer le repas━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The imperfect tense is used for continuous action in the past.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► have/had been +... for/since━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► French uses the present and imperfect where English uses the perfect and past perfect.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I'd been at university for six weeks when my father got ill j'étais à l'université depuis six semaines quand mon père est tombé malade• he's a friend of yours, isn't he? c'est un ami à toi, n'est-ce pas ?• she wasn't happy, was she? elle n'était pas heureuse, n'est-ce pas ?• so it's all done, is it? tout est fait, alors ?• you're not ill, are you? tu n'es pas malade j'espère ?c. (in tag responses) they're getting married -- oh are they? ils vont se marier -- ah bon ?• he's going to complain about you -- oh is he? il va porter plainte contre toi -- ah vraiment ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• he's always late, isn't he? -- yes, he is il est toujours en retard, n'est-ce pas ? -- oui• is it what you expected? -- no it isn't est-ce que tu t'attendais à ça ? -- non━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The past participle in French passive constructions agrees with the subject.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The passive is used less in French than in English. It is often expressed by on + active verb.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• it is said that... on dit que...━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The reflexive can be used to describe how something is usually done.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━3. modal verb► am/are/is to + infinitivea. ( = will)• now the old lady has died, her house is to be sold maintenant que la vieille dame est décédée, sa maison va être mise en venteb. ( = must) you are to follow these instructions exactly tu dois suivre ces instructions scrupuleusementc. ( = should) he is to be pitied il est à plaindre• not to be confused with... à ne pas confondre avec...d. ( = be destined to) this was to have serious repercussions cela devait avoir de graves répercussionse. ( = can) these birds are to be found all over the world on trouve ces oiseaux dans le monde entiera. être ; ( = take place) avoir lieu• he is there at the moment, but he won't be there much longer il est là en ce moment mais il ne va pas rester très longtemps► there is/are ( = there exist(s)) il y a• here you are at last! te voilà enfin !• here you are! ( = take this) tiens (or tenez) !b. ► to have been (to a place)• where have you been? où étais-tu passé ?a. (weather, temperature) faire• it's fine/cold/dark il fait beau/froid/nuit• it's windy/foggy il y a du vent/du brouillard• it was then we realized that... c'est alors que nous nous sommes rendu compte que...• it was they who suggested that... ce sont eux qui ont suggéré que...• why is it that she is so popular? pourquoi a-t-elle tant de succès ?6. compounds* * *noun: abrév bill of exchange -
7 be
be [bi:]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. link verb3. modal verb6. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. link verba. être• who is that? -- it's me! qui est-ce ? -- c'est moi !• if I were you I would refuse si j'étais vous, je refuserais━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The following translations use ce + être because they contain an article or possessive in French.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► No article is used in French, unless the noun is qualified by an adjective.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• how are you? comment allez-vous ?d. ( = cost) coûter• how much is it? combien ça coûte ?e. ( = equal) fairef.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• to be cold/hot/hungry/thirsty/ashamed/right/wrong avoir froid/chaud/faim/soif/honte/raison/tort━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note how French makes the person, not the part of the body, the subject of the sentence in the following.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━g. (with age) avoir• how old is he? quel âge a-t-il ?► to be + -ing━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► French does not distinguish between simple and continuous actions as much as English does.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I'm coming! j'arrive !• what have you been doing this week? qu'est-ce que tu as fait cette semaine ?• will you be seeing her tomorrow? est-ce que vous allez la voir demain ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► être en train de + infinitive emphasizes that one is in the middle of the action.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I haven't got time, I'm cooking the dinner je n'ai pas le temps, je suis en train de préparer le repas━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The imperfect tense is used for continuous action in the past.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► have/had been +... for/since━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► French uses the present and imperfect where English uses the perfect and past perfect.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I'd been at university for six weeks when my father got ill j'étais à l'université depuis six semaines quand mon père est tombé malade• he's a friend of yours, isn't he? c'est un ami à toi, n'est-ce pas ?• she wasn't happy, was she? elle n'était pas heureuse, n'est-ce pas ?• so it's all done, is it? tout est fait, alors ?• you're not ill, are you? tu n'es pas malade j'espère ?c. (in tag responses) they're getting married -- oh are they? ils vont se marier -- ah bon ?• he's going to complain about you -- oh is he? il va porter plainte contre toi -- ah vraiment ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• he's always late, isn't he? -- yes, he is il est toujours en retard, n'est-ce pas ? -- oui• is it what you expected? -- no it isn't est-ce que tu t'attendais à ça ? -- non━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The past participle in French passive constructions agrees with the subject.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The passive is used less in French than in English. It is often expressed by on + active verb.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• it is said that... on dit que...━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The reflexive can be used to describe how something is usually done.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━3. modal verb► am/are/is to + infinitivea. ( = will)• now the old lady has died, her house is to be sold maintenant que la vieille dame est décédée, sa maison va être mise en venteb. ( = must) you are to follow these instructions exactly tu dois suivre ces instructions scrupuleusementc. ( = should) he is to be pitied il est à plaindre• not to be confused with... à ne pas confondre avec...d. ( = be destined to) this was to have serious repercussions cela devait avoir de graves répercussionse. ( = can) these birds are to be found all over the world on trouve ces oiseaux dans le monde entiera. être ; ( = take place) avoir lieu• he is there at the moment, but he won't be there much longer il est là en ce moment mais il ne va pas rester très longtemps► there is/are ( = there exist(s)) il y a• here you are at last! te voilà enfin !• here you are! ( = take this) tiens (or tenez) !b. ► to have been (to a place)• where have you been? où étais-tu passé ?a. (weather, temperature) faire• it's fine/cold/dark il fait beau/froid/nuit• it's windy/foggy il y a du vent/du brouillard• it was then we realized that... c'est alors que nous nous sommes rendu compte que...• it was they who suggested that... ce sont eux qui ont suggéré que...• why is it that she is so popular? pourquoi a-t-elle tant de succès ?6. compounds* * *[biː, bɪ]1) gen êtreit's me —
2) ( in probability)were it not that... — si ce n'était que...
had it not been for Frank, I'd have missed the train — sans Frank j'aurais raté le train
3) ( phrases)let ou leave him be — laisse-le tranquille
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8 have
have [hæv]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━2. modal verb4. noun━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━a. avoir━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► avoir is the auxiliary used with most verbs to form past tenses. For important exceptions see below.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• haven't you grown! comme tu as grandi !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note the agreement of the past participle with the preceding direct object.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• if I had seen her I would have spoken to her si je l'avais vue, je lui aurais parlé━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When describing uncompleted states or actions, French generally uses the present and imperfect where English uses the perfect and past perfect.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I have lived or have been living here for 10 years/since January j'habite ici depuis 10 ans/depuis janvier• I had lived or had been living there for 10 years j'habitais là depuis 10 ans► to have just... venir de...b. être━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► être is the auxiliary used with all reflexives, and the following verbs when used intransitively: aller, arriver, descendre, devenir, entrer, monter, mourir, naître, partir, passer, rentrer, rester, retourner, revenir, sortir, tomber, venir.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• you've seen her, haven't you? vous l'avez vue, n'est-ce pas ?• he hasn't told anyone, has he? il n'en a parlé à personne, n'est-ce pas ?d. (in tag responses) he's got a new job -- oh has he? il a un nouveau travail -- ah bon ?• you've dropped your book -- so I have! vous avez laissé tomber votre livre -- en effet !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► (mais) si or (mais) non are used to contradict.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• you haven't seen her -- yes I have! vous ne l'avez pas vue -- (mais) si !• you've made a mistake -- no I haven't! vous vous êtes trompé -- mais non !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• have you met him? -- yes I have est-ce que tu l'as rencontré ? -- oui• has he arrived? -- no he hasn't est-ce qu'il est arrivé ? -- none. (avoiding repetition of verb) have you ever been there? if you have... y êtes-vous déjà allé ? si oui,...• have you tried it? if you haven't... est-ce que vous avez goûté ça ? si vous ne l'avez pas fait,...2. modal verb━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► falloir is always used in the third person singular, in an impersonal construction. Note that falloir que is always followed by the subjunctive.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• you're going to have to work hard! tu vas devoir travailler dur ! il va falloir que tu travailles dur !• I'll have to leave now or I'll miss the train il faut que je parte, sinon je vais rater mon train• don't you have to get permission? est-ce qu'on ne doit pas demander la permission ?• do you have to go now? est-ce que vous devez partir tout de suite ?• we've had to work late twice this week nous avons dû rester travailler tard deux fois cette semaine• what kind of equipment would you have to have? quel type de matériel vous faudrait-il ?• it has to be the biggest scandal this year c'est sans aucun doute le plus gros scandale de l'année• do you have to make such a noise? tu ne pourrais pas faire un peu moins de bruit ?► don't/doesn't have to + infinitive━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• you didn't have to tell her! tu n'avais pas besoin de le lui dire !• I don't have to do it je ne suis pas obligé or forcé de le fairea. avoir• I have or I've got three books j'ai trois livres• have you got a suitcase? avez-vous une valise ?• have you got this jumper in black? est-ce que vous avez ce pull en noir ?b. ( = eat, drink, take) he had an egg for breakfast il a mangé un œuf au petit déjeuner• shall we have a coffee? on prend un café ?► will you have...? (in offers)will you have tea or coffee? vous prendrez du thé ou du café ?c. ( = spend) passer• what sort of day have you had? est-ce que tu as passé une bonne journée ?d. ( = smoke) fumere. ( = catch) tenir• I've got him where I want him! (inf) je le tiens !► to let sb have ( = give) donner à qn• I'll let you have it for $100 je vous le cède pour 100 dollars► must have or have to have• I must have £50 at once il me faut 50 livres immédiatement• I must or have to have them by this afternoon il me les faut pour cet après-midi► won't have ( = refuse to accept)I won't have this nonsense! je ne tolérerai pas ces enfantillages !• I won't have it! je ne tolérerai pas ça !• I won't have him risking his neck on that motorbike je ne veux pas qu'il risque sa vie sur cette moto► would have ( = wish)what would you have me do? que voulez-vous que je fasse ?• he had his worst fears confirmed ses pires craintes se sont réalisées► to have sb do sth faire faire qch à qn• she soon had them all reading and writing elle a réussi très rapidement à leur apprendre à lire et à écrire► had better ( = should)4. nouna. faire venira. [+ clothes] porterb. (British = have planned) I've got so much on this week that... j'ai tant de choses à faire cette semaine que...d. Richard has nothing on him! (inf) Richard ne lui arrive pas à la cheville !• the police have nothing on me (inf) la police n'a pas de preuve contre moi► have out separable transitive verb[+ friends, neighbours] inviter* * *[hæv, həv] 1.transitive verb ( uses not covered in NOTE)1) ( possess) avoir2) ( consume) prendre3) ( want) vouloir, prendrewhat will you have? — qu'est-ce que vous prendrez or voulez?
I wouldn't have him/her any other way — c'est comme ça que je l'aime
4) (receive, get) recevoir [letter, information]5) ( hold) faire [party, celebration]; tenir [meeting]; organiser [competition, ballot, exhibition]; avoir [conversation]; mener [enquiry]6) (exert, exhibit) avoir [effect, influence]; avoir [courage, courtesy] ( to do de faire)7) ( spend) passerto have a nice day/evening — passer une journée/soirée agréable
to have a hard ou bad time — traverser une période difficile
8) ( be provided with) (also have got)I have ou I've got letters to write — j'ai du courrier à faire
9) (undergo, suffer) avoirto have (the) flu/a heart attack — avoir la grippe/une crise cardiaque
to have an interview — avoir or passer un entretien
10) ( cause to be done)they would have us believe that... — ils voudraient nous faire croire que...
I would have you know that... — je voudrais que vous sachiez que...
11) ( cause to become)we'll soon have everything ready/clean — nous aurons bientôt fini de tout préparer/nettoyer
if you're not careful you'll have that glass over — si tu ne fais pas attention tu vas renverser le verre
12) ( allow) tolérer13) ( physically hold) tenirshe had him by the throat/by the arm — elle le tenait à la gorge/par le bras
14) ( give birth to) [woman] avoir [child]; [animal] mettre bas, avoir [young]15) ( as impersonal verb)over here, we have a painting by Picasso — ici vous avez un tableau de Picasso
what we have here is a small group of extremists — ce à quoi nous avons affaire ici, est un petit groupe d'extrémistes
16) ( puzzle)you have ou you've got me there! — là tu me poses une colle! (colloq)
17) ( have at one's mercy) (also have got)2.I've got you/him now! — maintenant je te/le tiens!
modal auxiliary1) ( must)I have (got) to leave now — je dois partir maintenant, il faut que je parte maintenant
2) ( need to)you don't have to ou you haven't got to leave so early — tu n'as pas besoin de or tu n'es pas obligé de partir si tôt
3) ( for emphasis)3.this has (got) to be the most difficult decision I've ever made — c'est sans doute la décision la plus difficile que j'aie jamais eu à prendre
1) gen avoir; ( with movement and reflexive verbs) être2) ( in tag questions etc)you've seen the film, haven't you? — tu as vu le film, n'est-ce pas?
you haven't seen the film, have you? — tu n'as pas vu le film?
you haven't seen my bag, have you? — tu n'as pas vu mon sac, par hasard?
‘he's already left’ - ‘has he indeed!’ — ‘il est déjà parti’ - ‘vraiment!’
4.‘you've never met him’ - ‘yes I have!’ — ‘tu ne l'as jamais rencontré’ - ‘mais si!’
having auxiliary verb1) ( in time clauses)having finished his breakfast, he went out — après avoir fini son petit déjeuner, il est sorti
2) (because, since)•Phrasal Verbs:- have in- have on- have up••this car/TV has had it — (colloq) cette voiture/télé est foutue (colloq)
when your father finds out, you've had it! — (colloq) ( in trouble) quand ton père l'apprendra, ça va être ta fête! (colloq)
I can't do any more, I've had it! — (colloq) ( tired) je n'en peux plus, je suis crevé! (colloq)
I've had it (up to here) with... — (colloq) j'en ai marre de... (colloq)
to have it in for somebody — (colloq) avoir quelqu'un dans le collimateur (colloq)
she has/doesn't have it in her to do — elle est capable/incapable de faire
and the ayes/noes have it — les oui/non l'emportent
...and what have you —...etc
there is no milk/there are no houses to be had — on ne trouve pas de lait/de maisons
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9 her
her [hɜ:r]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► la precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• look at her! regardez-la !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When l' is the object of a tense consisting of avoir + past participle, e is added to the past participle.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Some French verbs take an indirect object. This means they are either followed by à + noun, or require an indirect pronoun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• what are you giving Pat? -- we're going to give her a CD qu'allez-vous offrir à Pat ? -- nous allons lui offrir un CD━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• have you phoned Suzy? -- yes, I phoned her last night tu as téléphoné à Suzy ? -- oui je lui ai téléphoné hier soir━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► lui precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• what are you going to say to her? qu'est-ce que tu vas lui dire ?c. (emphatic) elled. ► preposition + her elle━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► son is used instead of sa before a vowel or silent h.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━* * *[hɜː(r), hə(r)] 1. 2.determiner son/sa/ses -
10 would
❢ When would is used with a verb in English to form the conditional tense, would + verb is translated by the present conditional of the appropriate verb in French and would have + verb by the past conditional of the appropriate verb: I would do it if I had time = je le ferais si j'avais le temps ; I would have done it if I had had time = je l'aurais fait si j'avais eu le temps ; he said he would fetch the car = il a dit qu'il irait chercher la voiture.For more examples, particular usages and all other uses of would see the entry below. modal aux ( aussi 'd ; nég wouldn't)1 (in sequence of past tenses, in reported speech) she said she wouldn't come elle a dit qu'elle ne viendrait pas ; we thought we would be late nous avons pensé que nous serions en retard ; I was sure you' d like it j'étais sûr que ça te plairait ; we were wondering if he'd accept nous nous demandions s'il accepterait ; they promised that they'd come back ils ont promis de revenir ; soon it would be time to get up ce serait bientôt l'heure de se lever ; it was to be the last chance we would have to leave ça devait être la dernière chance que nous aurions de partir ; he thought she would have forgotten il pensait qu'elle aurait oublié ; I wish he would shut the door! il pourrait fermer la porte! ; I wish you'd be quiet! tu ne pourrais pas te taire! ;2 ( in conditional statements) it would be wonderful if they came ce serait merveilleux s'ils venaient ; I'm sure she would help if you asked her je suis sûr qu'elle t'aiderait si tu le lui demandais ; if we'd left later we would have missed the train si nous étions partis plus tard nous aurions raté le train ; we wouldn't be happy anywhere else nous ne serions heureux nulle part ailleurs ; what would be the best way to approach him? quel serait le meilleur moyen de l'aborder? ; who would ever have believed it? qui l'aurait cru? ; you wouldn't have thought it possible! on n'aurait jamais cru que c'était possible! ; I would have found out sooner or later je l'aurais découvert tôt ou tard ; wouldn't it be nice if… ce serait bien si… ; we wouldn't have succeeded without his help nous n'aurions jamais réussi sans son aide ; it wouldn't be the same without them ça ne serait pas la même chose sans eux ; it cost far less than I would have expected ça a coûté beaucoup moins cher que je n'aurais pensé ;3 ( expressing willingness to act) do you know anyone who would do it? est-ce que tu connais quelqu'un qui le ferait? ; they couldn't find anyone who would take the job ils n'arrivaient pas à trouver quelqu'un qui accepte ( subj) le poste ; he wouldn't hurt a fly il ne ferait pas de mal à une mouche ; she just wouldn't listen elle ne voulait rien entendre ; after that I wouldn't eat any canned food après cela je ne voulais plus manger de conserves ; he wouldn't do a thing to help il n'a rien voulu faire pour aider ; the police wouldn't give any further details la police a refusé de donner plus de détails ; they asked me to leave but I wouldn't ils m'ont demandé de partir mais j'ai refusé ;4 ( expressing inability to function) the door wouldn't close la porte ne voulait pas se fermer ; the brakes wouldn't work les freins ne marchaient pas ;5 (expressing desire, preference) we would like to stay another night nous aimerions rester une nuit de plus ; we'd really love to see you nous aimerions vraiment te voir ; I would much rather travel alone je préfèrerais nettement voyager seul ; she would have preferred a puppy elle aurait préféré un chiot ; which film would you rather see? quel film est-ce que tu préférerais voir? ; I wouldn't mind another slice of cake je prendrais bien un autre morceau de gâteau ; it's what he would have wanted c'est ce qu'il aurait voulu ;6 ( in polite requests or proposals) would you like something to eat? voudriez-vous quelque chose à manger? ; would you like some more tea? voulez-vous encore du thé? ; would you help me set the table? est-ce que tu pourrais m'aider à mettre la table? ; switch off the radio, would you? éteins la radio, tu veux bien? ; would you be interested in buying a vacuum cleaner? est-ce que vous seriez intéressé par un aspirateur? ; would you like to go to a concert est-ce que tu aimerais aller à un concert? ; would you give her the message? est-ce que vous voulez bien lui transmettre le message? ; would you mind not smoking please? est-ce que ça vous ennuyerait de ne pas fumer s'il vous plaît? ; would you please be quiet un peu de silence s'il vous plaît ; would you be so kind as to leave? sout auriez-vous l'obligeance de partir d'ici? fml ;7 ( used to attenuate statements) it would seem that he was right il semblerait qu'il avait raison ; so it would seem c'est ce qu'il semble ; you would think they'd be satisfied with the results! on aurait pu penser qu'ils seraient satisfaits des résultats! ; I wouldn't say that je ne dirais pas ça ; I would have thought it was obvious j'aurais pensé que c'était évident ; I wouldn't know je ne pourrais pas vous le dire ;8 ( when giving advice) I wouldn't do that if I were you je ne ferais pas ça à ta place or si j'étais toi ; I really wouldn't worry à ta place je ne m'en ferais pas ; I would check the timetable first tu ferais bien de vérifier l'horaire d'abord ; I'd give her a ring now tu devrais lui téléphoner maintenant ; wouldn't it be better to write? est-ce que ce ne serait pas mieux d'écrire? ;9 ( expressing exasperation) ‘he denies it’-‘well he would, wouldn't he?’ ‘il le nie’-‘évidemment!’ ; of course you would contradict him! bien sûr il a fallu que tu le contredises! ; ‘she put her foot in it ○ ’-‘she would!’ ‘elle a mis les pieds dans le plat ○ ’-‘tu m'étonnes!’, ‘c'est bien d'elle!’ ;10 ( expressing an assumption) what time would that be? c'était vers quelle heure? ; I suppose it would have been about 3 pm je pense qu'il était à peu près 15h 00 ; being so young, you wouldn't remember the war étant donné ton âge tu ne dois pas te rappeler la guerre ; let's see, that would be his youngest son voyons, ça doit être son plus jeune fils ; it would have been about five years ago ça devait être il y a environ cinq ans ; you'd never have guessed she was German on n'aurait jamais cru qu'elle était allemande ;11 (indicating habitual event or behaviour in past: used to) she would sit for hours at the window elle passait des heures assise à la fenêtre ; every winter the fields would be flooded tous les hivers les champs étaient inondés ; the children would be up at dawn les enfants étaient toujours debout à l'aube ; -
11 Usage note : might
Although usage shows that may and might are interchangeable in many contexts, might indicates a more remote possibility than may. French generally translates this element of possibility using peut-être with the appropriate verb tense:it might snow= il va peut-être neiger(It is also possible to translate this more formally using il se peut + subjunctive: il se peut qu’il neige). For particular examples see might1 1.It is possible to translate might differently depending on the nature of the context and the speaker’s point of view:he might not come= il risque de ne pas venirimplies that this is not a desirable outcome for the speaker ;he might not come= il pourrait ne pas venir or il se peut qu’il ne vienne pashowever, is neutral in tone. Where there is the idea of a possibility in the past which has not in fact occurred (see might1 2), French uses the past conditional of the verb (which is often pouvoir):it might have been serious (but wasn’t in fact)= ça aurait pu être graveThis is also the case where something which could have taken place did not, thus causing annoyance:you might have said thanks!= tu aurais pu dire merci!(see might1 7).might, as the past tense of may, will automatically occur in instances of reported speech:he said you might be hurt= il a dit que tu serais peut-être blesséFor more examples see the entry might1 and bear in mind the rules for the agreement of tenses.Where there is a choice between may and might in making requests, might is more formal and even rather dated. French uses inversion (je peux = puis-je?) in this context and puis-je me permettre de…? (= might I…?) is extremely formal.Might can be used to polite effect - to soften direct statements: you might imagine that…or to offer advice tactfully: it might be wise to…In both cases, French uses the conditional tense of the verb: on pourrait penser que… ; ce serait peut-être une bonne idée de… The use of well in phrases such as he might well be right etc. implies a greater degree of likelihood.For translations of might well, may well, see B2 in the entry well1. -
12 them
them [ðem, ðəm]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When translating them it is necessary to know whether the French verb takes a direct or an indirect object. Verbs followed by à or de take an indirect object.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━a. (direct object: people and things) les━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► les precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• look at them! regarde-les !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When the French verb consists of avoir + past participle, les precedes the form of avoir. The participle always agrees, adding s for mpl, and es for fpl.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• have you seen my keys? I've lost them avez-vous vu mes clés ? je les ai perduesb. (indirect object: people) leur• what are you going to say to them? qu'est-ce que tu vas leur dire ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► leur precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━c. (indirect object: things)━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When them refers to things, en is used when the pronoun replaces de + noun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• can you give me my notes back? I need them est-ce que tu peux me rendre mes notes ? j'en ai besoin• make sure you admire his pictures, he's very proud of them n'oublie pas d'admirer ses tableaux, il en est très fier• I knew it was them! je savais que c'était eux !• I know her but I don't know them je la connais, mais eux (or elles), je ne les connais pase. ► preposition + them• without them sans eux (or elles)• younger than them plus jeune qu'eux (or qu'elles)• my parents? I was just thinking about them mes parents ? je pensais justement à eux• the passports? I've not thought about them les passeports ? je n'y ai pas pensé━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• if anyone arrives early ask them to wait si quelqu'un arrive tôt, fais-le attendre• somebody rang -- did you ask them their name? quelqu'un a téléphoné -- est-ce que tu lui as demandé son nom ?* * *[ðem, ðəm]both of them — tous/toutes les deux
both of them work in London — ils/elles travaillent à Londres tous/toutes les deux
some of them — quelques-uns d'entre eux or quelques-unes d'entre elles
take them all — prenez-les tous/toutes
none of them wants it — aucun/-e d'entre eux/elles ne le veut
every single one of them — chacun/-e d'entre eux/elles
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13 Usage note : it
When it is used as a subject pronoun to refer to a specific object (or animal) il or elle is used in French according to the gender of the object referred to:‘where is the book/chair?’ ‘it’s in the kitchen’= ‘où est le livre/la chaise?’ ‘il/elle est dans la cuisine’‘do you like my skirt?’ ‘it’s lovely’= ‘est-ce que tu aimes ma jupe?’ ‘elle est très jolie’However, if the object referred to is named in the same sentence, it is translated by ce (c’ before a vowel):it’s a good film= c’est un bon filmWhen it is used as an object pronoun it is translated by le or la (l’ before a vowel) according to the gender of the object referred to:it’s my book/my chair and I want it= c’est mon livre/ma chaise et je le/la veuxNote that the object pronoun normally comes before the verb in French and that in compound tenses like the perfect and the past perfect, the past participle agrees with it:I liked his shirt - did you notice it?= j’ai aimé sa chemise - est-ce que tu l’as remarquée? or l’as-tu remarquée?In imperatives only, the pronoun comes after the verb:it’s my book - give it to me= c’est mon livre - donne-le-moi (note the hyphens)When it is used vaguely or impersonally followed by an adjective the translation is ce (c’ before a vowel):it’s difficult= c’est difficileit’s sad= c’est tristeBut when it is used impersonally followed by an adjective + verb the translation is il:it’s difficult to understand how…= il est difficile de comprendre comment …If in doubt consult the entry for the adjective in question.For translations for impersonal verb uses (it’s raining, it’s snowing) consult the entry for the verb in question.it is used in expressions of days of the week (it’s Friday) and clock time (it’s 5 o’clock). This dictionary contains usage notes on these and many other topics. For other impersonal and idiomatic uses see the entry it.When it is used after a preposition in English the two words (prep + it) are often translated by one word in French. If the preposition would normally be translated by de in French (e.g. of, about, from etc.) the prep + it = en:I’ve heard about it= j’en ai entendu parlerIf the preposition would normally be translated by à in French (e.g. to, in, at etc.) the prep + it = y:they went to it= ils y sont allésFor translations of it following prepositions not normally translated by de or à (e.g. above, under, over etc.) consult the entry for the preposition. -
14 Usage note : that
In French, determiners agree in gender and number with the noun they precede ; that is translated by ce + masculine singular noun ( ce monsieur), cet + masculine singular noun beginning with a vowel or mute ‘h’ ( cet homme) and cette + feminine singular noun ( cette femme) ; those is translated by ces.Note, however, that the above translations are also used for the English this (plural these). So when it is necessary to insist on that as opposed to another or others of the same sort, the adverbial tag -là is added to the noun:I prefer THAT version= je préfère cette version-làFor particular usages, see the entry that.As a pronoun meaning that one, those onesIn French, pronouns reflect the gender and number of the noun they are referring to. So that is translated by celui-là for a masculine noun, celle-là for a feminine noun and those is translated by ceux-là for a masculine noun and celles-là for a feminine noun:I think I like that one (dress) best= je crois que je préfère celle-làFor other uses of that, those as pronouns (e.g. who’s that?) and for adverbial use (e.g. that much, that many) there is no straightforward translation, so see the entry that for examples of usage.When used as a relative pronoun, that is translated by qui when it is the subject of the verb and by que when it is the object:the man that stole the car= l’homme qui a volé la voiturethe film that I saw= le film que j’ai vuRemember that in the present perfect and past perfect tenses, the past participle will agreewith the noun to which que as object refers:the apples that I bought= les pommes que j’ai achetéesWhen that is used as a relative pronoun with a preposition, it is translated by lequel when standing for a masculine singular noun, by laquelle when standing for a feminine singular noun, by lesquels when standing for a masculine plural noun and by lesquelles when standing for a feminine plural noun:the chair that I was sitting on= la chaise sur laquelle j’étais assisethe children that I bought the books for= les enfants pour lesquels j’ai acheté les livresRemember that in cases where the English preposition used would normally be translated by à in French (e.g. to, at), the translation of the whole (prep + rel pron) will be auquel, à laquelle, auxquels, auxquelles:the girls that I was talking to= les filles auxquelles je parlaisSimilarly, where the English preposition used would normally be translated by de in French (e.g. of, from), the translation of the whole (prep + rel pron) will be dont in all cases:the Frenchman that I received a letter from= le Français dont j’ai reçu une lettreWhen used as a conjunction, that can almost always be translated by que (qu’ before a vowel or mute ‘h’):she said that she would do it= elle a dit qu’elle le ferait -
15 Usage note : you
In English you is used to address everybody, whereas French has two forms: tu and vous. The usual word to use when you are speaking to anyone you do not know very well is vous. This is sometimes called the polite form and is used for the subject, object, indirect object and emphatic pronoun:would you like some coffee?= voulez-vous du café?can I help you?= est-ce que je peux vous aider?what can I do for you?= qu’est-ce que je peux faire pour vous?The more informal pronoun tu is used between close friends and family members, within groups of children and young people, by adults when talking to children and always when talking to animals ; tu is the subject form, the direct and indirect object form is te (t’ before a vowel) and the form for emphatic use or use after a preposition is toi:would you like some coffee?= veux-tu du café?can I help you?= est-ce que je peux t’aider?there’s a letter for you= il y a une lettre pour toiAs a general rule, when talking to a French person use vous, wait to see how they address you and follow suit. It is safer to wait for the French person to suggest using tu. The suggestion will usually be phrased as on se tutoie? or on peut se tutoyer?Note that tu is only a singular pronoun and vous is the plural form of tu.Remember that in French the object and indirect object pronouns are always placed before the verb:she knows you= elle vous connaît or elle te connaîtIn compound tenses like the present perfect and the past perfect, the past participle agrees in number and gender with the direct object:I saw you on Saturday(to one male: polite form)= je vous ai vu samedi(to one female: polite form)= je vous ai vue samedi(to one male: informal form)= je t’ai vu samedi(to one female: informal form)= je t’ai vue samedi(to two or more people, male or mixed)= je vous ai vus samedi(to two or more females)= je vous ai vues samediWhen you is used impersonally as the more informal form of one, it is translated by on for the subject form and by vous or te for the object form, depending on whether the comment is being made amongst friends or in a more formal context:you can do as you like here= on peut faire ce qu’on veut icithese mushrooms can make you ill= ces champignons peuvent vous rendre malade or ces champignons peuvent te rendre maladeyou could easily lose your bag here= on pourrait facilement perdre son sac iciNote that your used with on is translated by son/sa/ses according to the gender and number of the noun that follows.For verb forms with vous, tu and on see the French verb tables.For particular usages see the entry you. -
16 me
me [mi:]• you don't like jazz? Me, I love it (inf) tu n'aimes pas le jazz ? Moi, j'adore2. noun* * *Note: When used as a direct or indirect object pronoun me is translated by me (or m' before a vowel): she knows me = elle me connaît; he loves me = il m'aimeNote that the object pronoun normally comes before the verb in French and that in compound tenses like the present perfect and past perfect, the past participle of the verb agrees with the direct object pronoun: he's seen me (female speaker) = il m'a vueIn imperatives the translation for both the direct and the indirect object pronoun is moi and comes after the verb: kiss me! = embrasse-moi!; give it to me! = donne-le-moi! (note the hyphens)After prepositions and the verb to be the translation is moi: she did it for me = elle l'a fait pour moi; it's me = c'est moiI [miː, mɪ]pronoun me; (before vowel) m'II [miː]poor little me — (colloq) pauvre de moi
noun Music mi m -
17 us
us [ʌs]• let's go! allons-y !• both of us tous (or toutes) les deux* * *[ʌs, əs]Note: The direct or indirect object pronoun us is always translated by nous: she knows us = elle nous connaît. Note that both the direct and the indirect object pronouns come before the verb in French and that in compound tenses like the present perfect and past perfect, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object pronoun: he's seen us ( masculine or mixed gender object) il nous a vus; ( feminine object) il nous a vuesIn imperatives nous comes after the verb: tell us! = dis-nous!; give it to us or give us it = donne-le-nous (note the hyphens)After the verb to be and after prepositions the translation is also nous: it's us = c'est nousFor expressions with let us or let's see the entry letpronoun nousboth of us — tous/toutes les deux
every single one of us — chacun/-e d'entre nous
some of us — quelques uns/unes d'entre nous
give us a hand, will you? — (colloq) tu peux me donner un coup de main s'il te plaît?
give us a look! — (colloq) fais voir!
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18 me
I.II.me,❢ When used as a direct or indirect object pronoun me is translated by me (or m' before a vowel): she knows me = elle me connaît ; he loves me = il m'aime. Note that the object pronoun normally comes before the verb in French and that in compound tenses like the present perfect and past perfect, the past participle of the verb agrees with the direct object pronoun: he's seen me (female speaker) = il m'a vue. In imperatives the translation for both the direct and the indirect object pronoun is moi and comes after the verb: kiss me! = embrasse-moi! ; give it to me! = donne-le-moi! (note the hyphens). After prepositions and the verb to be the translation is moi: she did it for me = elle l'a fait pour moi ; it's me = c'est moi. For particular expressions see below. pron me, ( before vowel) m' ; it's for me c'est pour moi ; poor little me ○ pauvre de moi ; what would you do if you were me? qu'est-ce que tu ferais à ma place? ; dear me ○ !, deary me ○ ! ça alors! -
19 us
us,❢ The direct or indirect object pronoun us is always translated by nous: she knows us = elle nous connaît. Note that both the direct and the indirect object pronouns come before the verb in French and that in compound tenses like the present perfect and past perfect, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object pronoun: he's seen us ( masculine or mixed gender object) il nous a vus ; ( feminine object) il nous a vues.In imperatives nous comes after the verb: tell us! = dis-nous! ; give it to us or give us it = donne-le-nous (note the hyphens). After the verb to be and after prepositions the translation is also nous: it's us = c'est nous. For expressions with let us or let's see the entry let. For particular usages see the entry below. pron nous ; both of us tous/toutes les deux ; both of us like Balzac nous aimons Balzac tous/toutes les deux ; ( more informally) on aime Balzac tous/toutes les deux ; every single one of us chacun/-e d'entre nous ; people like us des gens comme nous ; some of us quelques-uns/-unes d'entre nous ; she's one of us elle est des nôtres ; give us a hand, will you ○ ? tu peux me donner un coup de main s'il te plaît? ; oh give us a break ○ ! fiche-moi la paix ○ ! ; give us a look ○ ! fais voir! -
20 Usage note : her
When used as a direct object pronoun, her is translated by la (l’ before a vowel). Note that the object pronoun normally comes before the verb in French and that, in compound tenses like perfect and past perfect, the past participle agrees with the pronoun:I know her= je la connaisI’ve already seen her= je l’ai déjà vueIn imperatives, the direct object pronoun is translated by la and comes after the verb:catch her!= attrape-la!(note the hyphen)I’ve given her the book= je lui ai donné le livreI’ve given it to her= je le lui ai donnéIn imperatives, the indirect object pronoun is translated by lui and comes after the verb:phone her= téléphone-luigive them to her= donne-les-lui(note the hyphens)he did it for her= il l’a fait pour elleit’s her= c’est elleWhen translating her as a determiner ( her house etc.) remember that in French possessive adjectives, like most other adjectives, agree in gender and number with the noun they qualify ; her is translated by son + masculine singular noun ( son chien), sa + feminine singular noun ( sa maison) BUT son + feminine noun beginning with a vowel or mute ‘h’ ( son assiette), and ses + plural noun ( ses enfants).For her used with parts of the body ⇒ The human body.
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past participle — past participles N COUNT In grammar, the past participle of a verb is a form that is usually the same as the past form and so ends in ed . A number of verbs have irregular past participles, for example break past participle broken , and come past … English dictionary
the passive — UK [ˈpæsɪv] US noun linguistics the passive form of a verb. The passive is also sometimes calle the passive voice . Thesaurus: verb forms and tenseshyponym See also: active … Useful english dictionary
The Darkness Series — is a series of six fantasy novels by Harry Turtledove. Though a fantasy the general history, geography, and combatants are analogs of World War II, or the Derlavai War in this universe.[1] Many of the characters are also the equivalents of… … Wikipedia
History of the Hungarian language — The Funeral Sermon and Prayer . This text, dated to 1192, is the oldest longer Hungarian only document. Earlier, Hungarian sentences and words appeared in Latin context. Hungarian is an Ugric language. It has been spoken in the region of modern… … Wikipedia
Past participles — ◊ GRAMMAR The past participle of a verb is used to form perfect tenses, passives, and, in some cases, adjectives. It is also called the ed form, especially when it is used as an adjective. Advances have continued, though actual productivity has… … Useful english dictionary
past participles — ◊ GRAMMAR The past participle of a verb is used to form perfect tenses, passives, and, in some cases, adjectives. It is also called the ed form, especially when it is used as an adjective. Advances have continued, though actual productivity has… … Useful english dictionary