Où – Relative Pronoun
As a relative pronoun, où means both "where" and "when": it combines two clauses that are related in space or time. Learn about French grammar: parts of speech, negation, verb conjugations, and a whole lot more.
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As a relative pronoun, où means both "where" and "when": it combines two clauses that are related in space or time.
The French preposition par generally means "by," "through," or "per." A2 - Low-Intermediate French • prepositions
The partitive article (du, de la, de l', des) refers to an unspecified quantity of food, liquid, or some other uncountable noun. English has no equivalent article - the partitive is usually translated by the adjectives "some" or "any," or may be left out entirely. A1 - Beginning French • articles • lesson plans
Parts of speech are the building blocks of everything you say, write, hear, and read. Even if you hate the thought of learning any grammar terms, knowing the difference between these eight basic parts of speech is essential for improving your French ability.
The first thing French students learn about negation is that the two parts of the negative adverb ne ... pas are required on either side of the verb. In fact, pas is very often used informally without ne with several different parts of speech.
The passé composé is the most important French past tense, and just to make things interesting, it has three possible English equivalents. A2 - Low-Intermediate French • lesson plans • tenses moods voices
The passé composé is a compound verb form, which means its conjugation has two components: an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) and the past participle of the main verb.
The trickiest aspect of the two most important French past tenses is that they often work together, juxtaposed not only throughout stories, but even within individual sentences. Understanding the contrasting relationship between the passé composé and imparfait is essential to communicating in French. B1 - Intermediate French • lesson plans • verbs

B1 - Intermediate French • tenses moods voices
Some French words and phrases are virtually always used with the imparfait, while others seem to stick like glue to the passé composé. These lists can help you determine which tense you need in any given sentence.
Knowing whether to use passé composé or imparfait sometimes depends on the meaning of the verb itself: some French verbs have different meanings in the two tenses. B2 - Upper-Intermediate French • verbs
The passé simple is a single-word past tense, equivalent to English's simple past. However, the passé simple is a literary tense and is thus limited to formal writing, such as literature (including children's books), journalism, and historical accounts. B1 - Intermediate French • formalities • tenses moods voices
Passé simple conjugations are easy to recognize because, quite frankly, most of them look very strange.
The regular -er French verb passer usually means "to pass" and may require either être or avoir as its auxiliary verb in compound tenses/moods, depending on how it's used.
The best-known passive construction is the passive voice, which has a verb performing on a subject (e.g., he is seen). But did you know that French has several other passive constructions that are just as important to recognize and use? Bonjour !
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