Ages, Birthdays, Anniversaries

Age and birthdays in French
One of the confusing things for beginning French students is that age is expressed with avoir (to have), rather than être (to be). French also has nouns and adjectives for a person whose age falls within a specific decade.

Agreement

French agreementGrammatical agreement is a vast topic - and one of the banes of French students. While in English we have a few pronouns and adjectives that indicate gender and number (e.g., he/him/his and she/her/hers), in French, agreement is found in 5 of the 8 parts of speech.

   

   

Agreement with Direct Objects

French agreement with direct objectsMost French verbs are conjugated with avoir as their auxiliary verb in compound tenses and moods, and therefore do not require agreement with their subjects. But avoir verbs do need agreement in a very specific construction: the past participle must agree with the direct object when it precedes the verb.

   

Agreement with Pronominal Verbs

French agreement with pronominal verbsAll pronominal verbs are être verbs in compound tenses and moods like the passé composé, which means that the past participles must agree with their subjects - at least in theory. In fact, it's not quite so straightforward.

   

Agreement with Subjects

French agreement with subjectsThe three French verb constructions which include some form of être plus a past participle usually require grammatical agreement of the past participle with the subject.

   

   

   

Aimer – to like, to love

Aimer - French verbThe regular -er verb aimer is ubiquitous and very useful, but somehow means both "to like" and "to love." In some contexts, this can make a world of difference as you certainly don't want to tell someone you love them when you're just friends, so how can you make it clear how you feel?

   

Aller – to go

Aller - to go - French verbAller is one of the most common and useful French verbs and has irregular conjugations in most tenses and moods. Aller literally means "to go" and is used to create the near future.