Did I translate these two sentences correctly? (please forgive my accents)I know the words that I need, but I am not sure how's the ordering in the sentence.
What days do you have your french class?
= Quel jours tu as un cours de francais?
I have french class every monday and wednesday.
=J'ai un cours de francais le lundi et le mercredi.
We learnt about l'imperatif today, but I just don't get it. I just know for nous and vous, you just conjugate and drop the nous or vous. But for tu, it seems confusing. And I am not too sure what are they used for. Could you please give a little explanation? Thanks.
Bonsoir, Miche! Joyeux Jour d'action de grâce!
1. Remember when "jours" is plural so is the adjective. Also, the question word order is usually the verb-subject (inversion) if you don't use Est-ce que...
Quels jours as-tu un cours de français?
2. good! parfait! (français, bien sûr!)
L'impératif:
Have you had only regular verbs? We'll begin with that. Imperative or Command = you tell someone what you want them to do...
familiar = tu / formal = vous
FAMILIAR POLITE
jouer joue, play jouez, play jouons = let us play / let's play
bâtir bâtis, build bâtissez, bâtissons
build let us
build
entendre entends, hear entendez, entendons,
hear let's hear
NOTE: 1. The forms of the imperative are the same as the corresponding forms of the present tense, BUT the subject pronouns "tu, vous, and nous" are omitted.
2. The exception is the familiar form of -er verbs, which ends in "e:" joue. (or another way to say this is that the marker "s" is omitted)
3. The imperative is made negative in the regular way, that is, "ne + verb + pas:"
ne bâtissez pas = do not build
ne jouons pas = let's not play
If you've had any irregular verbs, let me know.
Mme
When you say Est-ce que in #1, does it also apply to qu'est-ce?
So
"What are you wearing today?"
=Qu'est-ce que tu-portes aujourd'hui?
And we were given these examples;
leve-toi
ecoute-moi
lis ton livre
Why is toi/moi/ton used?
OK, I see you have a Reflexive Verb. It is not "lever" but "se lever" so when you say "get yourself up" you need the "toi" = lève-toi and the negative is ne te lève pas.
Qu'est-ce que tu portes = not necessary to have the hyphen.
lève-toi is Reflexive BUT écoute-moi uses the direct-object. The negative would be "ne m'écoute pas."
lis ton livre. Because this is the familiar command, or directed to "tu" it says YOU read YOUR book and ton is the familiar possessive adjective.
Hope that clarified it and didn't "muddy the waters!"
Mme
P.S. Some irregular verbs:
aller = va, allez, allons
vewnir = viens, venez, venons
prendre = prends, preenez, prenonsdire = dis, dites, disons
faire = fais, faites, faisons
lire = lis, lisez, lisons
écrire = écris, écrivez, écrivons
mettre = mets, mettez, mettons
voir = vois, voyez, voyons
recevoir = reçois, recevez, recevons
ouvrir = ouvre, ouvrez, ouvrons
partir = pars, partez, partons
sortir = sors, sortez, sortons
Mme
To determine if your translations are correct, we can break down the sentences.
1. What days do you have your French class?
Quels jours as-tu ton cours de français?
Here are the changes made in the corrected sentence:
- Quels: The question word "what" needs to agree with the noun "jours," so it becomes "quels" in plural.
- As-tu: The subject "you" (tu) is inverted with the verb "have" (avoir) to form the question.
2. I have French class every Monday and Wednesday.
J'ai un cours de français tous les lundis et mercredis.
Here are the changes made in the corrected sentence:
- J'ai: The subject "I" (je) is substituted with "j'ai" (the verb "avoir" conjugated in the first person singular form).
- Tous les: In French, when referring to something that occurs regularly or every (day, week, month, etc.), we use "tous les" (every) to indicate this.
Now, let's move on to your questions about the imperative in French.
In the imperative mood, we use verbs to give commands or make requests. There are three forms in the imperative: tu (you), nous (we), and vous (you).
For the tu form:
- Most of the time, the imperative for tu is the same as the present tense form without the subject pronoun. However, in the case of -er verbs, there is a slight change in the ending. Instead of -es, we use -e. For example, "Parles!" (Talk!) instead of "Tu parles!" (You talk!).
For the nous and vous forms:
- The imperative forms for nous and vous are the same as the corresponding present tense forms without the subject pronouns. For example, "Parlons!" (Let's talk!) for nous and "Parlez!" (You all talk!) for vous.
The imperative is used to give direct orders or commands to someone. It can also be used in polite requests. The tu form is more informal, while the vous form is more formal or used to address a group of people.
Remember that the imperative in French does not have a subject pronoun, unlike English. The verb itself carries the necessary information about the subject.
I hope this explanation helps clarify the concept of the imperative in French! Feel free to ask if you have any more questions.