Chapitre 4

I. Revue de conjugaison
1. The verbs conduire and mettre are irregular in the present indicative
Je conduis
Tu conduis
Il/elle/on conduit
Imperfect stem:
Future/Conditional
stem:
Past participle:

Nous conduisons
Vous conduisez
Ils/elles conduisent
conduisconduir-

Je mets
Tu mets
Il/elle/on met
mettmettr-

conduit

mis

Nous mettons
Vous mettez
Ils/elles mettent

II. Articles
1. Three types of articles in French: definite, indefinite, and partitive which are the
equivalent of the, a/an, and some

Definite article
Indefinite
article
Partitive article

Singular
Masc.
le
(l)
un

Fem.
la
(l)
une

du
(de l)

de la
(de l)

Plural
Masc./Fem.
les
des

III. Object Pronouns, y and en

1. Direct objects receive the direct action of the verb and can be replaced by direct
object pronouns
a. me (m), te (t), le/la (l), nous, vous, les
2. Indirect objects are acted upon by the verb, preceded by the preposition and can
be replaced by indirect object pronouns
a. me (m), te (t), lui, nous, vous, leur
3. Rules for the use of Direct and Indirect object pronouns
a. The pronoun precedes the verb of which it is the object, unless the verb is
an affirmative imperative
b. If the verbs is an affirmative imperative, the object pronoun follows the
verb and is connected to it by a hyphen
c. If the verb is a compound tense, the pronoun preceded the auxiliary verb.
The past participle agrees with the direct object pronoun in gender and
number
4. Y
a. The pronoun y can be used to replace the preposition + a noun referring
to a thing or an idea, but not when referring to a person
b. Also used to replace expressions of location starting with or other
prepositions, except de
5. En

a. Used in French to express the idea of some, any, or none. It can replace:
the partitive article + the noun that follows
a noun preceded by a number or an expression of quantity, but the
number of the expression of quantity must be repeated
the preposition de in expressions with avoir + the verb or noun
clause that follows
the preposition de + a place
the preposition de + a clause
IV. Order of pronouns
(ne+)

me (m)+

le+

lui+

te (t)

la

leur

se (s)

les

y+

en+

verb (+pas)

nous
vous
se (s)
V. Disjunctive pronouns
1. Another type of personal pronoun that can be used independently from a verb
2. Moi, toi, lui/elle/soi, nous, vous, eux/elles
a. to emphasize subjects and objects in a sentence
Moi, jadore conduire
b. as the object of the preposition , for certain verbal phrases, when
referring to a person/persons
c. as the object of all prepositions other than
d. after cest/ce sont
e. as a one word answer to a question
f. in comparative constructions
g. after neque
h. as part of a compound subject
i. combined with -mme