Monsieur McKenna

Teacher of French

On n’est point toujours une bête pour l’avoir été quelquefois. -Denis Diderot

“Being a fool sometimes does not make one a fool all the time.”

Email: mckennaj@lcmrschools.com | Phone: (609) 884-3475

LCMR School District - 687 Route 9, Cape May, NJ 08204

HOME | French I | Foreign Language for Everyone | French Club | Links

Unité 3

Qu'est-ce qu'on fait?

Leçon 7: Une boum

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able …

• To describe what one person or several people are
• doing or are not doing
• To talk about what people like and don’t like to do
• To express approval or regret
• To use verb + infinitive
• To use regular –er verbs
• To pronounce vowels /i/ and /u/
• To become familiar with French party customs

Une boum

NOTE Culturelle

Une boum

On weekends, French teenagers like to go to parties that are organized at a friend’s home. These informal parties have different names according to the age group of the participants. For students at a collège (middle school), a party is sometimes known as une boum or une fête. For older students at a lycée (high school), it is called une soirée. At a boum, parents are usually around to help out and set up a buffet which often features items contributed by the guests. Pizza and chips are very popular. There may also be homemade sandwiches or Chinese food. Preferred beverages are sodas and mineral waters. Most of the young people like to dance and listen to their favorite music. Some may get drawn into the latest video games. Others simply enjoy
getting together to talk about the week’s events. For everyone, it is a way to spend a relaxing evening with friends.

A. Les verbes en -er: le singulier

The basic form of a verb is called the infinitive. Many French infinitives end in -er. Most of these verbs are conjugated like parler (to speak) and habiter (to live). Note the forms of the present tense of these verbs in the singular. Pay attention to their endings.

INFINITIVE parler habiter ENDINGS

STEM parl- habit-

PRESENT TENSE Je parle français. J’ habite à Paris. -e

(SINGULAR) Tu parles anglais. Tu habites à Boston. -es

Il/Elle parle espagnol. Il/Elle habite à Madrid. -e

The present tense forms of -er verbs consist of two parts:

STEM + ENDING

• The STEM does not change. It is the infinitive minus -er:

parler      parl-             habiter      habit-

• The ENDINGS change with the subject:

je → -e       tu → -es       il/elle → -e

→ The above endings are silent.

→ Je becomes j’ before a vowel sound.

je parle    j’habite

LEARNING ABOUT LANGUAGE

Verbs conjugated like parler and habiter follow a predictable pattern.

They are called REGULAR VERBS.

VOCABULAIRE Les verbes en –er

→ Verbs you already know:

chanter                       to sing
danser                         to dance
diner                           to have dinner
écouter                        to listen (to)
étudier                        to study
jouer                           to play
manger                       to eat
nager                          to swim
parler                          to speak, talk
regarder                     to watch, look at
téléphoner (à)             to phone, call
travailler                     to work
voyager                       to travel

→ New verbs:

aimer                         to like                           Tu aimes Paris?
habiter (à)                  to live (in + city)          Philippe habite à Toulouse?
inviter                         to invite                        J’invite un copain.
organiser                    to organize                   Sophie organise une boum.
visiter                         to visit (places)            Céline visite Québec.

→ Regarder has two meanings:

to look (at) Paul regarde Cécile.
to watch Cécile regarde la télé.

→ Note the construction téléphoner à:

Céline téléphone à Marc.
Céline calls … Marc.

→ Note the constructions with regarder (to look at) and écouter (to listen to):

Philippe regarde … Alice. Alice écoute … le professeur.
Philippe looks at Alice. Alice listens to the teacher.

B. Les verbes en -er: le pluriel

Note the plural forms of parler and habiter, paying attention to the endings.

INFINITIVE parler habiter ENDINGS

STEM parl- habit-

PRESENT TENSE Nous parlons français. Nous habitons à Québec. -ons

(PLURAL) Vous parlez anglais. Vous habitez à Chicago. -ez

Ils/Elles parlent espagnol. Ils/Elles habitent à Caracas. -ent

C. Le présent des verbes en -er: forme affirmative et forme négative

Compare the affirmative and negative forms of parler.

AFFIRMATIVE                                 NEGATIVE

je parle                                          je ne parle pas
tu parles                                        tu ne parles pas
il/elle parle                                      il/elle ne parle pas

nous parlons                                  nous ne parlons pas
vous parlez                                    vous ne parlez pas
ils/elles parlent                               ils/elles ne parlent pas

RAPPEL

The negative form of the verb follows the pattern:

SUBJECT + ne + VERB + pas Il ne travaille pas ici.

n’ (+ VOWEL SOUND) Je n’invite pas Pierre.

Related image

LANGUAGE COMPARISONS

English has several verb forms for expressing actions in the present.
In French there is only one form. Compare:

I play tennis.

Je joue au tennis. → I do play tennis.

I am playing tennis.

Je ne joue pas au tennis .→ I do not play tennis. (I don’t play tennis.)

I am not playing tennis. (I’m not playing tennis.)

Les verbes en –er: PowerPoint

VOCABULAIRE Mots utiles

Mots Utiles

VOCABULAIRE Expressions pour la conversation

Expressions Lecon 7

D. La construction: verbe + infinitive

Note the use of the infinitive in the following French sentences.

J’aime parler français. I like to speak French. I like speaking French.
Ils n’aiment pas danser. They don’t like to dance. They don’t like dancing.

To express what they like and don’t like to do, the French use these constructions:

SUBJECT + PRESENT TENSE + INFINITIVE ...         SUBJECT + n’ + PRESENT TENSE + pas + INFINITIVE ...

of aimer                                                                                of aimer

Nous     aimons       voyager.                      Nous n’aimons pas      voyager.

Note that in this construction, the verb aimer may be affirmative or negative:

AFFIRMATIVE: Jacques aime voyager. NEGATIVE: Philippe n’aime pas voyager.

→ The infinitive is also used after the following expressions:

Je préfère …                          I prefer ...                    Je préfère travailler.
Je voudrais …                        I would like ...              Je voudrais voyager.
Je (ne) veux (pas) …            I (don’t) want ...          Je veux jouer au foot.
Est-ce que tu veux …            Do you want ...             Est-ce que tu veux danser?
Je (ne) peux (pas) …            I can (I can’t) ...          Je ne peux pas dîner avec toi.
Je dois …                               I have to ...                  Je dois étudier.