Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: The Building Blocks of French 5 Chapter 1: Getting to Know You 7 French Greetings 7 Hello 7 How are you? 8 Won''t you tell me your name? 10 Using Other Social Niceties Appropriately 12 Saying please, thank you, and you''re welcome 12 Parting ways 12 Understanding Subject Pronouns 13 Je or nous: The first person 14 Tu or vous: The second person 15 Il, elle, or on: The third-person singular 16 Ils or elles: The third-person plural 17 Answer Key to "Getting to Know You" Practice Questions 19 Chapter 2: Understanding Parts of Speech and Bilingual Dictionaries 23 Identifying the Parts of Speech 23 What''s in a name? Nouns 24 Articles (not the ones in magazines) 25 Doing all the things with verbs 25 Describing adjectives 26 Using adverbs 27 Pronouns: They''re replacements 28 Prepositions: On top of it 29 Connecting with conjunctions 30 Correctly Using a Bilingual Dictionary 31 Figuring out what to look up 31 Considering context and part of speech 32 Understanding symbols and terminology 33 Interpreting figurative language and idioms 33 Verifying your findings 34 Answer Key to "Understanding Parts of Speech and Bilingual Dictionaries" Practice Questions 35 Chapter 3: Figuring Out Nouns and Articles 41 Genre Bending: Writing with Masculine and Feminine Nouns 41 Determining the gender of nouns 42 Making nouns feminine 42 Nouns that are always masculine or feminine 43 Part Deux: Making Nouns Plural 44 Remembering your x''s: Other plural patterns 45 Irregular plurals 45 Understanding Article Types, Gender, and Number 46 Defining the definite articles 47 Sorting out indefinite articles 50 Looking at some partitive articles 51 The sum of all articles 54 Answer Key to "Figuring Out Nouns and Articles" Practice Questions 55 Chapter 4: Showing Up and Owning Up: Demonstratives and Possessives 59 A Little of This and That: Using Demonstratives 60 Demonstrative adjectives 60 Demonstrative pronouns 62 Possession: Channeling the Spirit of Ownership 64 Possession using de 65 Working with possessive adjectives 65 Yours, mine, and ours: Understanding possessive pronouns 68 Answer Key to "Demonstratives and Possessives" Practice Questions 71 Chapter 5: The 4-1-1 on Numbers, Dates, and Time 75 Using Numbers 75 Counting on cardinal numbers: 1, 2, 3 76 Assigning rank with ordinal numbers 80 Mark Your Calendar: Expressing Days, Months, and Dates 82 Knowing the days of the week 82 An even dozen: Identifying the months 84 ''Tis the season 84 Day, month, and year: Scoping out the dating scene 85 Understanding Time Differences 86 Answer Key to "The 4-1-1 on Numbers, Dates, and Time" Practice Questions 90 Part 2: The Here and Now: Writing in the Present 95 Chapter 6: Right Here, Right Now: The Present Tense 97 The Mainstream: Conjugating Regular Verbs 97 The most common regular verbs: -er 98 Another common regular verb ending: -ir 99 The third type of regular verbs: -re 100 Rounding up regular French verbs 101 Preserving Pronunciation with Spelling-Change Verbs 102 Working with -cer verbs 102 Managing -ger verbs 102 Practicing with spelling-change verbs 103 Dissecting Stem-Changing Verbs 104 Tackling -yer verbs 104 Figuring out -eler verbs 105 Focusing on -eter verbs 106 Looking at -e*er verbs 107 Dealing with -é*er verbs 108 Cleaning up conjugations 109 The Rebels: Conjugating Irregular Verbs 110 Coming right up: Verbs conjugated like venir 111 Going out -- and out like a light: Verbs conjugated like sortir and dormir 111 Offering and opening: Verbs conjugated like offrir and ouvrir 112 Taking: Verbs conjugated like prendre 112 Beating and putting: Verbs conjugated like battre and mettre 112 Abilities and wants: Pouvoir and vouloir 113 Making do: Verbs conjugated like faire 113 Seeing is believing: Voir, c''est croire 113 Tackling unique irregular verbs 114 Answer Key to "Right Here, Right Now: The Present Tense" Practice Questions 117 Chapter 7: Sorting Out Pronominal Verbs: Idioms, Oneself, and Each Other 123 Examining the Relationship between Reflexive Pronouns and Pronominal Verbs 124 Understanding the Types of Pronominal Verbs 126 Reflexive verbs: Acting on oneself 126 Reciprocal verbs: What you do to each other 127 Idiomatic pronominal verbs: Figuratively speaking 128 Knowing Where the Words Go 130 Deciding Whether to Make a Verb Pronominal 131 Reflexive verbs: Oneself or something else? 132 Reciprocal verbs: Returning the favor? 133 Idiomatic pronominal verbs: What''s the meaning of all this? 134 Answer Key to "Sorting Out Pronominal Verbs" Practice Questions 137 Chapter 8: Asking and Answering Questions 139 Oui ou Non: Asking Yes-or-No Questions 139 Posing informal questions 140 Asking formal questions with inversion 140 Asking Who, What, Which, When, Where, Why, and How Questions 142 Interrogative adverbs 142 Interrogative pronouns 144 Interrogative adjectives 145 Asking wh questions with est-ce que 146 Asking wh questions with inversion 149 Answering Questions 150 Answering yes-or-no questions 150 Answering wh questions 152 Answer Key to "Asking and Answering Questions" Practice Questions 153 Chapter 9: Just Say No: The Negative 157 Using Negative Adverbs 157 The most common negative adverb: Ne pas 158 Using ne pas in two-verb constructions 159 Following word order with ne pas 160 Other negative adverbs 161 Using Negative Pronouns 162 Ne personne 162 Ne rien 163 Negatives and their indefinite opposites 164 Practice using negative pronouns 164 Responding to Negative Questions and Statements 165 Replying with no 165 Answering with yes 166 Answer Key to "Just Say No: The Negative" Practice Questions 168 Chapter 10: "To Be" or "Being" Is the Question: Infinitives and Present Participles 171 Working with French Infinitives 172 As a verb: Expressing action 172 Using aller to say what''s going to happen 174 As a noun: Infinitives as subjects 175 Understanding word order with infinitives 177 Presenting Present Participles 178 Forming present participles 178 Using present participles 179 Answer Key to "Infinitives and Present Participles" Practice Questions 183 Part 3: Writing with Panache: Dressing Up Your Sentences 187 Chapter 11: Describing and Comparing with Flair: Adjectives and Adverbs 189 Describing All the Things with Adjectives 190 Making your adjectives agree 190 Correctly positioning adjectives around nouns 194 Using special forms for six adjectives that precede nouns 195 Identifying adjectives that have changing meanings 197 Using Adverbs Accurately 198 Identifying types of adverbs 198 Turning adjectives into adverbs of manner 202 Positioning adverbs 204 Comparing with Comparatives and Superlatives 206 More or less, equal: Relating two things with comparatives 206 Supersizing with superlatives 208 For better or worse: Special comparative and superlative forms 209 Answer Key to "Adjectives and Adverbs" Practice Questions 212 Chapter 12: An Ode to Prepositions 217 Identifying Common Prepositions 217 The preposition à 217 The preposition de 218 Forming contractions with prepositions 219 Identifying other useful prepositions 220 Distinguishing between Prepositions 222 When to use à or de 222 When to use dans or en 223 Using Prepositions with Places 224 Prepositions with countries 224 Prepositions with cities 226 Giving Verbs the Prepositions They Need 227 Verbs with à 227 Verbs with de 227 Verbs with other prepositions 228 Verbs with different prepositions 228 Verbs with no preposition 229 Answer Key to "An Ode to Prepositions" Practice Questions 230 Chapter 13: Getting a Hold on Pronouns 233 Using Object Pronouns 233 Presenting direct object pronouns 234 Word order with direct object pronouns 235 Giving you indirect object pronouns 237 Understanding Adverbial Pronouns 239 Getting there with the adverbial pronoun y 239 Adverbial grammar: Picking up more of it with the pronoun en 241 Positioning Double Pronouns 242 Lining up: Standard pronoun order 243 Using pronouns in commands 244 Answer Key to "Getting a Hold on Pronouns" Practice Questions 245 Part 4: Just Do It, and Now You''ve Done It: Commands and Past Tenses 249 Chapter 14: I Command You: The Imperative 251 Conjugating the Imperative 251 Regular verbs 252 Irregular verbs 254 Pronominal verbs 257 Giving Affirmative and Negative Commands 258 Making a to-do list:.