Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 How This Book Is Organized 3 Part I: The Building Blocks of French 3 Part II: The Here and Now: Writing in the Present 3 Part III: Writing with Panache: Dressing Up Your Sentences 3 Part IV: That Was Then, and What Will Be, Will Be: The Past and Future Tenses 3 Part V: The Part of Tens 3 Part VI: Appendixes 4 Icons Used in This Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part I: The Building Blocks of French 5 Chapter 1: Understanding Parts of Speech and Bilingual Dictionaries 7 Identifying the Parts of Speech 7 What''s in a name? Nouns 8 The articles 8 Verbs take center stage 9 Describing adjectives 10 Using adverbs 10 Pronouns: They''re replacements 11 Prepositions: On top of it 12 Connecting with conjunctions 13 Correctly Using a Bilingual Dictionary 13 Figuring out what to look up 14 Choosing the right word based on context and part of speech 14 Understanding symbols and terminology 15 Interpreting figurative language and idioms 15 Verifying your findings 16 Answer Key 17 Chapter 2: Figuring Out Nouns, Articles, and Possession 19 Genre Bending: Writing with Masculine and Feminine Nouns 19 Determining the gender of nouns 19 Making nouns feminine 20 Nouns that are always masculine or feminine 21 Part Deux: Making Nouns Plural 22 Remembering your x''s: Other plural patterns 22 Irregular plurals 22 Understanding Articles and How They Indicate Gender and Number 23 Grasping the definite articles 24 Sorting out indefinite articles 24 Looking at some partitive articles 25 A Little of This and That: Using Demonstratives 26 Demonstrative adjectives 26 Demonstrative pronouns 27 Possession: Channeling the Spirit of Ownership 28 Possession using "de" 29 Working with possessive adjectives 29 Yours, mine, and ours: Understanding possessive pronouns 31 Answer Key 33 Chapter 3: The 4-1-1 on Numbers, Dates, and Time 35 Using Numbers 35 Counting on cardinal numbers: 1, 2, 3 35 Sorting out ordinal numbers 37 Mark Your Calendar: Expressing Days, Months, and Dates 39 A full sept: Knowing the days of the week 39 An even dozen: Identifying the months 40 Day, month, and year: Scoping out the "dating" scene 40 Understanding Time Differences 41 Answer Key 45 Part II: The Here and Now: Writing in the Present 47 Chapter 4: Right Here, Right Now: The Present Tense 49 Understanding Subject Pronouns, Your Conjugation Cues 49 Je or nous: The first person 50 Tu or vous: The second person 51 Il, elle, or on: The third person singular 51 Ils or elles: The third person plural 52 The Mainstream: Conjugating Regular Verbs 53 The most common regular verbs: -er 53 Another common regular verb ending: -ir 53 The third type of regular verbs: -re 54 Preserving Pronunciation with Spelling-Change Verbs 55 Working with -cer verbs 55 Managing -ger verbs 56 Dissecting Stem-Changing Verbs 56 Tackling -yer verbs 57 Figuring out -eler verbs 57 Focusing on -eter verbs 58 Looking at -e*er verbs 58 Dealing with -é*er verbs 59 The Rebels: Conjugating Irregular Verbs 61 Coming right up: Verbs like venir 61 Going out and out like a light: Verbs like sortir and dormir 62 Offering and opening: Verbs like offrir and ouvrir 62 Taking: Verbs like prendre 63 Beating and putting: Verbs like battre and mettre 63 Abilities and wants: Pouvoir and vouloir 64 Seeing is believing: Voir, c''est croire 64 Tackling unique irregular verbs 65 Answer Key 68 Chapter 5: Asking and Answering Questions 71 Oui ou Non: Asking Yes/No Questions 71 Posing informal questions 71 Asking formal questions with inversion 72 Asking Who, What, Which, When, Where, Why, and How Questions 73 Asking wh questions with "est-ce que" 74 Asking wh questions with inversion 76 Answering Questions 77 Answering yes/no questions 77 Answering wh questions 78 Answer Key 79 Chapter 6: Just Say No: The Negative 81 Using Negative Adverbs 81 The most common negative adverb: Ne pas 81 Other negative adverbs 82 Using Negative Adjectives, Pronouns, and Conjunctions 83 Negative adjectives 84 Negative pronouns 85 Negative conjunctions 87 Responding to Negative Questions and Statements 88 Replying with no 88 Answering with yes 88 Answer Key 89 Chapter 7: "To Be" or "Being" Is the Question: Infinitives and Present Participles 91 How to Use Infinitives 91 With the verb: Expressing action 92 Nouns: Standing as subjects 93 Understanding word order with infinitives 94 Presenting Present Participles 95 Forming present participles 95 Using present participles 96 Answer Key 101 Chapter 8: Deciphering the Subjunctive Mood 103 Conjugating the Subjunctive 103 Regular verbs 103 Stem-changing and most irregular verbs 104 Really irregular verbs 105 Getting Unreal: Using the Subjunctive 108 With impersonal expressions 108 Once more, with feelings (and orders and opinions) 110 Why not? With certain verbs in the negative or interrogative 111 And with conjunctions 112 With superlatives: Simply the best 113 Something else: Words with indefinite and negative pronouns 113 All by itself 114 Avoiding the Subjunctive 115 Shared and implied subjects: Using de + infinitive 115 Slipping in some indirect objects 116 Swapping the subjunctive for a noun 116 Doubting: Saying if only 116 Answer Key 118 Part III: Writing with Panache: Dressing Up Your Sentences 121 Chapter 9: Describing with Flair: Adjectives and Adverbs 123 Describing the Role of Adjectives 123 Making your adjectives agree 124 Correctly positioning adjectives with nouns 126 Using special forms for six adjectives that precede nouns 127 Identifying adjectives with meaning changes 128 Identifying an Adverb''s Role 129 Identifying types of adverbs 129 Forming adverbs of manner 132 Positioning adverbs 133 Comparing with Comparatives and Superlatives 135 More or less, equal: Relating two things with comparatives 135 Supersizing with superlatives 136 For better or worse: Special comparative and superlative forms 137 Answer Key 139 Chapter 10: I Command You: The Imperative 141 Conjugating the Imperative 141 Regular verbs 141 Irregular verbs 143 Pronominal verbs 146 Giving Affirmative and Negative Commands 147 For the to-do list: Affirmative commands 147 Don''t do it! Negative commands 148 Identifying Other Ways to Give Commands 149 Commanding with the infinitive 149 Forbidding with "défense de" 149 Requesting with the future 149 Demanding with the subjunctive 150 Answer Key 151 Chapter 11: Sorting Out Pronominal Verbs: Idioms, Oneself, and Each Other 153 Understanding the Types of Pronominal Verbs 153 Reflexive verbs: Acting on oneself 154 Reciprocal verbs: What you do to each other 155 Figuratively speaking: Idiomatic pronominal verbs 155 Introducing the Relationship of Reflexive Pronouns to Pronominal Verbs 156 Eyeing the reflexive pronouns 156 Knowing where the words go 158 Deciding Whether to Make a Verb Pronominal 159 Reflexive verbs: Oneself or something else? 159 Reciprocal verbs: Returning the favor? 161 Idiomatic verbs: What''s the meaning of all this? 162 Answer Key 163 Chapter 12: An Ode to Prepositions 165 Identifying Common Prepositions 165 The preposition à 165 The preposition de 166 Forming contractions with prepositions 166 Identifying other useful prepositions 168 Distinguishing between Prepositions 169 When to use à or de 169 When to use dans or en 170 Using Prepositions with Places 171 Prepositions with countries 171 Prepositions with cities 173 Looking at Verbs that Need Prepositions 173 Verbs with à 174 Verbs with de 175 Verbs with other prepositions 177 Verbs with different prepositions 178 Verbs with no preposition 179 Answer Key 181 Chapter 13: Getting a Hold on Pronouns 183 Using Object Pronouns 183 Presenting direct-object pronouns 183 Giving you indirect-object pronouns 186 Understanding Adverbial Pronouns 188 Getting there with the adverbial pronoun y 188 Adverbial grammar: Picking up more of it with the pronoun en 190 Positioning Double Pronouns 192 Lining up: Standard pronoun order 192 Using pronouns in commands 193 Answer Key 195 Chapter 14: Grasping Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns 197 Joining with Conjunctions 197 Coordinating conjunctions 197 Subordinating conjunctions 200 Grasping Relative Pronouns 202 Sizing up relative pronouns 202 Identifying indefinite relative pronouns 206 Answer Key 209 Part IV: That Was Then, and What W.