Notes
Present tense review
- -er verbs: je parle, tu parles, il parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent. Watch spelling changes: nous mangeons, nous commençons, j'achète.
- -ir verbs (finir): finis, finis, finit, finissons, finissez, finissent. -re verbs (vendre): vends, vends, vend, vendons, vendez, vendent.
- Irregular verbs to know: être (suis, es, est, sommes, êtes, sont), avoir (ai, as, a, avons, avez, ont), aller (vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont), faire (fais, fais, fait, faisons, faites, font).
- Modal verbs are followed by an infinitive: Je veux sortir. Tu peux venir. Nous devons partir.
Reflexive verbs
- A reflexive verb has a pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous, se) before the verb: Je me lève. Elles se couchent.
- Use m', t', s' before a vowel: Il s'habille.
- Negation surrounds pronoun and verb: Je ne me lève pas. With body parts use le/la/les: Je me lave les mains.
Time and routine
- Time: Il est trois heures. Il est six heures et quart. Il est huit heures et demie. Il est neuf heures moins le quart. Ask: Quelle heure est-il? À quelle heure...?
- Sequence words: d'abord, ensuite, puis, après, enfin. Frequency: toujours, souvent, parfois, rarement, ne ... jamais.
Topics in this unit
Each topic has its own short notes and practice.
Practice
Regular -ir verbs add -issez for vous.
Add an e in -ger verbs before -ons to keep the soft g.
The pronoun se becomes s' before a vowel.
Moins le quart means a quarter to the hour, so 9:45.
After "je me lave" comes "puis je m'habille".
Ne goes before the reflexive pronoun and pas after the verb.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Léa describes her school day. Use your knowledge of present tense verbs, reflexive verbs and time expressions.
(a) Write a French sentence saying that Léa wakes up at 6:30 and gets up at a quarter to seven.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Léa se réveille à six heures et demie et elle se lève à sept heures moins le quart.
Check off the points you earned:
(b) Write two sentences using the verbs finir and aller to say that Léa finishes class at 3:15 and goes home.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Elle finit les cours à trois heures et quart. Elle va à la maison.
Check off the points you earned:
(c) Write a negative sentence with a reflexive verb saying that Léa never goes to bed early, and explain where ne and jamais go.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Léa ne se couche jamais tôt. Ne goes before the reflexive pronoun and jamais goes after the conjugated verb.
Check off the points you earned: