Anybody care to give me the conjugations and pronunciations (likely to be strange) of "to be" in French?

jimthedog

the conjugations and pronunciations (likely to be strange) of "to be" in French?

jimlechien, you don't say how many tenses you want, or in what context you want to use the information. You would probabaly be better looking at a French grammar. The url below gives a lot of info.
[url]http://www.buxtononline.net/french-tuition/tenses.htm{/url]

If you want a specific question answered then post again or send me a private message.

Rod

As Rod sort of alludes, you don't know what you are asking for. French, along with the other European languages, has a much more elaborate grammar than English, with a surprising number [to an non-Francophone] of tenses and moods.

Well, in Spanish, they have 2 words for it, ser and estar. They both have 6 conjugations, unless someone has been keeping any others secret, being so, eres, es, somos, sois, son, and estoy, estas, esta, estamos, estais, and estan. Some of them have accents, but I can't do that here. That's the sort of thing I want.

jimthedog

The Spanish 'ser' and 'estar' is a peculiarity which it shares with Italian, which also has 'essere' and 'stare' but doesn't use 'stare' as frequently as Spanish uses 'estar'. With that out of the way, there is no such usage in French. The only verb for 'to be' you need concern yourself with is 'être'. But you have the following conjugations:

Infinitive (to be)
Imperative (Be!)
Present indicative (I am, you are, etc.)
Imperfect indicative (I was)
Perfect indicative (I was, I have been)
Pluperfect indicative (I had been)
Narrative preterite (I was)
Future indicative (I shall be)
Conditional (I would be)
Future perfect indicative (I shall have been)
Conditional perfect (I should have been)

Not counting the first two on the list, that's 9 full conjugations (I may even have forgotten one or 2) and we haven't started on the subjunctive conjugations, of which there is one to match most of the indicative ones.

Still want a listing?

jimthedog-

Are you familiar with the two forms of "you" in French? (That is, did you know there are two and do you know the difference?)

jimthedog-

Are you familiar with the two forms of "you" in French? (That is, did you know there are two and do you know the difference?)

Probably respectful you and familiar you, or one of these and plural.Those are what we use in Spanish, plus another one used only in Spain.

jimthedog

Yur query has reminded me of a valued ayleur missing for some time now, the delightful Québecoise Bel(le)Marduk - où es tu, ma Bel?

along with the other European languages, has a much more elaborate grammar than English

I'm sure the English agree, but how about the folks in Papua New Guinea?

more elaborate grammar
..and what's more, they have grammaire and grand'mère, something used already by Molière, if I remember correctly.

où es tu, ma Bel?
Mais non, mon ami--la belM est la mienne!
Et, bonjour, grand'mère wsieber.

If you want a specific question answered then post again or send me a private message.
I'll just try a private message.



jimthedog

Mais non, mon ami--la belM est la mienne

Pardonnez-moi! Je suis desolé! Je grovel a votre feet!

Je grovel a votre feet!
That's more like it...
Sweet Max, you are hilarious AND adorable!
Votre feet! [shaking head emoticon] again!

Jim (and others) -

If you want to type letters with accents (without having to copy and paste from another program), you can hold down Alt and type a series of numbers. For example, on the computer I'm using, Alt + 0233 = é. They're generally in alphabetical order, but I think capitals are listed separate from lowercase. (You can see the listing on a Character Map.)

Jackie effuses: Votre feet! [shaking head emoticon] again!

Maybe it's time to revisit the Europanto thread? [ducking, big-time]

French pi points out: If you want to type letters with accents (without having to copy and paste from another program), you can hold down Alt and type a series of numbers. For example, on the computer I'm using, Alt + 0233 = é. They're generally in alphabetical order, but I think capitals are listed separate from lowercase. (You can see the listing on a Character Map.)

Unless, of course, you're among the happy few who run Macs.