French Grammar for Dummies

• Grasp parts of speech, sentence construction, and verb tenses
• Enhance your descriptive speech with adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions
• Practice your grammar skills as you go

Master French grammar? Easy.

Do you need help with using French? This hands-on, friendly guide teaches you the grammatical rules of the French language, including parts of speech, sentence construction, and verb tenses and moods. Throughout the book, you get plenty of practice opportunities to help you meet your goal of mastering basic French grammar and usage.

• Begin with the basics — discover how to use various parts of speech and deal with numbers, dates, and times
• Simple stuff — find out how to build simple sentences, use negative words and expressions, and ask questions
• Go to the next level — get the scoop on using pronominal verbs, employing the passive, making comparisons, and adding gerunds
• Don't be so tense — grasp verb tenses you'll use all the time: the present, the present perfect, the imperfect, and the future
• Be moody — get up to speed in a hurry on the conditional, subjunctive, and imperative moods

Open the book and find:

• Information on nouns, adjectives, verbs, and other basic parts of speech
• Guidance on dealing with numbers, dates, and times
• Tips for constructing simple sentences and questions
• The scoop on making sentences more descriptive with comparisons, negative words, and more
• Different verb tenses and moods
• Ten common French grammar mistakes (and how to avoid them)
• Plenty of examples and practice opportunities

French Grammar For Dummies is a logical extension and complement to the successful language learning book, French For Dummies. In plain English, it teaches you the grammatical rules of the French language, including parts of speech, sentence construction, pronouns, adjectives, punctuation, stress and verb tenses, and moods. Throughout the book, you get plenty of practice opportunities to help you on your goal of mastering basic French grammar and usage.

• Grasp the grammatical rules of French including parts of speech, sentence construction, and verb tenses
• Enhance your descriptive speech with adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions
• Benefit from plenty of practice opportunities throughout the book
• Use the French language confidently and correctly

Whether you're a student studying French or a professional looking to get ahead of the pack by learning a second language, French Grammar For Dummies is your hands-on guide to quickly and painlessly master the written aspect of this popular language.

Part I: Getting Started with French Grammar  5

Chapter 1: French Grammar in a Nutshell  7

Chapter 2: Sounding Out French Words  17

Chapter 3: Using Nouns and Determiners  35

Chapter 4: Describing Nouns with Adjectives 55

Chapter 5: Dealing with Numbers, Dates, and Times  69

Part II: Constructing Sentences, Saying No, and Asking Questions  85

Chapter 6: Acquainting Yourself with the Present Tense  87

Chapter 7: Acting on Oneself and on Each Other: Pronominal Verbs  107

Chapter 8: Just Say No: Negative Words and Phrases  119

Chapter 9: Handling Questions and Exclamations  131

Part III: Beefing Up Your Sentences  155

Chapter 10: Saying Where, When, and How with Adverbs  157

Chapter 11: Picking Up Prepositions  171

Chapter 12: It’s All Relative: Making Comparisons  187

Chapter 13: Using Pronouns  203

Chapter 14: Adding the Gerund and the Passive to Your Repertoire  227

Part IV: Talking about the Past or Future  237

Chapter 15: Noting Past Actions with the Present Perfect  239

Chapter 16: Reminiscing and Describing Ongoing Past Actions with the Imperfect  253

Chapter 17: Projecting Forward with the Future  265

Part V: Expressing Conditions, Subjectivity, and Orders  283

Chapter 18: Wondering with the Conditional  285

Chapter 19: Surveying the Subjunctive  301

Chapter 20: Giving Orders with the Imperative  319

Chapter 21: Discovering Compound Tenses  333

Part VI: The Part of Tens  341

Chapter 22: Ten Common French Grammar Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)  343

Chapter 23: Ten (Or So) Useful French Idioms  349

Index  353