Exception to Rule for Use of the Partitive Article. Adjective before the Noun. When an adjective stands before the noun in French, some or any (expressed or understood in English) is expressed by de without the article. 1. Vous n'avez pas encore vu de lion, je pense. 2. J'ai vu des tigres, des léopards, des loups et des serpents. 3. Les lions, les éléphants et les loups sont des animaux. éléphants sont de gros animaux. tous les autres animaux. 4. Les 5. Ils sont plus gros que 6. Que regardez-vous ? 1 Literally, For a good cat a good rat. 7. Je 2 The position of adjectives must be learned largely by observation. For a more complete treatment of this subject, see Lessons 43 and 97. regarde cette cage de singes. 8. Je les trouve très intéres sants. 9. Les chats aiment les rats et les souris. 10. Notre vache fournit de bon lait. jamais. 12. On n'aime pas les agneaux sont de petits moutons. 11. Ce chien ne nous mord mauvais fruits. 13. Les 14. Ces hommes portent de grands chapeaux mais de petits gants. 1. The man has cows and sheep in his barn. 2. He has no oxen, but he has fine horses. 3. Has he a pair of them? 4. That horse is biting one of your young trees. 5. Sheep furnish wool. 6. Mice and rats are small animals. 7. He always has good friends and beautiful books. 8. Good books are always good friends. 9. There are many old men and women who live in this town. 10. Here we are at the cir cus. 11. There are a great many animals in those cages. 12. There are two or three hundred. are three hundred and fifty. 13. I think that there 14. We have seen old lions, handsome tigers, and beautiful leopards. young elephants and little bears. 15. We have seen 16. There are the mon keys in that cage. 17. Look at them; aren't they pretty? 18. I think that those little beasts are very ugly. Oral Drill. 1. Avez-vous jamais été au cirque? 2. Avez-vous regardé les animaux? 3. En avez-vous eu peur? 4. Pourquoi n'avez-vous pas eu peur des lions et des tigres? 5. Avezvous remarqué les singes? 6. Avez-vous donné du pain aux éléphants? serpents? 7. Avez-vous vu les souris blanches et les 8. Aimez-vous les serpents? 9. Le serpent est-il un animal ou un insecte? 10. Etes-vous resté longtemps devant la cage des singes? 11. Etes-vous allé au cirque malgré la volonté (against the wishes) de votre père et de votre mère? 12. Alors (and so) vous avez désobéi à vos parents, n'est-ce pas ? 13. N'en avez-vous pas honte? 14. Trouve-t-on des vaches et des brebis au cirque? 15. Où en trouve-t-on ? Lesson 42: Imperfect Indicative. Un homme averti en vaut deux. — Forewarned, forearmed.1 Use of the Imperfect. It has been stated (Lesson 10) that the perfect is the past tense of conversation. If, however, the past action is represented as going on at the same time with another action, or as a customary or continued action, it is expressed by the imperfect. Quand j'étais jeune, je demeurais à Rouen. The imperfect of a verb may be formed by changing the ending -ant of the present participle to -ais. The terminations of the imperfect are alike in all verbs: -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. je portais, I was carrying, I carried, nous portions. vous portiez. il portait. ils portaient. each of the verbs Conjugate the imperfect indicative of given on this page, using that of porter as a model. 1 Literally, A man warned is worth two. 2 Note again the iss before the ending of the present participle of regular verbs of the second conjugation. 8 Notice that the imperfect of avoir is regular, while the present participle is irregular. |