pouvoir and devoir

1. pouvoir and devoir le français I Chapitre 8 Grammaire 1

2. Irregular verbs pouvoir et devoirMemorize them!!! • Pouvoir (to be able; can) + infinitif • Devoir (to have to) + infinitif

3. Passé Composé of –irand –re verbs • To form the passé composé of most –ir and –re verbs, use the helping verb avoir + the past participle. • To form the past participle of –ir verbs, drop the –r from the infinitive so it ends in the letter –i. • finir fini J’ai fini les devoirs. • To form the past participle of –re verbs, drop the –re and add the letter –u. • perdre perdu Tu as perdu ton portable?

4. Negative expressions • You’ve already learned how to make a sentence negative in French by putting ne...pas around the conjugated verb. The following expressions work the same way: • ne ... pas encore not yet Je n’ai pas encore téléphoné. • ne ... personne no one Je ne voispersonne au cinéma. • ne ... plus no longer Je n’écoue plus ce CD. • ne ... rien nothing Je ne faisrien. • ne ... ni ... ni neither ... nor Je n’aimeni le chocolatni la vanille. • ne ... jamais never Je ne regardejamais Jersey Shore.

5. Negative expressions • The negative pronouns rien (nothing) and personne (nobody) come before ne and the verb when used as subjects. Notice that you don’t need pas here. • Personne n’a joué avec moi au parc. • Nobody played with me at the park. • Rien n’est facile. • Nothing is easy.

6. Negative expressions • In the passé composé, rien goes immediately after the helping verb (avoir), but personne goes after the whole verb phrase. • Je n’ai rien fait au parc. • I didn’t do anything at the park. (I did nothing at the park.) • Je n’ai vu personne au parc. • I didn’t see anybody at the park. (I saw nobody at the park.) • You cannot translate word for word from English to French with these expressions!