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• About the Author
• Contents at a Glance
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• About This Book
• Conventions Used in This Book
• What You’re Not to Read
• Foolish Assumptions
• How This Book Is Organized
• Icons Used in This Book
• Where to Go from Here
• Part I: Getting Started with French Grammar
• Chapter 1: French Grammar in a Nutshell
• The Parts of Speech
• The Basics of Composing Sentences
• Fun Stuff You Can Do with Your Sentences
• Many Tenses and Moods
• Chapter 2: Sounding Out French Words
• Starting with Vowels
• Considering Consonants
• Working with Accents and the Cedilla
• Making Your French Sound Polished with the Liaison
• Surveying Stress and Syllables
• Answer Key
• Chapter 3: Using Nouns and Determiners
• Finding the Gender of Nouns
• Making Nouns Plural
• Using Articles to Help You with Nouns’ Gender
• Expressing Possession
• Pointing at Things with Demonstratives
• Introducing Things and People
• Answer Key
• Chapter 4: Describing Nouns with Adjectives
• The Agreement: Matching Adjectives to the Nouns They Describe
• Examining Irregular Adjectives
• Knowing the Proper Place of Adjectives
• Answer Key
• Chapter 5: Dealing with Numbers, Dates, and Times
• Counting from Zero to a Billion: Cardinal Numbers
• Putting Things in Order: Ordinal Numbers
• Discussing Quantities
• Talking about Days, Months, Seasons, and Dates
• Telling Time
• Answer Key
• Part II: Constructing Sentences, Saying No, and Asking Questions
• Chapter 6: Acquainting Yourself with the Present Tense
• Understanding French Verb Fundamentals
• Conjugating Regular Verbs
• Dealing with a Few Moody Regular -er Verbs
• Tackling Irregular Verbs
• Answer Key
• Chapter 7: Acting on Oneself and on Each Other: Pronominal Verbs
• Introducing Pronominal Verbs in the Present Tense
• Mirror, Mirror: Acting on Oneself with Reflexive Verbs
• Back and Forth: Expressing Reciprocal Actions
• Idiomatic Verbs: Expressing Neither Oneself nor Each Other
• Answer Key
• Chapter 8: Just Say No: Negative Words and Phrases
• Discovering the Basics of Negative Words and Phrases
• Keeping a Few Handy Guidelines for Negatives in Mind
• Responding Negatively
• Answer Key
• Chapter 9: Handling Questions and Exclamations
• Composing and Answering Yes/No Questions
• Asking for Specific Information with Question Words
• Discovering the Various Ways of Asking “What”
• Asking “Who?”
• Including Prepositions in Questions
• Expressing Surprise and Enthusiasm with Exclamations
• Answer Key
• Part III: Beefing Up Your Sentences
• Chapter 10: Saying Where, When, and How with Adverbs
• When, Where, and How Much: Getting to Know Adverbs of Time, Place, and Quantity
• That’s the Way: Examining Adverbs of Manner
• Putting Adverbs in Their Place
• Answer Key
• Chapter 11: Picking Up Prepositions
• Introducing the Basics of Prepositions
• Figuring Out Some Tricky Prepositions
• A Geography Lesson: Using Prepositions with Destinations and Locations
• Answer Key
• Chapter 12: It’s All Relative: Making Comparisons
• Comparing Two Elements: The Basics
• More or Less: Using Adjectives and Adverbs in Comparisons
• Good Stuff: Comparing Quantities
• Stressed Out: Using Stress Pronouns in a Comparison
• The Best of All: Superlatives
• Answer Key
• Chapter 13: Using Pronouns
• Digging into Direct Object Pronouns
• Investigating Indirect Object Pronouns
• Working with Pronouns that Replace Phrases
• Positioning Pronouns Properly
• Staying Strong with Stress Pronouns
• Answer Key
• Chapter 14: Adding the Gerund and the Passive to Your Repertoire
• While Doing Something: The Gerund
• Building Sentences in a Different Way: The Passive Construction
• Answer Key
• Part IV: Talking about the Past or Future
• Chapter 15: Noting Past Actions with the Present Perfect
• Forming the Past Participle
• Adding the Auxiliaries Être and Avoir
• Using the Passé Composé Correctly
• Answer Key
• Chapter 16: Reminiscing and Describing Ongoing Past Actions with the Imperfect
• Forming the Imperfect Properly
• Putting the Imperfect to Work in Everyday Situations
• Answer Key
• Chapter 17: Projecting Forward with the Future
• Forming the Simple Future Tense of Regular Verbs
• Dealing with Irregular Forms of the Simple Future Tense
• Exploring Other Ways of Talking about the Future
• Discovering Other Uses of the Future Tense
• Answer Key
• Part V: Expressing Conditions, Subjectivity, and Orders
• Chapter 18: Wondering with the Conditional
• Forming the Conditional of Regular Verbs
• Tackling Irregular Forms in the Conditional
• Knowing When to Use the Conditional
• Answer Key
• Chapter 19: Surveying the Subjunctive
• Familiarizing Yourself with Subjunctive Forms
• Recognizing Phrases That Trigger the Subjunctive
• Keeping the Number of Subjects in Mind
• Avoiding a Few Pitfalls
• Answer Key
• Chapter 20: Giving Orders with the Imperative
• Making Affirmative Commands
• Forming Negative Commands
• Adding an Object Pronoun to Your Command
• Answer Key
• Chapter 21: Discovering Compound Tenses
• A Long Time Ago: The Pluperfect
• Back to the Future: The Future Perfect
• Missed Opportunities: The Past Conditional
• Reacting to the Past: The Past Subjunctive
• Answer Key
• Part VI: The Part of Tens
• Chapter 22: Ten Common French Grammar Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)
• Using Definite Articles Incorrectly
• Confusing Indefinite and Partitive Articles
• Using the Wrong Word for “Time”
• Incorrectly Translating Means of Transportation
• Trying to Find an Equivalent for the -ing Verb Form in French
• Using Possessives with Pronominal Verbs to Refer to Body Parts
• Putting the Wrong Verb Form after Avoir or Être
• Mixing Up Similar Verbs
• Confusing Connaître and Savoir
• Being Tricked by False Cognates
• Chapter 23: Ten (Or So) Useful French Idioms
• Faire le pont
• Ce n’est pas la mer à boire
• Ça me prend la tête
• Faire la tête
• Avoir la gueule de bois
• Comme un cheveu sur la soupe
• Au pif
• Donner sa langue au chat
• Être sur les charbons ardents
• Bête comme ses pieds
• Tirer le diable par la queue
• Index