Beginning French Review Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary and grammar flashcards based on the 'Beginning French for the Utterly Confused' lecture transcript.

A. Sebastián Mercado

The author of the book "Beginning French for the Utterly Confused."

Cognates

Words that make clear connections between French and English because they have similar forms and meanings in both languages.

Liaison

A pronunciation rule where a final non-pronounced consonant acquires a sound and is pronounced as part of the second word when that word begins with a vowel or silent h.

Elision

The shortening of words such as "le," "la," or "je" to "l’" or "j’" when they immediately precede a word starting with a vowel or a silent h.

H aspiré

An "aspirate h" that is silent but requires the use of the full article (le or la) and prevents liaison.

Dieresis

A mark such as "ë" or "ï" used to break a diphthong so that every vowel is pronounced separately, as in the word "Noël."

Stress in French

French words and word-groups are always stressed on the final pronounced syllable.

Definite Articles

Articles used to accompany nouns that are already known from the context: "le" (masculine), "la" (feminine), "l'" (before vowels), and "les" (plural).

Indefinite Articles

Articles used to introduce new, countable nouns: "un" (masculine singular), "une" (feminine singular), and "des" (plural).

Tu vs. Vous

The subject pronoun "tu" is used for informal situations with no social distance; "vous" is used for formal respect or to address more than one person.

Passé composé

A compound past tense formed with an auxiliary verb ($avoir$ or $être$) and a past participle, used to express completed events in the past.

Imparfait

The imperfect tense used to describe ongoing past events without reference to a starting time, habitual past actions, or descriptive backgrounds.

Passé récent

A construction using the present tense of $venir + de + infinitive$ to express an event that has just recently happened.

Futur proche

The "near future" construction using $aller + infinitive$ to express a future action with a high degree of certainty.

Futur simple

The simple future tense used to emphasize a distant perspective of an action or to speculate about possible results.

Present Conditional

A verb mood used to make suggestions, give advice, or make polite requests using words like "voudrais" or "aimerais."

Present Subjunctive

A verb mood used in subordinate clauses to express personal interpretations such as wishes, feelings, obligations, or doubts.

Partitive Article

Articles such as "du," "de la," "de l'," and "des" placed before uncountable nouns to indicate a part or indefinite quantity of a whole.

Pronoun "y"

An adverbial pronoun used to replace "à + inanimate object" or a place introduced by most prepositions (except "de").

Pronoun "en"

A pronoun used to replace an object in expressions of quantity (numbers, numerals, or quantifiers) or phrases introduced by the preposition "de."

Stressed Pronouns

A category of pronouns including "moi," "toi," "lui," and "elle" used for emphasis, following prepositions, or expressing simplified possession with "être à."

Reflexive Verbs

Verbs accompanied by a reflexive pronoun ($me, te, se, nous, vous, se$) used to describe actions done by the subject to themselves.

Falloir

An impersonal verb existing only in the third person singular masculine ($il faut$) used to express necessity or obligation.

L'heure formelle

Formal clock time equivalent to military time, used primarily for schedules, radio, television, and business.

Inversion

A formal method of question formation where the subject pronoun and verb are swapped and hyphenated ($e.g., Veux-tu$).

Le menu du jour

A daily special menu in a restaurant that typically includes a first course, main course, dessert, and coffee for a fixed price.

Vowel Sounds

The French language officially contains 16 distinct vowel sounds.