Grammaire Progressive du Français - Niveau Avancé (Michèle Boularès & Jean-Louis Frérot)

General Information and Methodology

• Title: Grammaire Progressive du Français (Niveau Avancé).

• Edition: 3rd Edition (3e édition).

• Authors: Michèle Boularès and Jean-Louis Frérot.

• Publisher: CLE International.

• ISBN: $978-209-038-197-9$.

• Target Audience: This advanced grammar work is addressed to older adolescents or adults who have followed approximately $250$ hours of lessons ($250\,\text{hours}$).

• Objective: To make grammar learning vibrant and stimulating through progressive methods, numerous examples, and authentic language. It favors meaning and addresses both oral and written French.

• Structure of the Work:

  • Left Page: Grammar lessons including a corpus of highlighted study points, step-by-step rules illustrated with examples, and warnings for specific difficulties.

  • Right Page: Training exercises contextualized for communication.

  • Evaluation: $180$ interactive tests available online; includes $400$ exercises in total.

  • Annexes: Conjugation tables, tense concordance tables, and lists of verbs grouped by construction ($\text{"à"}$ and $\text{"de"}$).

Chapter 1: The Article (L'Article)

• Indefinite Article (un, une, des):

  • Function: Used before a noun to particularize it as one among others (e.g., "Il est venu avec un ami").

  • Characterization: Nouns can be characterized by an adjective ("des étudiants italiens"), a noun complement ("un film de Jean-Luc Godard"), or a relative clause ("un château qui se trouve près du village").

  • Introductory Role: Presents new elements not previously mentioned (e.g., "J'ai vu une femme qui portait un chapeau"). Frequently used after "il y a", "c'est", or "ce sont".

• Definite Article (le, la, les):

  • Function: Designates the noun as unique (stars, seasons, dates, holidays like "le $15$ août"), geographical locations (continents, countries, oceans), or titles ("le Premier ministre").

  • Measurement: Used to express measure (e.g., "dix euros le kilo", "$90\,\text{km}$ à l'heure", "six euros le litre").

  • Specificity: Designates specific nouns or those known through the communication situation (e.g., "Prends les journaux qui sont sur la table").

• Generalizing Value:

  • Definite Article: Used for general notions/ideas ("L'argent ne fait pas le bonheur"), material matter ("L'or, l'argent, le cuivre sont des métaux"), totalities ("Les Français aiment les chats"), and body parts ("Il a mal à la tête").

  • Indefinite Article: Used to designate a totality of a species/category (e.g., "Un chien a besoin d'avoir un maître" implies all dogs). Note: "Des" cannot be used for generalization because it implies "some" rather than "all".

• Partitive Article (du, de l', de la):

  • Function: Used before uncountable concrete/abstract nouns to designate a certain quantity/part (e.g., "Achète du lait", "Il faut du talent").

  • Activities: Used with the verb "faire" for sports and arts ("Faire du sport", "Faire de la peinture").

  • Weather: Used with "il y a" (e.g., "il y a du soleil", "il y aura de la neige").

  • Negative Form: Becomes "de" (e.g., "Il ne prend jamais de sucre").

• Absence of Article:

  • Negation: Indefinite and partitive articles are replaced by "de" after negation ("Je n'ai pas de cigarettes"). Articles disappear after "ni… ni", "sans", and "ne… aucun".

  • Exception: Articles are maintained after "ce n'est pas"/"ce ne sont pas" (e.g., "Ce n'est pas un ami") and the definite article is always kept (e.g., "Elle n'aime ni la ville ni la campagne").

  • Usage in Announcements: Used in posters or enumerations ("Défense de fumer", "Parents, enfants, tous riaient").

  • Nouns of Quantity: Replaced by "de" after quantity words ("beaucoup de travail", "peu de temps", "une centaine de personnes"). Exception: "la plupart du temps", "la majorité de la population".

  • Noun + de + Noun: Used to indicate categories ("un billet de train", "un cours d'anglais") or materials (a plural noun with "de" like "un collier de perles" or "en" for compact material like "une bague en or").

Chapter 2: The Adjective (L'Adjectif)

• Numeral Adjectives:

  • Counting: Can be used as nouns (arithmetic: "Trois et deux font cinq") or before a noun ("Deux étudiants").

  • Ranking: Dates (le $1^{\text{er}}$ mai, le $24$ juin), decades (les années soixante), monarchs (Louis XIV), and work divisions (tome un, chapitre deux).

  • Fractions and Multiples: $\frac{1}{2}$ (un demi), $\frac{1}{3}$ (le tiers), $\frac{1}{4}$ (le quart). Multipliers: le double ($\times 2$), le triple ($\times 3$), le quadruple ($\times 4$), eighth-fold (huit fois plus).

  • Approximations: "Une douzaine d'oeufs", "un millier de grévistes".

• Indefinite Adjectives:

  • Total Imprecision: certain, quelconque, quel (e.g., "un sujet quelconque").

  • Quantity: quelques, certains, plusieurs (low to moderate quantity), aucun, nul (zero quantity).

  • Totality: chaque (every), tout/tous/toute(s) (all/entire).

  • Identity/Difference: même(s) (same), tel(s) (such), autre(s) (other), différent(s) (different).

• Placement of Adjectives:

  • After the Noun: Nationality, geometric shapes, colors, relations ("produits chimiques"), adjectives with more than two syllables, and past participles.

  • Before the Noun: Normally short, frequent words like grand, petit, gros, vieux, jeune, bon, mauvais, beau, joli, long, large, autre, même, nouveau, dernier, prochain.

  • Moving Meanings: The sense changes with position: "un livre cher" (expensive) vs "mon cher ami" (beloved); "un homme grand" (tall) vs "un grand homme" (important).

Chapter 3: The Negations (Les Négations)

• Specific Forms:

  • "Ne… plus" (no more).

  • "Ne… rien" (nothing).

  • "Ne… jamais" (never).

  • "Ne… personne" (no one).

  • "Ne… pas encore" (not yet - implies intention to do later).

  • "Ne… guère" (hardly).

  • "Sans" (without - followed by infinitive or noun without article).

• Reinforcements: "Pas… du tout", "Pas un seul", "Sans aucun".

• Stacking Negations: Several negative words can be used; "pas" disappears (e.g., "Il n'y a jamais personne").

• The Participle "Ne" (Explétif):

  • Used after verbs of fear at the affirmative, or conjunctions like "à moins que", "avant que". It is typical of sustained, written language and is not a true negation.

• Placement:

  • Simple Tense: $ne + \text{verb} + \text{pas}$.

  • Compound Tense: $ne + \text{auxiliary} + \text{pas} + \text{past participle}$. Note: "Personne" and "nulle part" follow the past participle.

  • Infinitive: $ne + pas + \text{infinitive}$.

Chapter 4: Tenses of the Indicative (Les Temps de l'Indicatif)

• The Present (Le Présent):

  • Used for current actions, habits, or future certain actions with a time marker ("Nous décollons dans une heure").

  • "Être en train de" + infinitive insists on the progression (not for feelings/living/inhabiting).

• The Past Tenses:

  • L'Imparfait: For background, descriptions, ongoing past actions (non-accomplished), habits ("Il sortait toujours après le déjeuner"), and hypotheses with "si" ("Si on lui offrait un sac?").

  • Le Passé Composé: For short, specific actions (accomplished), past narrative in oral/modern literature, and actions finished but impacting the present.

  • Le Passé Simple: Primarily written (literature/history) for punctual past actions with no link to the present. Types: parlé ($-ai$), dire ($-is$), croire ($-us$).

• Future (Le Futur):

  • Simple Future: Projections, orders ("Tu iras chercher le pain"), promises, or weather.

  • Near Future (Aller + Infinitive): Action with continuity into the present ("Attention, tu vas tomber!").

  • Anteriority: "Futur antérieur" expresses an action completed before another future action.

Chapter 5: The Subjunctive (Le Subjonctif)

• Formation: Based on the 3rd person plural present indicative (e.g., ils part-ent -> que je part-e). Terminations: $-e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent$.

• Core Constraint: The subjects of the main and subordinate clauses must be different.

• Usage vs. Indicative:

  • Subjunctive: Possibility/doubt/unsure actions/subjective views.

  • Indicative: Probability/certainty/facts.

• Specific Employs:

  • Obligation/Necessity ("Il faut que", "Il est indispensable que").

  • Feelings/Appreciation ("Je regrette que", "C'est bien que").

  • Desire/Order/Wish ("Je voudrais que", "Elle demande que").

  • Relative clauses for unsure non-existent things ("Je cherche un traducteur qui connaisse le japonais").

  • Specific conjunctions: "Avant que", "Jusqu'à ce que", "Pour que", "Afin que", "À condition que", "Bien que", "Sans que".

Chapter 6-10: Moods and Verbal Forms

• The Conditional (Le Conditionnel):

  • Nature: Expresses eventual facts. Future stem + imperfect endings.

  • Usages: Fictional/Imaginary life, wishes, regrets (past conditional), unverified rumors in journalism ("Il y aurait des dizaines de maisons détruites"), and polite attenuation ("Je voudrais un billet").

• The Infinitive (L'Infinitif):

  • Can be a subject, nominalized ("Le dîner"), or follow prepositions ($\text{à, de, pour, sans, après}$). Required instead of subjunctive if the subjects are identical.

• Participle Present (-ant): Used in writing/administration; replaces relative clauses with "qui".

• The Gerund (Le Gérondif): "En" + present participle. Indicates simultaneity between two actions by the same subject. Can express cause, means, or opposition with "tout en".

• Verbal Adjective: Adjective form of a verb that agrees in gender/number. Graphically differs from present participle in some cases (e.g., "différant" vs. "différent").

Chapter 11-14: Voice, Forms, and Discourse

• Passive Form (La Forme Passive):

  • Transposes the direct object into the subject. Passive aux "être" + past participle. Agent introduced by "par" (usually) or "de" (for sentiment/description verbs like "respecté de tous", "orné de").

• Pronominal Form:

  • Verbs with reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, nous, vous, se). Uses "être" in compound tenses.

  • Agreement: Agreements occurs with the subject unless a direct object follows (e.g., "Elle s'est lavée" but "Elle s'est lavé les mains").

• Impersonal Form: Neutral subject "il". Covers weather ("il neige"), necessity ("il faut"), existence ("il y a"), and judgments ("il est possible que").

• Indirect Discourse (Le Discours Indirect):

  • Transpositions:

    • Imperative -> "de" + infinitive.

    • Present -> Imperfect.

    • Passé Composé -> Plus-que-parfait.

    • Futur -> Conditional.

  • Time Deictics: "demain" -> "le lendemain"; "hier" -> "la veille"; "aujourd'hui" -> "ce jour-là"; "dans huit jours" -> "huit jours plus tard".

Chapter 15-16: Adverbs and Prepositions

• Adverbs:

  • Formation in "-ment": Generally derived from the feminine singular adjective (lent -> lentement). If the adjective ends in a vowel, use the masculine (vrai -> vraiment). If ending in "-ent"/"-ant", use "-emment"/"-amment" (violent -> violemment).

  • Placement: Before adjectives/adverbs, after simple verbs, and between auxiliary/participle in compound tenses.

• Prepositions:

  • $\text{"à"}$: Location, direction, removal ("emprunter à"), purpose ("une tasse à thé"), and manner ("à voix basse").

  • $\text{"de"}$: Provenance, possession, quantity, material ("un collier de perles"), and emotion ("mourir de faim").

  • $\text{"en"}$: Feminine countries, means of transport, material ("en or"), and state ("en colère").

  • $\text{"par"}$: Means ("par avion"), distribution ("une fois par semaine"), and agent in passive voice.

  • $\text{"pour"}$: Destination, duration, and goal.

Chapter 17-27: Pronouns and Nuanced Expressions

• Relative Pronouns:

  • Simple: "qui" (subject), "que" (direct object), "où" (place/time), "dont" (complement of "de"/possession).

  • Compound: "lequel/laquelle" used after prepositions. Contracted forms: "auquel", "duquel".

• Personal Pronouns:

  • Order: 1. (me, te, se, nous, vous), 2. (le, la, les), 3. (lui, leur), 4. (y), 5. (en).

  • Neutral Pronouns: "le", "en", "y" can replace full clauses/ideas.

• Indefinite Pronouns: Personne, rien, chacun, tout, certains, quelqu'un.

• Communication Mechanisms:

  • Responses can be marked by adherence, distance, or neutrality.

  • Nuances of doubt: "Peut-être", "C'est à voir", "Ça m'étonnerait fort".

  • Nuances of belief: "Je doute que", "Il se peut que", "Je me demande si".

  • Nuances of desire/modality: Verbs of wanting (exiger, souhaiter), possibility (autoriser), and obligation (devoir, il faut).