Rules

Question 1

How do you use vandertramp verbs?

Answer 1

Transiteively - Etre
Intransitive - Avoir
Transitive with a direct object - Avoir

Vous avez retourné les livres: Retourner usually takes être as its auxiliary verb, but if it has a direct object, it uses avoir instead. Used this way, it means “to send something back.”

Question 2

Passive Voice?

Answer 2

The passive voice is formed by pairing être with the past participle of the main verb. The participle must agree with the subject. Par is often used to introduce the person or agent that performed the main action. The active form would be “The boy eats the pizza”: Le garçon mange la pizza.

Question 3

Indefinite demonstrative pronouns

Answer 3

Words used to refer to a previously-mentioned noun in a sentence. (no subject = no gender)

1. Ce -often used with etre, but also with pouvoir and devoir.
2. Ceci and cela are used as the subject of all other verbs:
   Ceci va être facile.This is going to be easy.
   Cela me fait plaisir. That makes me happy.

Note: Ceci is the contraction of ce + ici (this + here), while cela is the contraction of ce + là (this + there). Ceci is rare in spoken French. Just as là commonly replaces ici in spoken French (Je suis là - I’m here), French speakers tend to use cela to mean either “this” or “that.” Ceci only really comes into play when one wants to really distinguish between this and that.

Ça is the informal replacement for both cela and ceci.

Question 4

Variable demonstrative pronouns

Answer 4

Demonstrative pronouns (this one, that one, the one[s], these, those) refer to a previously-mentioned noun in a sentence. They must agree with the gender and number of the noun(s) they replace: celui - masculine singular, celle - feminine singular, ceux - masculine plural, celles - feminine plural.