HELP WITH VERBS

[terence studye]

Bonjour all, I just signed up and look forward to learning the French language.  I am taking French language via the Pimsleur tapes because where I live it's impossible to get classes.  Pimsleur's biggest drawback, however, is that you don't ever actually see how the words are spelled.  Well, I'm clicking along up to tape #27 before I realize there's a major misunderstanding in my conjugation of some "double" verbs.  For example, to say "I'm going to work" is presented as "je vais travailler" in the Pimsleur tapes.  Since the beginning, I thought that similar phrases with compound verbs ('going' and 'work' in this case) were written with the first verb (going) being properly conjugated, but with the second verb (work) left in it's infinitive form (travailler) rather than being conjugated (travaille).  I think I saw that on a worksheet somewhere.  Now I think that's completely wrong.   Can someone please help me clarify this?

[Will Sheard]

You were right the first time. Je vais travailler is correct. As you say, the first verb is conjugated; the second is left as an infinitive, just as it is in English. This applies not just to conjugated aller + infinitive. For example:

 

Il aime manger.

He likes to eat.

 

Elle sait parler français. 

She knows how to speak French.

 

Note that sometimes a preposition comes between the two verbs. For example:

 

S'il essaie de partir...

If he tries to leave...

 

For such verbs, it is important to learn both the conjugations and the following preposition.

 

Another thing to remember is that like English sentences, a French sentence may contain several conjugated verbs which take the same subject, but the subject is not repeated for the sake of concision. In the following example, the subject of each verbal phrase is je, but it is only written once:

 

Je travaille chez Microsoft, prends des vacances en Grèce et ne mange que du foie gras.

I work for Microsoft, take holidays (vacation) in Greece and only eat foie gras.

[terence studye]

Thank you very much Will.  In looking through my notes, I'm unsure now why I thought I may have been wrong.  I must have run across a sentence that made me think that double conjugation was necessary - although I can't find it now.   (Perhaps something like "I think that he works there" - je crois qu' il travaille la bas.  Croir and travailler are both conjugated here and maybe the QUE threw me off I'm not sure.)  It's difficult when all I have is oral.  Without a written textbook I often am unsure what word they are even saying and have to "google" what it sounds like to even figure out what the word is!  Not the best way to learn obviously.  Thanks so much for your reaffirmation.  I'll keep going then! :)



[Neil Coffey]

You may want to have a look through this site's French grammar section-- I've compiled a fair amount of information and it's all free to use.

From the grammar page, you may want to have a look at the verb tables, which also have pronunciation so you can see how a spoken form tallies up (or doesn't tally up as is often the case...) with the written form.

A problem with the approach of just learning orally is that French has undergone some specific sound changes-- notablly the loss of certain final consonants and syllables which are still maintained in writing-- that make that approach a bit less viable than with, say, German or Spanish if you do actually need to be able to spell in the language as well as speak it.

[terence studye]

Thanks Neil, I will definitely look at the grammar section.  If fact I was delighted to find it when I first found it on the website.  I do have a verb conjugation book, but it doesn't really explain "double verbs" and you are right - it is difficult to try to learn the language only in oral format.  Sorry to say though, that that is the only option I have at present.  I was an English major in college so I don't really see the point of learning a language only orally, without being able to spell the words you're speaking!   Thanks again