A few questions:

[Katie Lane]

Can someone tell me if the following sentences are correct please? I'm teaching myself French and am having some trouble.

1. L'enfant qui a le cube pleurer. (or is it pleure?)
2. Jules a sorti avec Marion.
3. Christian est descendu du bus.
4. Georges, tu es revenu de Tombouctou?
5. Ils ont passé de bonnes vacances.
6. Michelle a sorti un cube de sa poche
7. Albert est monté prendre une café.
8. Les petites filles ont rentré leur bicyclette au garage.
9. Frank a bu trop de biére. Il a devenu aggressif.
10. Maman s'a endormi dans son fauteuil.
11. Alain s'a trompé de livre
12. La veuve n'a pas accueillé sa souer avec amabilité

Thanks!

[Neil Coffey]

Katie -- a few pointers.
In (1), as you suspect, you need to put the verb "pleurer" in the correct 'conjugated' form (i.e. the right form to match the tense and person).
In (2): nowadays, the verb sortir is really always used with être (when it has no direct object)-- see the section on when to use avoir and when to use être.
In (9), devenir is another of those verbs.
In (10) and (11), you have a reflexive verb; reflexive verbs always use être in standard French.
in (12), be careful of the past participle of accueillir.

[Katie Lane]

Merci beaucoup! C'etait trés serviable!

[Frank]

Hello Katie,

As a side note, "bicyclette" is technically correct, but I never heard any native speaker use that word. "Velo" is way much common. Even in books, this is a word that you are likely to read only in old books.

Good luck,

-Frank.

[Katie Lane]

Thanks!

[Katie Lane]

Could someone also tell me if the following are correct?

1. Nous nous avons souvent promené dans ce parc.
2. Elle avait demandé si on avait trouvé a voleur qu'avait entré dans sa maison et avait pris sa caméra.
3. Il ne s'avait pas interessé...
4. Une fois qu'ils s'avaient amusé dans le parc, avaient couru et avaient joué...
5. J'avait eu raison de...
6. Elle n'avait pas entendu son réveil sonner (or sonné?)
7. Elle rougi parce qu'on lui avait faire honte

[Frank]

Hello Katie.

1. "promener" uses the auxiliary "être", not "avoir". So, it should be "Nous nous sommes souvent promenés dans ce parc"

2. Just replace "a voleur" (typo?) by "un voleur" and "qu'avait entré" by "qui était entré" (still être vs avoir...).

3. "intéresser" also uses the auxiliary "être". Il ne s'est pas intéressé...

4. Same thing here. Use "être" not "avoir". Une fois qu'ils s'étaient amusés dans le parc. But the rest of the sentence is correct. Courir and jouer use the "avoir" auxiliary.

5. Good.

6. Perfect. And "sonner" is right.

7. Elle rougit parce qu'on lui a fait honte (= elle est en train de rougir en ce moment).

Or, if you want to use the passé composé for the first part of the sentence: "Elle a rougi parce qu'on lui avait fait honte" (= il y a quelques temps, elle a rougi, mais c'est fini maintenant).

[Frank]

As a side note, don't waste your time trying to learn rules (if there is any) or long lists of verbs in order to know if "être" or "avoir" should be used. It would be the best way to confuse your mind. You'd better read texts, watch movies, and listen to music. And it should automatically sink in.

[Katie Lane]

Thanks again! Especially for the side note, I have been attempting to memorize the verbs that go with être and you are right, I have been very confused!

[Neil Coffey]

Frank -- sometimes learning the list of verbs can actually be a practical strategy, because there aren't actually so many common verbs that take 'être'.

Also, just for the benefit of learners, I just want to clarify the point about "promener". By itself, "promener" is a boring old verb that takes 'avoir'. For example, j'ai promené le chien.

But specifically when it is used pronominally (="reflexively")-- or in other words, when it's se promener, it takes être. However, this isn't a special property of "promener"-- every verb in the language works this way when used pronominally.

[Frank]

Some people might be able to memorize long lists of verbs and rules.

But it's quite a boring way of learning. And just like anything you learn because you _have to_, you're likely to remember it the day of the exams, but a few weeks after, it'll have slept your mind.

OTOH, if you practice, if you read books/web sites/whatever, if you listen to music, if you watch movies, if you speak,... it's going to sink in without much effort. Because you're going to read/listen "je me suis promené" tons of times, in different contexts, you're going to memorize it _and_ you won't forget it. Even if you hesitate, it's easier to remember a sentence that reminds you of a real situation than to something you've read in a grammar book.

Look. Just like anyone who's learning english, I had to learn all these english irregular verbs. Here's the grammar book, here's the list, learn it all, et voila. Almost every year, with every teacher, the same thing happened. Learn the whole list, blindly repeat, repeat and repeat "abide - abode - abode ... awake - awoke - awoken ... bear - bore - borne ..." and get ready for the test. And here comes the test... fill in the blanks... abide - ? - ? ... ? - awake - ? ...". And the same thing happened over and over again.

And? Did I finally remember the whole list? For the exams, yes. Afterwards, no, definitely not. I forgot half of the list. The *only* verbs I remember of is the ones I used in real speech. And I never forgot these. Because thinking about them is automatic. No need to think "simple past ... go - went - gone ..." before thinking about "went". On the other hand, "bereave - bereft - bereft" is something I never was able to memorize. How come? Both are in the same list! Indeed, but "to go" is very common in real speech, while "to bereave" isn't.

If you can memorize _durably_ lists of words and rules, it's awesome. Some people can. Kudos to them. Some people can't. They can be forced to do it anyway. It might sink in, but they will feel nervous and terribly hesitating. Or they can have a sneak peek at the lists, and focus on real uses of these words/verbs/rules instead. They might only know half of the words/verbs/rules, but they'll be able to write and speak without much effort. Instead of trying hard to figure out how to conjugate an unusual verb, they'll just use another verb, or they'll say the same thing in a different way. Maybe using a sentence they heard in a movie without really understanding the grammar behind it. So what? It's just a different way of learning a language, and it's the way native speakers learnt it. By example. I'm not saying that it's the best way. Just that if you can't memorize rules and words from grammar books, there's no need to panic nor to lose motivation. Stop dwelling on grammar books for a little while and practice.

[Neil Coffey]

Frank -- the difference, though, is in the amount of information involved. There are about 10-15 really common "être" verbs-- and maybe a similar number of uncommon ones-- as opposed to 200+ English irregular verbs. And in the French verb list, you're just learning that a verb is present in the list, not then a series of irregular forms (though as an independent problem, some of the "être" verbs are of course irregular).

The other thing is that nobody is saying that having a list of verbs is somehow an alternative to being exposed to those verbs in actual use. It's just an extra strategy. Some language learning studies actually suggest that a key part of effective learning is in the number of strategies a learner has, rather than simply the amount of exposure to one single strategy.

[Jan Loose]

Your spell sister as "soeur", not the way you did it.