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French a difficult language?


Monika

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For all those with trouble learning French something to cheer you up. [:D]

I have just read that the verb "aider " has thirty- six possible endings. Do the French know all these endings by heart, have we ever got a chance to learn all these? (This could be a question for Frenchie and Jimmy taktak?). I think I stick to talking in the "present tense"!

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Hi Monika

I would suggest you buy a copy of  Bescherelle's " Complete guide to cojugating 12000 French verbs", and you will see that all verbs technically have many more forms than that, probably in the order of 100![:-))]

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Maricopa, it's a good idea to get one of these, but is this Bescherelle guide a huge book or just a little one I can take everywhere, I am looking for a small handy one with all the most important verbs? Any advice?
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[quote user="Monika"]For all those with trouble learning French something to cheer you up. [:D]I have just read that the verb "aider " has thirty- six possible endings. Do the French know all these endings by heart, have we ever got a chance to learn all these? (This could be a question for Frenchie and Jimmy taktak?). I think I stick to talking in the "present tense"![/quote]

I suspect that Frenchie, like me, had to learn all these by heart at school, and not just for the simple verbs like aider (1er groupe) or finir (2ème groupe), but also those from the 3rd group like paraître, vaincre and moudre... [:P]

Do I use all the tenses?

No not all of them, but some of them are part of everyday conversation: présent du sbujonctif, futur antérieur, conditionel passé... but without thinking about it, it's just instinctive.
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" I am looking for a small handy one with all the most important verbs? Any advice?"

Larousse do a series of small grammar guides including one called "Mini Verificateur: Conjugaison", which I highly recommend; just about every tense / ending for 8000 verbs.

It's about 3" x 4", so easy to carry around if you need to. We got ours from Leclerc, cost just €3.32.
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I have it too Cathy and find it is better for a begnner as it has descriptions and examples in English, however it is hardly portable which the OP wants, mine sat in the bureau and the Bescherelle travelled with me.

I dont carry anything now and prefer to wing it, writing the above made me reflect that I actually stopped taking my E-F F-E dictionary around with me very quickly whereas the Bescherelle I carried for over a year.

So to comment on the question in the subject line, I would say that for me the conjugation and tenses were, and still are the hardest.

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