# French/Lessons/Adolescence

* Vacations
* Work
* Health
* Money
* Youth
* Adolescence
* Historical France
* Revolutionary France
* Modern France
* Current events
Lessons · Vocabulary · Grammar · Appendices · Texts

## Grammar review · Pronominal verbs

Pronominal verbs are verbs that include pronouns. These pronouns are me , te , se , nous , and vous and are used as either direct objects or indirect objects, depending on the verb that they modify. When pronominal verbs are conjugated in perfect tenses, être is used as the auxiliary verb. There are three types of pronominal verbs: reflexive verbs, reciprocal verbs, and naturally pronominal verbs.

### Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs reflect the action on the subject:
    Je me lave.$^{Iwashmyself.}$
    Nous nous lavons.$^{Wewashourselves.}$
    Ils se lavent.$^{Theywashthemselves.}$
Reflexive verbs can also be used as infinitives:
    Je vais me laver.$^{I'mgoingtowashmyself.}$
Either the conjugated verb or the infinitive can be negated, each with different meanings:
    Je ne vais pas me laver.$^{I'mnotgoingtowashmyself.}$
In perfect tenses, the past participles agree with the direct object pronoun, but not the indirect object pronoun, in gender and plurality. Therefore it would only agree when the reflexive pronoun is the direct object; the past participle does not agree with the direct object if it goes after the verb:
    Elle s'est lavée.$^{Shewashedherself.}$
    [[wikt:Nous nous sommes lavé(e) s.|Nous nous sommes lavé(e) s.]]$^{Wewashedourselves.}$
    Elle s'est lavé les mains.$^{Shewashedherhands.}$
    Nous nous sommes lavé les mains.$^{Wewashedourhands.}$

### Reciprocal verbs

With reciprocal verbs, people perform actions to each other:
    Nous nous aimons.$^{Welikeeachother.}$
Like reflexive verbs, the past participle of reciprocal verbs agrees in number and gender with the direct object if it goes before the verb. It therefore agrees with all reciprocal pronouns that function as direct objects:
    [[wikt:Nous nous sommes aimé(e) s.|Nous nous sommes aimé(e) s.]]$^{Welikedeachother.}$
The reciprocal pronoun can also function as an indirect object without a direct object pronoun:
    Nous nous sommes parlé.$^{Wespoketoeachother.}$
    Elles se sont téléphoné.$^{Theycalledtooneanother.}$
    Vous vous êtes écrit souvent ?$^{Youwritetoeachotheroften?}$

### Naturally pronominal verbs

Some verbs are pronominal without performing a reflexive or reciprocal action:
    Tu te souviens ?$^{Youremember?}$
In perfect tenses, these verbs agree with the direct object if it goes before the verb; otherwise, the past participle agrees with the subject:
    Elle s'est souvenue.$^{Sheremembered.}$

## Grammar review · Imparfait and passé composé

The imparfait is used for past habitual actions, to set the scene:
    Quand j'etais petite, je jouais au foot.
    C'etait samedi. La lune brillait.
The passé composé , as well as the passé simple , are used to express punctual actions:
    Hier, j'ai joué à Colin Maillard. La lune a brillé pendant trois nuits.
This does not mean that the action had to happen over a very short time, but that it is understood as a single punctual event, now finished.
The imparfait will express a more general statement while the passé composé will express a more precise action:
    Les singes criaient violemment lors de ma visite du zoo.$^{WhenIvisitedthezoo,themonkeyswereloud.}$
    Lorsque je suis passé devant leur cage, les singes ont crié violemment.$^{WhenIwalkedbytheircage,themonkeysshoutedviolently.}$

### Examples
## Grammar · Plus-que-parfait

The plus-que-parfait is used when there are two occurrences in the past and one wants to symbolise that one occurrence happened before the other. In English, this is used in a phrase like I had given him the toy before he went to sleep. In this example, there are two past tenses, but they occur at different times. The plus-que-parfait can be used to indicate the occurrence of one before the other (essentially, the past before the past).
In French, the plus-que-parfait is formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb in the imparfait and adding the past participle. So to conjugate je mange$^{Ieat}$ in the plus-que-parfait , one finds the appropriate auxiliary verb (avoir ), conjugates it (avais ) and finds the past participle of manger$^{mangé}$ . So, the conjugation of Je mange in the plus-que-parfait becomes j'avais mangé or, in English, I had eaten.

### Examples
## Exercises

← Youth ·  Level three lessons  · Historical France →
Vacations · Work · Health · Money · Youth · Adolescence · Historical France · Revolutionary France · Modern France · Current events
Lessons :
Introductory · Level one · Level two · Level three · Level four
French :
Lessons · Vocabulary · Grammar · Appendices · Texts