A short introduction to French grammar for people who have never studied grammar before Part 2

Level A1.1 / A1

Reference of the lesson: GR492-NJ22/b

Do you remember last week's lesson? It was the first part of the short introduction to French grammar. 

Today, in this second part, we are going to introduce complements in more details.

I love complements. I do not know why I love them so much, but does it matter? Sometimes you don't know why you love things so much, you just love them. And that's great.

As I said in the first part, there are many types of complements. The complement of this... the complement of that... It's like a game to try to guess what type of complement they are.

Let's get some fresh news about Albert. You remember, the guy who was eating his soup last week? Let's see what he is doing today. 

Albert plante des pommes de terre. (Albert is planting some potatoes). Presumably to put them in his home made soup when they are ready to be picked.

If you remember the colour code I used last time, the subject was in green, the verb in red, and the complement in pink. The sentence becomes:

Albert plante [des pommes de terre].

"Albert" is the subject, "plante" is the verb, and "[des pommes de terre]" is the complement.

The complement of this, the complement of that...

Examples. You will see how easy it is!

Dialogue 1.

"Bonjour Erica.

- Bonjour Nathalie, tu vas bien ?

- Oui merci. Tu connais la nouvelle ? ("Do you know the news?")

- Non ?

- Albert plante...

- Ah bon ? Il plante quoi ?

- [Des pommes de terre.]"

Some complements answer the question "quoi ?" ("What?"). 

I already mentioned it in part one, and also in a previous lesson some time ago (I won't tell you which one so you will have to read all my lessons to find it 😁)

Dialogue 2.

"Bonjour Erica.

- Bonjour Nathalie. (Tu vas bien, etc...)

- Tu connais la nouvelle ? Albert va...

- Il va ? Il va où ??? 

- Il va [à la jardinerie]. (He is going to the garden centre.)

Some complements answer the question "où ?" ("where?")

Dialogue 3.

"Bonjour Erica. Tu connais la nouvelle ? Albert ira...

- Il ira où ?

- A Lyon.

- Ah bon ? Quand ?

- Demain.

Some complements answer the question "quand?" ("when?")

Of course, all these complements that answer the questions "what?", "where?" and "when?" are in competition for the one which has the most barbaric technical name, but we will see this later.

That's all for now, Folks !

EXERCISES

Would you like to do an exercise? Here is a nice one.

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Now you can start analysing this sentence by yourself:

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Albert plante [des pommes de terre] [dans son jardin] [tous les matins].

(Albert plants some potatoes in his garden every morning).

Reference of the lesson: GR492-NJ22/b