Module 10 – Mode, forme, et santé
Première Partie: Les vêtements, la grammaire
In this section:
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Mettre
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Impersonal expressions with weather
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Vouloir
Mettre
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| mettre ‘to place, put’ | |
| je mets | nous mettons |
| tu mets | vous mettez |
| il/elle/iel/on met | ils/elles/iels mettent |
| past participle : mis | |
Mettre literally means ‘to place, to put.’ It is also used in the following expressions:
| mettre la table (le couvert), to set the table |
| mettre + article of clothing, to put on |
| mettre + electrical item (radio, light), to turn on |
Other verbs like mettre include:
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| Tammy: Tex, tu mets la table pour la soirée? | Tammy: Tex, are you going to set the table for theparty? | |
| Tex: Non, je n’ai pas envie. | Tex: No. I don’t feel like it. | |
| Tammy: Ça alors. C’est toujours moi qui mets la table. | Tammy: Come on, I’m always the one who sets the table. |
Impersonal expressions with weather
The impersonal pronoun il (‘it’) is used in French when an action has no agent, that is, when there is no person or animate being responsible for the action. The conjugated verb is always in the third person singular, no matter what tense the impersonal verb takes.
| Tex: Tiens, il pleut très fort! | Tex: Wow, it is raining really hard! |
The action of the verb (pleut, ‘is raining’) is an impersonal, natural force. The impersonal pronoun il is often referred to as a ‘dummy subject’ because it fills the syntactic position of subject but doesn’t have any real meaning.
weather expressions
Weather expressions in both French and English require impersonal subjects. The infinitive of ‘weather verbs’ can only be conjugated in the third person singular form (the il form).
| pleuvoir, to rain | Il pleut. | It’s raining. |
| neiger, to snow | Il neige. | It’s snowing. |
| grêler, to sleet | Il grêle. | It’s sleeting. |
| geler, to freeze | Il gèle. | It’s freezing. |
| bruiner, to drizzle | Il bruine. | It’s drizzling. |
Weather conditions are also expressed in French using the verb faire followed by an adjective or noun. Of course, when the verb faire is used impersonally in such weather expressions, it can only be conjugated in the third person singular form (il fait). See faire expressions for a more complete list of weather expressions.
| Il fait chaud. | It’s hot. |
| Il fait du vent. | It’s windy. |
| Il fait beau. | It’s beautiful. |
Vouloir
vouloir
Vouloir expresses a strong will or desire; in the present tense it has the same feeling as a command. It is an irregular verb in the present tense. Note how the present tense forms a “boot”; the stems (in this case the vowels) change only in the nous and vous forms.
| vouloir ‘to wish, want, will’ | |
| je veux | nous voulons |
| tu veux | vous voulez |
| il/elle/iel/on veut | ils/elles/iels veulent
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| past participle: voulu | |
Vouloir may be followed by an infinitive or a noun (Je veux du calme, I want some quiet. Je veux dormir, I want to sleep). This verb is also often paired with the adverb bien to express the meaning “to be willing”(Je veux bien! ).
