FAIRE is an irregular verb. It is so useful - it means 'to make' and 'to do'. After you have learnt how to conjugate the verb, learn these activities that you could do on your holidays:
Now look how some sports are:
jouer au ....
jouer à la....
And others are:
faire du...
faire de la....
You should be able to get a feel for this quite easily:
Translate the following:
I always play sport
She often goes cycling
We sometimes go camping
My parents don't go swimming
My friends never go surfing
Do you play tennis during the holidays?
I never go windsurfing.
He doesn't want to play football.
She doesn't know how to do yoga.
We often go sailing.
You often buy some souvenirs on holiday:
Partir en vacances - et puis sortir, ensuite...dormir.
If the verb PARTIR were a regular IR verb it would look like this: je partis, tu partis, il partit etc. BUT it's not!!
Look at the endings - s,s,t, ons, ez, ent. But also look at what happens to the root 'PART' - what happens to the 'T'?
Now follow this pattern to guess how to conjugate SORTIR and DORMIR. Check your answers online.
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Faire de la.... Faire du....
There are many sports and outdoor activities for which we use the pattern GO...ING in English. e.g. go climbing, go cycling, go swimming.
In French you DO these activities (so we use the verb FAIRE). However, it's more complicated than that. In Franglais, you say 'I do of the swimming' (je fais DE LA natation) and 'I do of the skating' (je fais DU patinage).
Remember of=de, the=le/la.
But:
de + la is OK together
de + le is NOT OK - it gets SQUASHED UP to become DU
Irregular verbs - E or È?
Listen carefully to how the E is pronounced. Tell your teacher why you think there is a grave accent (è) added to SOME but not all of the conjugations:
After watching the video above, try to conjugate the verbs 'se lever' (to get up), 'se promener' (to go for a walk - literally 'to walk oneself') and 'préferer' (to prefer). Then translate the following:
During the holidays, my parents get up early but I prefer to get up later. Then we go for a walk together. I sometimes buy some presents for my friends. My parents buy a lot of postcards but I buy clothes.
Verbs like VENIR (to come), TENIR (to hold):
revenir to come back devenir to become se souvenir (de) to remember parvenir à to reach; to manage soutenir to sustain; to support
Brain aching?
Don't worry - these irregular verbs are always the hardest thing in French - come back to them every few days.