French Verb Drills - Volume 3

Four Verbs: Avoir, Chanter, Prendre et Finir

Let's be honest: French conjugation is a real pain

You might already be familiar with French tenses and know the logic behind their conjugation. Yet, when you have to use them in conversations, you hesitate, loose your confidence and then eventually freeze. It's extremely frustrating for you... and the person you are interacting with.

To improve your French verb conjugation, there is only one solution: Repetition + Drills.

Hear and learn today's real modern glided pronunciation

The French you hear on the streets and on TV today is not the French you learn from your text books. You might know how to conjugate your verbs perfectly on paper but between the liaisons, the elisions, the glidings... most students end up butchering French verbs pronunciation while conversing. A modern audio method recorded by a native speaker is the only way to perfect your pronunciation and build your speaking confidence.

Bite size! Each drill is just 6 minutes long

They are very easy to fit in even the busiest of schedules. Load them up on your iPod and you can drill in the car, at the gym, while grocery shopping... you don't even need to read the transcript to repeat after me. 25 different drills per verb is guaranteed to keep your brain moving - no excuse!

From beginner to advanced - A drill for every level

Depending on your level, you might be more interested in Présent Indicative négative or Plus-que-parfait interrogative... you pick what best fits your present needs and when your level increases, you move on to the more complex verb forms...

More than 11 hours of pro audio training

100 drills + 6 minutes per drill + 217 page transcript + 100% moneyback guarantee = incredible value!

Preview

How to use

Why these verbs?

• Sample "Finir subjonctif présent affirmatif"
  

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• I conjugate the verb twice in all forms:
  je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils and elles

  I give you today's real modern glided pronunciation, and then I let you repeat it.

  Then I do it at random and you repeat.

  Then I test you: I give you 27 subject pronouns at random, you have time to say the correct verb form, I give you the answer, and you repeat it.

  Each of the four verb is drilled in the affirmative, negative and interrogative form in the following tenses:

  1. Indicatif Présent, Futur, Imparfait
  2. Passé Composé, Plus-que-parfait, Futur antérieur, Passé simple
  3. Conditionnel Présent and Subjonctif Présent.
     (Note that I purposely chose not to include other tenses like l'Imparfait du Subjonctif or the Passé Simple in the interrogative form because they are so rarely used in conversation)

  It is not rocket science but it does work.

• "Avoir", and "Être" of volume 1, are possibly the 2 most important verbs in French, not only because of their meanings, but also because they are called "auxiliary" verbs: they are used to form tenses : "passé-composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, conditionnel passé....". Since they both start with vowels, there are important glidings and liaisons that are often missed by students (who tend to know the way they are spelled but not the correct modern pronunciation), hence the importance to drill out-loud with these verbs.

  "Chanter" is an example of the conjugation of the regular ER verbs, called also verbs of the first group. 90% of French verbs follow this logic of conjugation, about 5000 verbs total. Only "aller" ends in ER in the infinitive and is irregular.

  "Finir" is an example of the conjugation of the regular IR verbs, called also verbs of the second group. About 300 French verbs follow this logic of conjugation. Watch out though, there are many verbs ending in IR which are in fact irregular (dormir, venir, tenir, courir, mourir...)

  "Prendre" (along with aller, faire, vouloir, devoir, mettre and boire) is one of the most common French irregular verbs, and one I have noticed that students make the most mistakes with.