French Level 1
    Unit 10: Leçon 2
    Le verbe "Être"
    (La Négation)
    Now that you know how to say what "you/he/she/they/we are", let us learn how to say "what you/he/she" etc., etc. "are not!"

    Let us first review again the affirmative forms of this verb:


    Track 90
    Des Phrases  
    EN FRANÇAIS EN ANGLAIS
    Je suis I am
    Tu es You are (familiar)
    Il est/Elle est He is/She is
    Nous sommes We are
    Vous êtes You are (formal)
    Ils sont/Elles sont They are (masc.) & (fem.)


    I want to teach you the negative forms of this verb. Let's see if you remember from Unité 8, leçon FILL IN, which two words we wrap around our verb to make it negative? That's right! ne and pas, that is, of course, if the verb starts with a consonant. If it begins with a vowel we must use n' and pas. Do you remember why? YES! It is simply because it sounds better. Let's move on to our negative "étre" chart:

    Track 91
    Des Phrases  
    EN FRANÇAIS EN ANGLAIS
    Je ne suis pas I'm not
    Tu n'es pas You aren't (familiar)
    Il n'est pas/Elle n'est pas He isn't/She isn't
    Nous ne sommes pas We aren't
    Vous n'êtes pas You aren't(formal)
    Ils ne sont pas/Elles ne sont pas They aren't (masc.) & (fem.)

    As you listen to each of the above phrases, I am sure that you noticed, that all of the ne words sound the same, except for when ne is used with the pronoun je. When ne follows je, it sounds like these two words are all one word which sound like "jun". The reason that these two words are run together is to make the sentence sound nice! It is very important that you remember that this sound change takes place because it shows up from time to time in other sentences with this two, small "e" words together.

    Now go on to the assignment for this leçon and practice using the affirmative and negative "être" verb forms. When you are finished, go on to Unité 11. See you there!

Introduction / Leçon 1 / Leçon 2