French Level 1
Unit 11: Leçon 2
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Frequency of Time
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You will need to be prepared to switch from  to  following the first chart in this leçon.
Now that you know how to say all kinds of things that you do or do not do (see Unité 8) and you can form statements into questions, I am certain that you are just dying to know how to express the amount of time that you spend, or do not spend, doing whatever activities happen to come up in conversation!
1ère Partie
In the chart below, I have compiled a few of the most common words that are used to express frequency of time spent, or not spent, when speaking French (along with their English equivalents). Let us take a look at it:
Track 99
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Des Phrases
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EN FRANÇAIS
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EN ANGLAIS
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toujours
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always
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souvent
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often
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rarement
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seldom / rarely
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no more
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never
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I am sure that you noticed that the French words for "no more" and "never" are missing. I will explain why. The two missing words have a different form (which I will reveal to you later in this leçon!) than the other words on the graph. For now, we will deal with the correct usage of the French words that are visible.
Read and listen to the graph below:
Track 1
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Des Phrases
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SOUND BYTE GOES HERE
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EN FRANÇAIS
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EN ANGLAIS
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Je danse.
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I dance.
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Il mange des légumes.
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He eats vegetables.
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Marie-Catherine écoute la radio.
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Marie-Catherine listens to the radio.
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On the next graph, I have inserted the words that we learned at the beginning of this leçon. They are shown in their correct places using the phrases that you read above (I have underlined these words to make them easier for you to see). Instead of revealing the placement rule for the words before you see the graph, I would prefer that you carefully examine the phrases in the graph and see if you can discover the rule for yourself. After you have finished your studies, I will explain to you the rule and you will be able to see if you were correct!
Track 2
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Des Phrases
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EN FRANÇAIS
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EN ANGLAIS
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Je danse toujours.
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I always dance.
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Il mange souvent des légumes.
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He often eats vegetables.
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Marie-Catherine écoute rarement la radio
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Marie-Catherine seldom listens to the radio.
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Did you discover the rule? Let us see!
Whenever one of our frequency words is used in English, it usually goes before the verb. However, when using one such word in French it is placed immediately after the verb.
2e Parties
Now, if you will remember, there are still two words that I have not shown you. These words are:
Track 3
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Des Phrases
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SOUND BYTE GOES HERE
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EN FRANÇAIS
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EN ANGLAIS
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ne...plus
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no more
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ne...jamais
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never
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As you can see, these are really more phrases than words. How do they work? In exactly the same way as the phrase, "ne....pas" (you remember "ne....pas", the phrase used to make sentences negative) which is that the "ne" of the phrase goes before the verb and the "pas" goes after the verb (the little dots in between the "ne" and the "pas" represent the place where the verb form would be placed). "Ne...plus" and "ne...jamais" work exactly the same way as "ne...pas". Look at the chart below and you will see what I mean (we will even use the same three sentences from above to make things a little bit easier to follow adding one new sentence to keep things interesting!):
Track 4
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Des Phrases
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SOUND BYTE GOES HERE
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EN FRANÇAIS
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EN ANGLAIS
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Je ne danse plus.
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I no longer dance.
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*Marie-Catherine n'écoute jamais la radio.
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Marie-Catherine never listens to the radio.
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*Luc n'apporte jamais 50 francs au cinéma.
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Luc never brings 50 francs to the cinema.
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*"ne" becomes "n'" because the verbs in these sentences both start with vowels
Well, we are now finished with this Unité! You should be ready for the assignment! Bonne Chance!
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