Frenchvita

The infinitive, past & present participles

The infinitive

As we have seen previously the infinitive is the “name of the verb” . It gives you information about the family and the conjugation of the verb itself.

We have seen its formation but little about its uses. It does not follow the same rules as the English infinitive.

The use of the infinitive

1.As a noun

In this case the infinitive can take the place of a noun and it is the equivalent of the English gerund, verb ending with –ING. For example:

• Swimming is excellent for hetitleh
  • Nager est excellent pour la santé
• I like swimming
  • J’aime nager

2. The infinitive and other verbs, nouns, adjectives and prepositions

Another verb

Very often the infinitive follows another verb. As we saw before 'J’aime nager', after modal vebs 'je dois parler', 'Je peux dire', 'Je voudrais finir mon repas'. (I like swimming, I must speak, I can say, I would like to finish my meal)

After an adjective

• Il est content de vous voir (He is happy to see you)

In this case the adjective comes with a preposition.

After a preposition

Note that all prepositions except “EN”, which takes the present participle, are followed by an infinitive.

Pour and the infinitive emphasizes the purpose of an action.

Examples:

• Avant d’entrer, sonner!
  • Ring! before entering!
• Après avoir dormi il est parti
  • After having slept he left.
• Pour apprendre le français il faut étudier régulièrement.
  • In order to learn French it is necessary to study regularly.

  Note that in this case which referred to a past action we need to have the infinitive in the past as well. In English it is the gerundive (-ING ending) which is generally used.

After a noun

• L’envie de boire – the need to drink

In this case it works like in English.

• L’occasion de célébrer son anniversaire lui permet de revoir sa famille au complet.
  • The opportunity to celebrate his birthday allows him to see his entire family again.

Exercise: Link the right clauses together The answer this question

The participles

The present

It may be called the present participle but it is not linked to any of the present tenses in French.

As I mentioned in the general grammar section many students at the beginner level tend to think that using the verb to be with the present participle is the equivalent to the present progressive. If you'd like to see this explanation it is under The use of the Present Tense

Formation

Present

You take the stem from the 1st person plural present indicative and remove the ending –ONS.

• Nous chantons for example, CHANT , then you add the –ANT ending.
• Chantant. Nous finissons, FINISS + ANT ending: Finissant

There are some exceptions as usual:

• Avoir - Ayant (having)
• Etre - Etant (being)
• Savoir - Sachant (knowing)

The past

To create the perfect of this participle: “Having finished” for example you will only need to use either ayant or étant with the past participle.

Etant parti avant la fin de la soirée, il n’a pas vu son frère qui ayant fini son travail est arrivé après son départ.

Having left before the end of the evening, he didn’t see his brother who, having finished his work, arrived after his departure.

The use of the present participle

• In formal language it is used with the conjunctions of coordination “parce que” or “comme”
  • Comme étant mariée à un citoyen britannique elle peut rester en Grande-Bretagne. (Being married to a British citizen she can stay in Great-Britain).
• Use in the same way you would use a relative clause
  • L’enfant pleurant – l’enfant qui pleure ( The singing detective – the detective who sings)
• With EN it gives a sense of on-going actions or that an action is taking place while another one is occurring
  • En arrivant, je vais aller aux toilettes. (when I arrive I am going to the toilet).
  • Il est mort en mangeant ( he died while eating)
• The present participle can be also used as an adjective in certain cases
  • C’est un homme charmant, c’est une femme charmante.

  In this case it agrees with the nouns it describes.

The use of the past participle

This has already discussed in detail in the section dealing with the perfect. To find out about it please read: Past: Perfect

The last section we need to cover on verbs is on: The Active and Passive Voices