>

- Qu'est-ce
que vous
aimez faire?
- J'adore les
spectacles.
What do you like to do?
I adore shows.

le son 'in' de la, du, de l', des

pronunciation practice describing undefined quantities
faire le dimanche, le lundi...
to do, to make the days of the week
l'infinitif
using verbs in the infinitive

Listen and repeat after each sentence. Pay special attention to distinguish
the sound in:

magasin
shop

la fin
the end
Qu'est-ce que vous aimez faire?
What do you like to do?

Moi, qu'est-ce que j'aime faire? - Ça dépend des jours.

What do I like to do? That depends on the day.

Le dimanche, j'aime rester à la maison...

On Sundays, I like to stay at home...

...mais le lundi, j'aime faire du sport, de la marche par exemple.

...but on Mondays I like to do some exercise, walking for example.

J'aime aussi faire des courses dans les magasins, mais pas le
lundi, plutôt à la fin de la semaine, le vendredi quand j'ai le temps.
I also like to do the shopping in the shops, but not on Mondays, more at the end of the week,
on Fridays when I have the time.

Tu aimes faire le ménage?

Do you like doing the housework?

Non, pas trop, je préfère me promener bien sûr.

No, not very much. I prefer to go for a walk of course.

Tu aimes aller voir des spectacles?

Do you like to go to see shows?

Oh oui, j'adore sortir, j'aime le cinéma, le théâtre, le concert,

l'opéra, la danse.
Oh yes, I adore going out, I love the cinema, the theatre, concerts, the opera, dance.

Qu'est-ce que tu détestes dans la vie?

What do you dislike in life?

Le matin, je déteste me lever tôt, je préfère dormir chez moi.

In the morning, I hate to get up early, I prefer to sleep at my place.

Je déteste travailler, comme tout le monde probablement.

 I dislike work, like everybody probably.

Non, pas comme tout le monde. Moi j'aime travailler!

No, not like everybody. Me, I like to work!

Ah bon! Pourquoi pas? Je trouve ça bizarre, mais... après tout...

Really! Why not? I find that strange, but... after all...

...en quatre points

The lesson in four points

1) The verb «faire»

The verb faire means 'to do' or 'to make'. Here is its conjugation.

faire - to do, to make

le présent de l'indicatif

je fais nous faisons

tu fais vous faites
il fait ils font
elle fait elles font

Je fais la cuisine.
I do the cooking.

Tu fais une bêtise.

You do something stupid.

Il fait son possible.

He does what he can.

Elle fait des histoires.

She makes trouble.
 Nous faisons du sport le dimanche matin.
We exercise / play sport on Sunday mornings.

Vous faites triste mine.

You're looking grumpy. (lit: You make a sad face.)

Ils ne font rien.

They don't do anything.

Elles font des efforts sérieux pour s'améliorer.

They make some serious efforts to improve.

2) Using infinitives
In a phrase like

Qu'est-ce que vous aimez faire?

What do you like to do?

you will see that the verb vous aimez is followed directly by another verb, in this
case faire.

Faire is an infinitive, meaning 'to do'.

When using the infinitive in French you don't need an equivalent for the English
word 'to'. The sense of 'to' is contained in the one word infinitive form. For example,
in English we say:

I love to do something.

In French the equivalent construction is direct:

J'aime lire.
I like to read
J'aime me promener.
I like to go for a walk.

It is the same for the verbs:

préférer - to prefer
 adorer - to adore
détester - to detest

Il préfère voyager seul.

He prefers to travel alone.
Nous adorons manger des produits frais.
We adore eating fresh products.
Vous détestez travailler le dimanche.
You hate working on Sundays.

3) De la, du, de l', des

Often when constructing a sentence in French you need to use the words de la,
du, de l' and des.

One common use of these words is when talking about an undefined quantity of
something:

J'aime boire de la bière.

I like to drink beer.

In English to talk about an undefined quantity we employ a noun without an article:

'beer'.

In French to talk about 'beer' in this general way you can't just say bière, you must
say de la bière.

de la

is used when the noun that follows is feminine. But when the thing you are talking
about is masculine, de la becomes contracted. You can't say

which becomes

du

J'adore boire du vin.

 I adore drinking drink wine.

When the thing you are talking about begins with a vowel, we have:

Je préfère boire de l'eau.

I prefer to drink water.

And in the plural

becomes

des

J'aime boire des boissons sans alcool, des jus de fruits par exemple.
I like to drink non-alcoholic drinks, fruit juices for example.

In English we simply drop the article before the noun - in French you need to insert
de la, du, de l' and des.

de la, du, de l' and des can turn up in other expressions where there is no direct
equivalent in English. For example, the construction faire de:

J'aime faire de la marche.

I like to go walking.
J'adore faire du sport.
I adore playing sport / exercising.
Je déteste faire des courses.
I hate doing the shopping.

jouer de is used for playing a musical instrument:

Je préfère jouer du piano.

I prefer to play the piano.

You have already come across another, separate use of des: as the plural of un
and une. Sometimes des would be translated in English by the word 'some'.

Il y a des pommes et des poires sur la table.

 There are some apples and pears on the table.

But sometimes we wouldn't put anything in its place:

J'ai des enfants, un fils et une fille.

I have children, a son and a daughter.

4) Le dimanche, le lundi, le matin

These are the days of the week:

le lundi le vendredi
Monday Friday
le mardi le samedi
Tuesday Saturday
le mercredi le dimanche
Wednesday Sunday
le jeudi
Thursday

Notice there is no capital letter in French.

-di

is the ending that corresponds to 'dies' in Latin, in English 'day'.

lundi

is Monday, the day of the moon

la lune

Then there are other planets:

Mars - mardi
Mars
Mercure - mercredi
Mercury
Jupiter - jeudi
Jupiter
 Vénus - vendredi
Venus

For

samedi

it's the sabbath, the Jewish feast day. And then

dimanche

it's

dies dominici
the day of the Lord

If you want to say on Sundays, on Mondays or in the mornings you don't need
a preposition, you just say:

le dimanche, le lundi, le matin

For example:

Les magasins sont fermés le dimanche.

The shops are closed on Sundays.

To talk about a precise Sunday you can use dimanche without the article:

En principe je ne travaille pas le dimanche mais, dimanche, je travaille.

In general I don't work on Sundays, but Sunday, I am working.

En principe je ne travaille pas le dimanche mais, dimanche, j'ai travaillé.

In general I don't work on Sundays, but Sunday, I worked.

In these examples, the Sunday being talked about is understood from the tense of
the verb travailler. The first example clearly refers to next Sunday, while the
second clearly refers to last Sunday. If you want to be more explicit you can say:

dimanche prochain
next Sunday
En principe je ne travaille pas le dimanche mais, dimanche prochain, je
travaille.
In general I don't work on Sundays, but next Sunday, I am working.

dimanche dernier
last Sunday

En principe je ne travaille pas le dimanche mais, dimanche dernier, j'ai

travaillé.
In general I don't work on Sundays, but last Sunday, I worked.