Essential French Grammar (A2–B2)

What’s inside

• Articles and the partitive, with the de-after-negation rule most learners miss
• Gender clues by word ending and every adjective agreement pattern you need
• Passé composé vs imparfait, the plus-que-parfait and être verbs with agreement
• Futur simple, conditionnel and the three si clause patterns
• The subjunctive: how to form it, what triggers it, and when not to use it
• Object pronouns, y and en, and the order when you use several at once
• Relative pronouns qui, que, dont, où and lequel, plus questions in three registers
• 48 self-check questions with answers, and a proofreading checklist for exam day

Who it’s for: Learners between A2 and B2 who are preparing for TEF Canada or TCF Canada and want their writing and speaking to be accurate.

Contents

1. 01Articles, gender and agreementEvery French noun has a gender, and the article in front of it carries that information through the whole sentence.
2. 02Past tenses: passé composé, imparfait, plus-que-parfaitThe passé composé tells what happened. The imparfait describes what it was like. The plus-que-parfait goes one step further back.
3. 03The future, the conditional and si clausesTwo tenses built on the same stem, and three if patterns you will use in almost every argument.
4. 04The subjunctiveThe subjunctive is not a tense. It is a mood that follows certain triggers, and at B1–B2 a handful of them cover almost every case.
5. 05Pronouns, y and enPronouns keep your French from repeating the same noun, and their order follows a fixed pattern you can learn once.
6. 06Relative pronouns: qui, que, dont, où, lequelRelative pronouns join two short sentences into one longer one, which is exactly what B2 writing looks like.
7. 07Negation, questions and registerCorrect negation matters everywhere, and polite questions are the core of the speaking tasks where you ask the examiner for information.
8. 08Comparisons and prepositions with placesComparing two options is the core of an argument, and saying where you live or come from is in every introduction.
9. 09Connectors: putting it all togetherConnectors turn correct sentences into an organised argument, and some of them decide the mood of the verb that follows.
10. 10Book your exam seatGood grammar only counts once you have a test date.