Relationships: Grammar and Phonics (AQA GCSE French): Revision Note

To talk about relationships, you need to know some important grammar – reflexive pronouns and verbs and the relative pronoun qui. Let’s look at these grammar points in more detail.

Reflexive pronouns and verbs

• Reflexive verbs are verbs which refer to oneself or each other, e.g. se laver means ‘to wash oneself’ and se disputer means ‘to argue (with each other)’

• They are sometimes used differently in French and English, but are very useful to talk about your relationships with others - there are lots of reflexive verbs included in the vocabulary tables you have just seen

• If an infinitive starts with se it is a reflexive verb

• Se is a reflexive pronoun, and we need to change both the verb and the reflexive pronoun to agree with the person doing the activity

• We often don’t use a reflexive pronoun in the English translations

Relative pronoun 'qui'

• Qui means ‘who’

• Use it to refer back to someone or something already mentioned - this is called a relative clause, so qui is called a relative pronoun

• Use it to give more information about someone or something, e.g:

  • Mon copain, qui s’appelle James, … - my boyfriend, who is called James, …

  • Mes parents, qui sont séparés, … - my parents, who are separated, …

Relationships: phonics

• When a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) is followed by n or m, it makes a nasal sound.

• In the sounds [en] and [om], this means that we don’t hear the [n] and [m]
  ensemble
  nom