kgoedert wrote:Hi,
I am having a bit of difficulty with verbs conjugation in french while speaking. I know the verb tenses, and I can conjugate them on paper, or if I have time to think about it. But, when I speak to someone, more often then not, I get the conjugation wrong. Is there any kind of exercise that you guys recommend?
Or maybe I don't know the tenses as well as I think I do, and if the conjugations where more "automatic", I would be able to do better?
Thanks
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
I think you have found a big part of the answer yourself. You are not as strong at the conjugations, as you need to be. That is quite common and fortunately remediable
There are several things I combine, when learning conjugations. The best mix of these may be highly individual, but I think the list bellow is more or less covering the common choices:
1.good systematic knowledge of the construction and use of the verb forms. Grammarbooks like Grammaire Progressif by CLE are awesome for clarification of the system, or references like Toute la conjugaison by Gaillard and Colignon. I recommend not hanging too much on bilingual sources comparing French to English or your native Portuguese too much. Of course majority of the system will be the same as in Portuguese, but the differences will still be there and very important. (I don't know Portuguese, but my experience with Spanish and Italian suggests so).
If you can conjugate on paper, therefore slowly, it is quite likely you have learnt this part quite well.
2.automatisation of the verb forms. SRS is one of the tools you can use. I've made quite a complete list here:
https://www.memrise.com/course/738096/c ... -complete/but you should not use it from start to finish at this point. Choose examples you need now and learn just those levels, and use the ignore function on tenses and moods you don't need to learn yet. Of course you can improve the conjugations to the automatic level without such drills, but I find them very efficient. A good time investment, that can improve your level noticeably. There are other lists like this one, but I found none other comprehensive enough, and most use either translation (which is simply wrong, as one tense in one langauge doesn't have to correspond precisely to one tense in the other language, and so on) or they use non-French terminology for the French grammar, which is quite confusing.
This may be useful to you, as you can address exactly the patterns and exceptions that don't stick. It is great for improving the speed.
3.Lots of input. A big part of automatic use of the verbs is being used to them. Tons of input are bound to take care about this. Books, movies, tv series, anything. You'll need large amount of material, but it is well worth it. You can develop a similar sense for what is correct or wrong to the one you have in your native language. Of course less perfect, but still very useful and important. A Super Challenge or two are an awesome way to work on your skills, including the active ones (as speaking requires thinking in the langauge, automatisation, a sense for what sounds right or wrong).
Extremely useful, I totally recommend it, as tons of input improve all the skills.
4.Practice. Yes, it is needed, but I'd be more careful about some kinds of it than many other learners. From my experience, it is extremely easy to fossilize mistakes. So, grammar exercises are great. Various kinds, and as many as you need. Writing and speaking is good. But writing and speaking too much without having a strong base (no matter how acquired, some people skip grammar books completely and just do a lot more observation), that is a recipe for getting stuck at quite a neanderthal level. I know many people like that. The popular internet advice "you need to just speak and speak" has a major flaw here. I still have some fossilized mistakes too, despite the many attempts to get rid of them. I unlearnt many but a few keep resisting my efforts (mostly accent), as it may simply be too late for me (but they don't limit me in any way, it is mostly my ego that gets hurt). And no, speaking with a teacher/tutor correcting you is not likely to help, unless you understand the underlying issue and do a lot of studying too. Just being corrected is not enough, and most teachers don't correct strictly enough anyways.
In short: try things out, find what works for you. And don't rely just on more practice. Many people are doing this mistake. Majority of French learners I know gets stuck somewhere around A2/B1 due to verbs. Really, it is the most common problem that stops people and even drives them away from learning the language completely. Not the pronunciation, not the vocabulary, not gender and articles. The verbs. And instead of studying the verbs, these learners usually keep repeating: "I am not fluent because I've been learning grammar too much, I just need more speaking practice." Nonsense. Of course they are not fluent, if they get stuck twice per sentence and even after the longer thinking process choose wrongly. And of course they are unlikely to improve, if they just pay for practice, during which they repeat the same mistakes over and over again.