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How to Teach the French Verb Manquer – A French Teacher’s Guide The French verb manquer can be frustrating for English speakers because the way we construct sentences with “miss” is completely different. In English, we say: I miss you. But in French, we don’t construct the sentence that way.

How to Teach French Verbs for “To Make” – Faire, Rendre, Donner & More – A French Teacher’s Guide English makes things especially confusing when it comes to the verb “to make.” We use the same verb in expressions like make dinner, make someone laugh, make someone sad, make someone

How to Teach French Avant de, Après avoir and Après être – A French Teacher’s Guide When students first learn how to connect two actions in French, they often want to conjugate every verb they see. This is a good opportunity to show them that French has several useful constructions

How to Teach French Subjunctive vs. Indicative – A French Teacher’s Guide When I teach the French subjunctive, one of the biggest challenges is not actually forming the subjunctive. It’s knowing when to use it. Students can learn the conjugations of être, avoir, faire, aller, and other common verbs, but

How to Teach the French Past Subjunctive – Le Subjonctif Passé – A French Teacher’s Guide The French past subjunctive, or le subjonctif passé, is much easier to teach when students already understand the present subjunctive. Rather than treating it as an entirely new structure, I teach it by having

How to Teach French Reported Speech – Direct vs. Indirect Speech & Concordance des Temps – A French Teacher’s Guide When I teach la concordance des temps, I explain it through something students already do naturally: reporting what someone has said. The French term la concordance des temps refers to

How to Teach the French Futur Antérieur – A French Teacher’s Guide The futur antérieur is used to talk about something that will have happened at some point in the future. The action will have a beginning and an ending. In English, this is called the future perfect. When I

How to Teach “Should Have,” “Could Have,” and “Would Have” in French – Past Conditional – A French Teacher’s Guide The French past conditional is the tense students need when they want to express should have, could have, or would have. I find that the easiest way to teach it

How to Teach “Could” in French – Present Conditional vs. Imperfect – A French Teacher’s Guide When English-speaking students learn that pouvoir means “can” or “to be able to,” they usually have no trouble with the present tense. The problem comes when they want to say could. Should they use

How to Teach the French Present Subjunctive – A French Teacher’s Guide The French subjunctive can seem like a lot at first, especially when students see all of the different irregular verbs. I find it much easier to teach when I separate when to use the subjunctive from how to

How to Teach the French Plus-Que-Parfait – A French Teacher’s Guide When I teach the French plus-que-parfait, I start with the meaning before I get into the formation. Students need to understand that this tense describes something that had already happened before something else happened in the past. In English,

How to Teach the French Relative Pronoun DONT – A French Teacher’s Guide Of all the French relative pronouns, dont is one that I find students have the hardest time using. The biggest challenge isn’t really understanding the word itself. It’s knowing which verbs and expressions are followed by de.