French - Lesson 4 - Dialog for Conjugation of the Verb être
Dialog for Practicing the Conjugation of the Verb être - To Be
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The previous lesson showed the conjugation of the verb être, meaning "to be". Here we will see how the verb is used in a dialog.
Qui sommes nous ?
| une mère | a mom / mum, mother |
| qui | who |
| nous sommes | we are |
| MERE: Qui sommes-nous ? | MOM: Who are we? |
| vous êtes | you (pl. / sing. polite) are |
| mes | my (pl.) |
| un parent | a parent |
| bien sûr | of course |
| CLAUDINE: Vous êtes mes parents, bien sûr! | CLAUDINE: You are my parents, of course! |
| il est | he is |
| mon (m.) / ma (f.) | my |
| un père | a dad, father |
| Pointing at her dad... | |
| MERE: Et qui est-il? | MOM: And who is he? |
| CLAUDINE: Il est mon père. | CLAUDINE: He is my father. |
| elle est | she is |
| Pointing at the family cat sitting on the sofa... | |
| MERE: Est qui est-elle? | MOM: And who is she? |
| CLAUDINE: Elle est mon chat. | CLAUDINE: She is my cat. |
| ils sont | they are |
| un grand-parent (sing.) / des grands-parents (pl.) | grandparent / grandparents |
| Pointing at a picture on the shelf... | |
| MERE: Est qui sont-ils? | MOM: And who are they? |
| CLAUDINE: Ils sont mes grands-parents. | CLAUDINE: They are my grandparents. |
| tu es | you (sing. familiar) are |
| je suis | I am |
| une princesse | a princess |
| MERE: Es tu? | MOM: And you? |
| CLAUDINE: Je suis une princesse! | CLAUDINE: I am a princess! |
Additional Notes
We saw before that my has three forms in French: mon / ma / mes. The same goes for ton / ta / tes, son / sa /ses. Notre / nos, Votre / vos, leur / leurs are similar but there is no gender distinction.
You may have noticed that in simple questions, the subject-verb order is reversed. So, we are is nous sommes, but Who are we? is Qui sommes-nous?, with the verb coming first, just as in English. Also notice the dash between the verb and the subject. The dash is used with simple pronouns, but not in other cases, for example, Who is the mother? would be Qui est la mère? with no dash.
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