French/Lessons/Transportation

-uire verbs are conjugated irregularly.



Most verbs form the passé composé with avoir, however there are a small number of verbs that are always conjugated with être. In a general case, these verbs indicate a change in state or position.

List of verbs
The verbs that take être can be easily remembered by the acronym MRS. DR VANDERTRAMP:

Direct objects
These verbs take their conjugated avoir when they are immediately followed by a direct object

For Example,
 * Je suis descendu.

with the direct object mes bagages becomes
 * J'ai descendu mes bagages.

As another example,
 * Je suis monté.

with the direct object mes bagages becomes
 * J'ai monté mes bagages.

As another example, but with ils instead of je,
 * Ils sont sortis.

with direct object leur passeport becomes
 * Ils ont sorti leur passeport.

Subject-past participle agreement
When conjugating with être, the past participles of the above verbs must agree with the subject of a sentence in gender and number. Note that there is no agreement if these verbs are conjugated with avoir.


 * If the subject is masculine singular, there is no change in the past participle.
 * If the subject is feminine singular, an -e is added to the past participle.
 * If the subject is masculine plural, an -s is added to the past participle.
 * If the subject is feminine plural, an -es is added to the past participle.

Indirect object pronoun - to it, to them
The French pronoun y is used to replace an object of a prepositional phrase introduced by à. Note that lui and leur, and not y, are used when the object refers to a person or people.
 * Je réponds aux (à les) questions. - J'y réponds.
 * I respond to the questions. - I respond to them.

Replacement of places - there
The French pronoun y replaces a prepositional phrase referring to a place that begins with any preposition except de (for which en is used). Note that en, and not y is used when the preposition of the object is de.
 * Les hommes vont en France. - Les hommes y vont.
 * The men go to France - The men go there.

Idioms

 * Ça y est! - There we go!, There you have it.
 * J'y suis! - I get it!

 These verbs are conjugated irregularly, and normally follow the -er conjugation scheme. In past participle form, -ir is replaced with -ert for these verbs.

Formation
A common -rir verb is ouvrir:

The noun is derived from ouvrir, and the adjective  is derived from its past participle.

1Mourir is the only -ir verb that takes être as its helping verb in perfect tenses (and therefore agrees with the subject as a past participle in a perfect tense).

The word is also used as a noun, meaning death or dead person, or as an adjective, meaning dead:
 * Le roi est mort. - The king is dead.

The derived word means dying or person who is dying.

Acquis is also a noun, meaning asset.