French I—Semester B

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 6.06: Is It That Direct?

This lady looks like she could teach us a thing or two about being direct.
(Source)

Sometimes it's best to just be direct. Don't dodge the bullet. Don't beat around the bush. Just go right for it—whatever it is.

Much like direct flights, being direct is often easier (not to mention less stressful). If we do choose the beating-around-the-bush method of communication, we run the risk of finding ourselves in a lot of awkward situations later on.

Like that time we were too afraid to tell our grandma that turtlenecks aren't really our thing...and then we got seven of them for our birthday. Sigh. Probably would've paid off to let Nana know we're not dying to look like Howard from The Big Bang Theory. We're not saying to be rude, just direct.

This holds true when we speak French. So far we've been writing and speaking in flawless French phrases, but we have to admit that sometimes these are a little bulky. A little overly compliqué. It's time you learned how to be a little more direct.

To get straight to the point, this lesson's all about direct (and indirect) objects.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 6.6.06a: Vocabulary

As the British say, let's get to our grammar direct-ly. Or, in Mulan lingo: let's get down to business to defeat the...French grammar. Take out your vocabulary notebooks and warm up your vocal chords—it's time to drill the following new terms:

Nouns

• l'objet indirect (m): the indirect object, a secondary object in a sentence with a transitive verb and another (direct) object. In French, indirect objects exist when the preposition à, de, or pour is present between the verb and the object noun.
  Plural: les objets indirects
  Dans la phrase, "Je parle à ma mère," l'objet indirect est "ma mère."
  In the sentence, "I am speaking to my mother," the indirect object is "my mother."

• l'objet direct (m): the object that receives an action (verb) directly in a sentence.
  Plural: les objets directs
  Dans la phrase, "Il mange le fromage," l'objet direct est "le fromage."
  In the sentence, "He is eating cheese," the direct object is "the cheese."

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 6.6.06b: Vocabulary Flashcard Review

If the new terms from Reading 6.6a ring a bell, that might be because they're related to all of those parts of speech terms you learned way back in Unit 1.

We know, we know: you made those spiffy flashcards in Unit 1. (And if you can't find your parts of speech vocab flashcards, you can always make new ones—writing things over and over is one of the finest mnemonic techniques.) Now it's time to use them. Take out your flashcards and practice your parts of speech for five minutes. Vocabulary words: gotta catch 'em all.

• Adjectives are words used in a sentence to provide description. Adjectives describe nouns (i.e. those industrious Schmoopers). There are four types of adjectives, each defined by the way it describes a noun or pronoun.

• Adverbs: These guys describe verbs, adjectives, and even other adverbs, e.g. quickly, happily, suddenly, soon, later, and behind. They're not picky, really. They also usually end in –ly in English and –ment in French. Real-ly, they do—vraiment.

• Conjunctions: Think of conjunctions as those go-between friends that link different groups together. Like your friend Heather. As a swimmer and a member of the band, Heather's the successful catalyst between two groups of strangers. Just like Heather, conjunctions link two or more words together, or two groups of words together, e.g. and, or, but.

• Nouns: To put it very basically—a noun is a person, a place, or a thing. The only issue with this definition is that the "thing" section is very broad and includes very abstract "things" such as ideas, concepts, and, events. But yeah—if you have a person, a place, or a thing, you have a noun.

• Prepositions: These guys are sort of like Facebook relationship statuses. They tell us about one noun or pronoun's relationship to another. Unlike our relationship status, though, they usually tell us time, location, and direction, e.g. "French people eat in cafés" or "Parisians buy their baguettes from the baker."

• Pronouns: These are kinda like wannabe nouns. They take the place of one of more nouns, meaning they, too, describe a person, place, or thing. Like nouns, pronouns can be further separated into specific groups.

• Verbs: are more active parts of speech. Think of them as your annoyingly perky Triathlete cousin. Verbs represent actions in a sentence, thus our pun about moving. While many verbs sound like they're describing cousin Stacy, e.g. "running," "swimming," and "bouncing." It's wrong to think all verbs describe athletic action. Verbs can describe any action, even the most unindustrious uses of time including "sitting," "napping," or "Instagramming."

To check out Shmoop's (English-language) takes on all things grammar, click here.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 6.6.06c: Discussing Direct and Indirect Objects

Between this class, English class, and the occasional game of Mad Libs, you get plenty of exposure to the parts of speech. And if you don't know them already, this lesson is a good chance to brush up on them—if only to avoid awkward Mad Libs moments. In fact, you're going to add two grammatical concepts to our mental encyclopedia of French grammar. You guessed it: direct objects and indirect objects.

We know already that in a sentence there's always at least a subject and a verb. That's what's makes a sentence…a sentence. Subjects can be nouns or pronouns. A complete subject will sometimes have modifiers, like adjectives, stuck to it.

• Je mange.
  I am eating.
  The subject here is the pronoun je (I). The verb (or the action) is mange (am eating). All the conditions are met—sentence achieved. 

• Les grands éléphants gris parlent.
  The big, gray elephants are speaking.
  The subject is the noun élephants—but the complete subject is les grands éléphants gris. The verb is parlent. Once again, we have a phrase.

Oftentimes, though, sentences also have an object or multiple objects. Objects are also nouns—either proper or common. These aren't a requirement for a complete sentence, but they're desperately needed to add detail and spice to our language.

There are two types of objects:

• direct objects
• indirect objects

Direct Objects

Back in Reading 6.6a, you read that direct objects are the objects that a verb affects in a sentence. It's just that straightforward.

Take our example sentence, "Je mange." If we add un orange to this phrase, we get, "je mange un orange." Un orange is the direct object because it's the object that the verb (manger) is happening to. The orange is being eaten, so it's the direct object.

Let's look at another example regarding our pal Yassim, who is trying to buy some pants.

• Yassim a acheté un pantalon.
  Yassim bought a pair of pants.

To figure out what the direct object in this sentence is, we're going to ask a series of questions about it.

• Subject: Who or what is doing the action?
  Yassim—Yassim is doing the action.

• Verb: What's the verb? Or what's the action?
  Yassim bought (a acheté) something. "To buy" is the verb in this case.

• Direct object: Who or what is receiving the action? Who or what is being bought?
  Un pantalon. The pants are getting purchased. That makes them the direct object.

Indirect Objects

Time for a brief detour—into indirect objects. These are nouns in a sentence that don't directly receive the action of the verb (hence the name "indirect"). To show you what we mean, we're going to go back to our pants-buying pal Yassim and add a little flair to our example sentence.

• Yassim a acheté un pantalon pour son ami.
  Yassim bought some pants for his pal. (What a nice friend.)

To get this flashy new sentence we've added a preposition (pour), a possessive adjective (son), and a noun (ami).

If you'll recall from Reading 6.6a, in French, indirect objects are separated from the verb by the prepositions à, de, or pour. That means (ding, ding, ding) that we have an indirect object here because we have a preposition (pour) between a verb (a acheté) and a noun (son ami). And that indirect object is Yassim's friend (son ami).

With these prepositional giveaways, we can easily identify an indirect object in any given sentence. All we've gotta do is see if there's à, de, or pour between a verb and a noun. If there is, we have an indirect object.

• Ma soeur donne aux pauvres.
  My sister gives to the poor.

Aux is actually à hiding in disguise. It's a contraction of à + les. So, we have an indirect object here—les pauvres (the poor).

• Le prof a parlé des règles de jeu.
  The professor spoke of the rules of the game. (What game? We want to play.)

Okay, we don't know what game the teach is talking about—but we know we love Game Day in class. And we know that les règles de jeu is the indirect object of this sentence because it's separated from the verb (a parlé) by the preposition de.

There's one small exception this rule. We only have an indirect object if the prepositions are used to indicate a transaction or interaction with a recipient.

• Il fait une tarte pour elle.
  He's making a pie for her.

Here we have an indirect object because pour indicates that he's doing the action for a recipient (her).

• Je vais à Paris pour dix jours.
  I'm going to Paris for ten days.

In this case, we don't have an indirect object because pour isn't used to indicate a transaction—it's used to indicate a period of time.

The same goes for sentences where pour is used to indicate that someone is doing something on behalf someone or something.

• Mon mari parle pour nous deux.
  My husband speaks on behalf of both of us.

Combining Direct and Indirect Objects in One Sentence

You've seen how to identify direct objects. And you've seen indirect objects. But you haven't seen them together yet. That's right—we're talking about adding some dimension to our French phrases by jazzing them up with both direct and indirect objects.

And to do that, we need some cake (gâteau). That's no joke—read the following sentence:

• Je mange un gâteau.
  I'm eating a cake.

Look at that scrumptious direct object—gâteau. Mmm...But, believe it or not, we can have our cake and an indirect object, too. Check it out:

• Je donne un gâteau à Martha.
  I'm giving a cake to Martha.

Now we're sharing our cake with Martha (you're welcome, Martha). By adding the preposition à and then a second noun—Martha—we have added an indirect object. We're not eating Martha, so we know that she's not the direct object (the verb isn't happening to her) and the presence of à here between manger and Martha indicates that Martha's the indirect object.

In French, you always put the indirect object after the direct object. Here's a couple more cake-centric examples:

• Martha achète le gâteau au supermarché.
  Martha is buying the cake at the supermarket.

No offense to Martha, but she should probably buy her cake at a pâtisserie instead of the supermarket, the indirect object of this sentence.

• Le gâteau donne la joie aux enfants.
  The cake gives joy to the children.

The direct object here is pretty emotional: la joie (joy). And the indirect object is the children. Fun fact: cake gives joy to adults, too. Miam, miam.

To Sum It Up

Objectively speaking, those are the basics of objects. In future lessons, we'll get into how to replace these objects with handy pronouns. Here's what we know about these elusive objects for now:

• There are two kinds of objects: direct and indirect.
• Direct objects come right after the verb and take the action of the sentence.
• Indirect objects are separated from the verb by a preposition (à, de, or pour).
• For à and pour, it's only an indirect object if it indicates a transaction.
• You can combine direct objects and indirect objects in the same sentence by separating the direct object from the indirect object with a preposition.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 6.6.06d: I Just Wanna Be Part of That...Speech (Video)

As we know, there are many parts of speech in both French and English. We've covered a lot of these guys in the past. But since we're meeting two new members of the grammar gang in this lesson (direct and indirect objects), it's a good idea to go over what we already know. Check out the following clip to refresh our memories on the main parts of speech.

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 6.06a: What's the Object(ive)?

Fun thing about objects—you can find them in French and English. And once you start looking for them, they're everywhere.

Unlike all of those missing left socks the dryer seems to eat.

Since our chaussettes are a lost cause, we're going to put our energy into finding objects in English and French phrases. Much more productive.

Step One

First up—English. Go through the list of sentences in English below and label the part of speech for each word. Type up each sentence with the part of speech of each word labeled in parentheses, like so:

Original Sentence: I am going to the movies.

Labeled: I (pronoun) am (verb) going (verb) to (preposition) the (article) movies (noun).

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 6.06b: Some Directions on Direct and Indirect Objects

We're basically experts on direct and indirect objects now. Show off your new grammar greatness by sharing your expertise with others. Grab a partner or two and together, make a fun video in which you explain the difference between direct and indirect objects in French.

Step One

Before you start filming your next feature, you need to prepare a script. Collaborate with your partner or small group to write a script (of at least nine lines—at least three per group member). The script should explain in your own words (in English) what direct and indirect objects are and how to identify or use them in a sentence.

Feel free to use our outline below to get the ball rolling on your script:

PERSON A: Hello. My name is Person A. This is Person B and Person C. Today we're going to talk to you about direct and indirect objects. Wanna get started, Person B?

PERSON B: Yes. Direct objects are...

PERSON C: And indirect objects are...

PERSON A: We can identify a direct object in a French sentence by...

PERSON B: And we can identify an indirect object in a French sentence by...

PERSON C: An example of a sentence with a direct object is....

PERSON A: In this sentence, _____ is the direct object because...

PERSON B: An example of a sentence with an indirect object is...

PERSON C: That's because in this sentence _____ is...

Step Two

Once you have your script all written up and you've rehearsed it a couple of times with your group, make your video recording. This should be a fun and upbeat video with lots of examples—no one should fall asleep watching it. Feel free to take a couple takes until you get a perfect one. Then, use a site like Dropbox to upload your video, and post it to the discussion board.

Step Three

When you're done, individually comment on two other groups' posts in two to three sentences. Explain what you liked about the video and their explanation in English. Here's the kind of thing we're looking for:

I really liked your explanation because you helped clarify that indirect objects are more common in French than in English. Also, I loved the little cheer you made up to help remember the different prepositions—I won't forget them anymore.