Le participe Prsent/Grondif The French counterpart of the English gerund, the -ing (smiling, funning) is a verb form in -ant

(souriant, courant) : the present participle. The same form is called a gerondif when it is preceded by the preposition en. Remember that, when used alone, the French present participle is a literary usage, but the French gerondif (en + present participle) is commonly used. Note : the equivelance of the English gerund (-ing) to the French present participle is not at all systematic. Several different French verb forms are used to translate the English -ing. In fact, the present participle is little used in French compared to its widespread use in English. Formation : The present participle is not conjugated. It is formed by taking hte nous form of the present tense of a given verb and replacing the -ons ending with -ant. Note : verbs that have a spelling change before -o (c changes to and other changes) retain that change preceding the -ant of the present participle. Example : Nous parlons parlant Nous finissons finissant Nous commenons commenant Nous prenons prenant Nous rpondons rpondant Nous mangeons mangeant Three verbs have an irregular form : tre tant, avoir ayant and savoir sachant The present participle is not a conjugated form and therefore cannot be used directly after a subject pronoun. As a result, impersonal verbs used only with il, like falloir (il faut), pleuvoir (il pleut), suffire (il suffit), paratre (il parat) don't have a present participle. (paratre=to seem, le pareil=the same) Negative : In the negative, the present participle is treated like a conjugated verb : the two negative particles surround it. Il a arrt de fumer en n'achetant plus de cigarettes he quit smoking while no longer buying cigarettes Pronominal/Reflexive verbs : When a pronominal verb is in the present participle, its reflexive pronoun must match the subject of the conjugated verb, as it would before an infinitive. J'ai trouv un chat perdu en me promenant.

Use : When the present participle is used as an adjective, it agrees with the noun it modifies : Une fille souriante The present participle is invariable when it is used to express an action that takes place at the same time as the action of the principal verb. Je vois mon pre faisant la cuisine The present participle can be replaced by qui plus a verb : Je vois mon pre qui fait la cuisine The present participle can also expresse cause : Etant professeur, il veut enseigner (since he is a teacher, he wants to teach) The present participle is often used after the preposition en. En means by, while, upon, although. On apprend le franais en tudiant (one learns French by studying) En me promenant, j'ai rencontr mon ami (while walking I met my friend) En arrivant, j'ai vu Marie (upon arriving, I saw Marie) 'By doing something' is expressed in French by en+present participle, except after the verbs commencer and finir. Par+infinitive is used with these verbs. Il a fini par travailler (he finished by working) Elle a commenc par faire l'appel (she started by marking the roll) With prepositions other than en, the infinitive is used rather than the present participle. Il est parti sans rien dire (he left without saying anything) Faites le mnage avant d'aller au cinma (do the housework before going to the movies)