Appendix L
Verb Chains
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Verb Chains – Introduction |
French verbs can be chained together in strings to create rich and sophisticated ideas.
This page is provided to give you a glimpse of a few of the possibilities of verb chains. The practice of verb chaining is coming soon and will be located elsewhere on the site. Just look for "Verb Chains" in the near future.
Here are just a few examples with their translations to give you a general idea.
| "J'aurais voulu aller voir jouer mon frère hier soir, mais je n'ai pas pu me libérer d'un autre engagement."
"I would have liked to go see my brother play last night, but I was not able to free myself from another commitment."
Here the verbs avoir/vouloir, aller, voir, and jouer are linked together to convey the first complex idea. Then, the verbs avoir/pouvoir, and libérer (in the pronominal format) are strung together to create another one. |
| "Pourrais-tu venir essayer de m'expliquer la procédure?"
"Could you come (and) try to explain the procedure to me?
In this sentence, the chain contains the verbs pouvoir, venir, essayer, and expliquer. |
| "Je peux venir essayer de te l'expliquer en t'aidant à faire des exercices en ligne, si tu veux."
"I can come (and) try to explain it to you by helping you (to) do some online exercises, if you want."
In this sentence, the chain contains the verbs pouvoir, venir, essayer, expliquer, aider, and faire. |
As you can see, in French as in English, such chains of verbs make communication rich and complex.
Important Note:
Short verb chains are shown througout the site using the extremely popular semi-auxiliary verbs aller, devoir, pouvoir, and vouloir with every verb tense possible. When you visit any verb tense on the site, look for how to create these chains so you can increase your skill in using them yourself!
Exercises to practise verb-chaining as well as all verb tenses in general will soon be available here at VerbExpress.net to help students and professionals alike to take French verb-handling to whole new levels.
We wish you the very best of success in your increasing mastery of the Fench verb system!