<p>Hi Skier,</p>
<p>Actually, I'm kind of afraid to :) . My knowledge of French went from "pretty good" to "working" a long time ago, and I don't want to give you anything that isn't correct. I communicate with a Belgian friend and several other Francophone people, and I've travelled to France two or three times, so I can definitely communicate fine. But I've let my knowledge of the finer points go by the wayside, I think.</p>
<p>I'll tell you what I remember, though, and it should be enough to build up some ideas. I recall thinking it was a good idea to combine the subjunctive with the cardinal irregular verbs--two birds with one stone. The phrase "pour que je puisse + [infinitive]" sticks in my mind, and so does "il faut que ca soit [adjective]". But those could both be entirely WRONG. Really. In fact, it's probable :) So don't take those without checking them out. In my old French 5 textbook, there were a couple of pages with subjunctive expressions to memorize. You probably have something similar. I'd start there--pick like five of them, pair them with flexible verbs like "avoir," "etre," "faire," and "aller," and you're good to go.</p>
<p>As for the si clauses, I have a sort of "feeling" for them that I suspect may be largely correct, but I don't want to steer you wrong. If you can give me a specific example you're having problems with I can probably advise you, but I can't think of any particularly good ones off the top of my head at the moment.</p>
<p>One more thing, though, that might help with your French grammar in general: English grammar is largely derivative of French grammar (the major difference is that English doesn't normally have preceding objects, but English speakers DO understand what you mean if you use them, which further demonstrates that the idea isn't completely foreign to the English-speaking mind). So when you get lost, think about a good English sentence.</p>
<p>In fact, this type of thing actually came up in a Writing thread today. Proper English usage of "if" with the subjunctive is something like: "If I had seen it, I would have acted differently." Unfortunately for them, many modern speakers would say "If I <em>would have</em> seen it, I would have acted differently." This usage is widespread, but not popular enough to be correct yet. (Note while I'm thinking of it--a lot of teachers say English has no subjunctive. This isn't true. It can get confusing, though, because the English subjunctive is identical to the past tense in most instances. But leave that alone for now.) In French, if you translate almost directly from the proper English formulation above, you get "Si je l'avais vu, j'aurais fait quelquechose d'autre." (At least, I <em>think</em> that's what you'd say in French. Like I said, I'm rusty. At any rate, if you said that, you'd be understood.) But if you say, in French, "Si je l'aurais vu, j'aurais fait quelquechose d'autre," I'm pretty sure you'd be wrong. Much more wrong than you'd be if you said the English sentence. But check with your teacher. At any rate, what I'm trying to get at is that the modern English usage is departing from the previously established English/French usage; if you're one of those English speakers who uses the incorrect "if i would have," then it might be harder to teach yourself to use the "correct" French construction. At any rate, just a thought--if you look for analogs between French grammar and English, you'll see a lot of them, and that always helped me.</p>
<p>Sorry I can't give you any more specific ideas, but I think if you consult the sources I mentioned above you'll have plenty of your own.</p>
<p>Also, if your teacher is native, ask her for some pronunciation help. A little goes a LONG, LONG way. Work especially on the "euhhh" sound at the end of "je," the high-pitched "oo" in past participles like "vu" and "su," and the nasalized vowels like in "en" and "pain." If you want I can give some pretty detailed, mechanical advice that you should be able to follow to get good pronunciation results, but if you're not familiar with learning accents like that, nothing beats hearing a native speaker. (Course, if your pronunciation is already good, ignore all this.)</p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>ps I apologize for the disjointed and rambling nature of these posts--I'm typing pretty fast and I can't organize my thoughts very well at the moment.</p>