I was helping my granddaughter with her French homework and asked her to conjugate a verb ( Etre / To Be.......je suis, tu est, il es etc ) She didn't know how the word - and neither did her french teacher ! I'm sure that is the word but can you confirm it please ?
2007-01-11 23:49:17 · 14 answers · asked by Jimbo 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
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You are absolutely right. And it truly is shocking for a teacher of any language to not know the word "conjugate". Because anyone who can speak has conjugated a verb! Here's a clear defintion of what Conjugation is...
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories. All the different forms of the same verb constitute a lexeme and the form of the verb that is conventionally used to represent the canonical form of the verb is a lemma.
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2007-01-12 02:09:24 · answer #1 · answered by Preety 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
'conjugate' is when you change the verb to fit the subject, exactly as you explained with je suis, tu es, il est etc. I'm surprised that the teacher had never heard the word before - it's a basic word when you study languages!!!
2007-01-12 15:24:54 · answer #2 · answered by jammycaketin 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
words that are inflected for tense and other reasons are said to be conjugated. It is the pattern of change and the rules governing it. Most languages have a regular conjugation. For example how to form the past tense in English you add -ed. But, some words have irregular conjugations. to go for example is one in English. Some languages only inflect for the tense. Ops. not true... I forgot about mood and voice. Japanese is like this and also iflects for style and level of politeness. Others like English inflect for tense and person and number. Still others may have inflexion for gender. I am not sure of any. Verbs in some languages are not conjugated I understand. Chinese is so, I am told. Supposedly uses particles to show differences in time. Other languages have conjugations for adjectives as well as verbs. Inflexion in nouns I believe uses a different term. Yes, the schematic flexion etc., etc. of a noun or pronoun is called declension. Latin has such a system for case gender and number. Somehow, I don't think that I have helped you ... it is the system of changes in the verb (an adjective) to allow for tenses, etc. I also found in the orgin of the word it relate to subjugate ... the last part means to join and con means to join together. verb + inflexion for tense and other reasons and a system of those forms = conjugation.
2007-01-12 14:47:53 · answer #3 · answered by madchriscross 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In that exercise you just mentioned there, she indeed is conjugating french verbs.
Conjugate, as a noun means a branch, a variation of something else. So, for for the the verbs suis, est and es are conjugates of etre.
Asa verb, which is normally what is used as, it means to vary, or to modify.
The wiktionary definition is at this url: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conjugate
2007-01-12 09:05:28 · answer #4 · answered by [operatic stock character] 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Grammar: to Conjugate is to choose a verbe and put it in a sentence with the proper tense, past, present, future, and with the right persons, pronoun personnels...
To conjugate the verbe to have would be: he has, she will have or they do have....
Also: To conjugate your efforts, would mean to put together your efforts with somebody else, a friend or a partner....
Say Hello to your granddaughter for me, I have a granddaughter too. I am French and she is American-French.
2007-01-12 20:32:28 · answer #5 · answered by Nicolette 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To conjugate a verb means changing the ending of a verb according to the person, the mood, and the tense. It's typical of languages derived from Latin, ie., French, Spanish, Italian, etc.
Of course, you also conjugate an English verb, but the effect is not so clear as in the languages above: (I) speak, (you) speak, (he) speaks, (we) speak, etc., vs French: je parle, tu parles, il parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent.
2007-01-12 08:31:55 · answer #6 · answered by Len M 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Conjugate IS the word: Je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous etes, ils sont.
If her teach doesn't know the word, she should be teaching something other than French.
2007-01-12 09:53:10 · answer #7 · answered by poutine 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I can't believe a French teacher has never heard of the word,I did French at O level in the 70s and I managed to more or less finish a 2005 A level paper...falling standards? Bien sur!!
2007-01-12 09:28:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
If a French teacher doesn't know the word "conjugate", that's a bit of a problem, I'd say...
2007-01-12 08:59:58 · answer #9 · answered by Sterz 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
It's a language-gymnastics exercise - going through how the verb changes when the pronoun changes: eg I walk ... you walk ... he walks ... we/you lot/they walk - see, in English only the he/she is different and only by one letter, so it's easy, to master the correct use of verbs in other languages you have to practice & do exercises like this one - conjugate walk swim order put think bring sit remember forget purchase .... in your learning new language
2007-01-12 08:03:42 · answer #10 · answered by profound insight 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋