French Language Lesson: "-ing"

Before the story about hunting for mushrooms, here's a mini French language lesson. It attacks a point that's often a stumbling block for native English speakers of French: how to express "-ing." Nota bene: I rarely use English to teach French grammar, so take advantage. Pour yourself a nice glass of wine and read on.

1. Some English "-ing" verb forms are expressed by the present or the imperfect tenses in French: Tu parles trop fort. = "You're speaking too loudly." You can also use the expression être en train de + an infinitive: Je suis en train d'expliquer quelque chose. = "I'm explaining something."

OK, that's probably easy enough to digest; on to point #2, the gerund. Remember that term from your high school English classes? If you never quite figured out what it meant (way) back then, here's a second chance. You've been waiting for this day, right?

2. A gerund is an "-ing" verb used as a noun; it can be a subject or an object. Ugh, so what does that mean? Take a look at these examples: "I like knitting." "Knitting" is the object of the verb./ "Swimming relaxes me." "Swimming" is the subject of the verb. To express these ideas in French, you would use the infinitive form of the verb: J'aime tricoter. / Nager me détend.

So, how would you express -- correctly -- the following in French?
a. "Eating too many chestnuts can make you sick."
b. "Reading the news sometimes aggravates me."
c. "We love eating dinner in the garden."
d. "Instead of working, I read this blog."
[The answers are at the end of this blog entry.]

One last point and you're on your way to becoming a master of -ing. There's more to it than I'm letting on here, but you'd need at least one more glass of wine to swallow the rest in one sitting.

3. Take a look at these sentences:
"I read this blog while listening to NPR." = J'ai lu ce blog en écoutant NPR. The two actions took place at the same time.
"My neighbor hums while working in his garden." = Mon voisin fredonne en travaillant dans son jardin. Again, the two actions take place at the same time.
"We can relax by doing yoga." = On peut se détendre en faisant du yoga. This sentence is different: one action leads to another. First comes yoga, then the relaxing.

To practice, go back and read all the French examples aloud several times, then make up your own sentences by following my examples as models (...en suivant...).

If you have questions, open my web site and send me an email -- the address is to the left, towards the top of this page. Be brave and ask your question(s) in French.

Answers to above translations:
a. Manger trop de châtaignes peut te rendre malade.
b. Lire les actualités m'agace parfois.
c. On adore dîner dans le jardin./ On adore souper* dans le jardin.
d. Au lieu de travailler, j'ai lu ce blog.

*souper is often used instead of dîner in the south of France, especially in the Cévennes.