Richard Good
Speaking French reminds me of those famous scenes in the Road Runner cartoon series in which Wile E. Coyote is chased over the edge of a cliff.
For a split second or two, he defies gravity, hovering in space. Then he becomes aware of the mess he’s in. And it’s only at that moment that he plummets down into the canyon below.
In a similar way, I often find myself launching into a trenchant observation, an amusing anecdote, or some other sophisticated conversational gambit, only to realize halfway through my sentence that I can’t find the necessary words to finish it. At that moment, the flow of words comes to an abrupt halt and my story ends up as a splattered mess of mutterings in the ravine of social failure.
The answer lies in preparation, and in this context, I like to look for patterns that can help me defy gravity.
Here’s an example. For any given French verb, the present of the subjunctive will always sound the same in the je, tu, il, elle, on, elles, and ils forms. So, in spoken French, if you see a subjunctive looming on the horizon in your sentence, you just need to learn one catchall sound for each verb, and then you can be confident that that sound will cover all the situations in which the subject is either singular or third person plural.
- aimer – que j’aime, que tu aimes, qu’on aime, qu’ils aiment
- finir – que je finisse, que tu finisses, qu’on finisse, qu’ils finissent
- être – que je sois, que tu sois, qu’on soit, qu’ils soient
- avoir – que j’aie, que tu aies, qu’on ait, qu’ils aient
- aller – que j’aille, que tu ailles, qu’on aille, qu’ils aillent
- faire – que je fasse, que tu fasses, qu’on fasse, qu’ils fassent
- prendre – que je prenne, que tu prennes, qu’on prenne, qu’ils prennent
- mettre – que je mette, que tu mettes, qu’on mette, qu’ils mettent
- dire – que je dise, que tu dises, qu’on dise, qu’ils disent
- écrire – que j’écrive, que tu écrives, qu’on écrive, qu’ils écrivent
- voir – que je voie, que tu voies, qu’on voie, qu’ils voient
- savoir – que je sache, que tu saches, qu’on sache, qu’ils sachent
- pouvoir – que je puisse, que tu puisses, qu’on puisse, qu’ils puissent
- devoir – que je doive, que tu doives, qu’on doive, qu’ils doivent
- vouloir – que je veuille, que tu veuilles, qu’on veuille, qu’ils veuillent
- partir – que je parte, que tu partes, qu’on parte, qu’ils partent
- venir – que je vienne, que tu viennes, qu’on vienne, qu’ils viennent
Once you’ve got these mental shortcuts in your brain, they become self-reinforcing: the more you use them, the less you need them.
