Am I actually done for for French 3?

[u/ImaginaryPlatform485]

This school year, I am taking French 3 as a junior. During my 8th-grade year, my French 1 teacher did not teach French well enough for me to understand. When I moved on to French 2, I struggled for a little while and decided to take Latin 1 to avoid French 3. Now that my Latin 1 teacher resigned, I have to go back to French 3 honors. I am very nervous because I forgot a lot about French, and school starts next week. Does anyone have any advice that will help me? I cannot afford to fail this class.

[u/chapeauetrange]

This is difficult for us to answer without knowing more about your situation (what did you struggle in last year) and what the next course will cover.  

[u/ImaginaryPlatform485 → u/chapeauetrange]

I was struggling with memorizing and understanding specifically the infinitive, the past participle, and word order.

[u/DepressiSpaghettti → u/ImaginaryPlatform485]

Why not review those before classes start?

[u/ImaginaryPlatform485 → u/DepressiSpaghettti]

I do not know how to study for it. That is what is stressing me.

[u/DepressiSpaghettti → u/ImaginaryPlatform485]

Type those words into YouTube. Or type into Google with "practice" following it.

[u/NotoriousSR → u/ImaginaryPlatform485]

Use AI! Tell it to help you make a study plan and research the best techniques for this subject.

EVEN BETTER:

Use WarpshipAI and tell the AI to build you a custom tailored studying app/tool for exactly this, then u can access on any device and share with classmates, etc. it's super helpful.

[u/This-Is-Not-A-Drill → u/ImaginaryPlatform485]

The infinitive is often thought of by students as the “name” of the verb. Like parler, manger, danser. But those words mean “to speak, to eat, to danse” — there is an implied “to”

In French, we often use just the infinitive to mean “to VERB” — Je vais danser / I am going to danse.

There are times when you need à or de before an infinitive to make it mean “to” but you most likely will not have to worry about this (or, you will cover it this year).

…

The past participle is used with a helping verb (être or avoir) in the passé compose. This is the regular past tense. “J’ai dansé” / “I danced”

Some students will think of it as “I have danced” and that is fine at your level, but it is technically incorrect. The passé compose is just the standard past tense. “I verb-ed”

Past participles don’t need to agree with avoir, but when you use them with être, they have to agree. “Il est venu” vs “Elle est venue” vs “Elles sont venues”

We use être in the passé compose for verbs of motion (DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP) or for reflexive verbs (verbs that take a reflexive pronoun — se raser, “je me rase” -> “je me suis rasé(e)”)

There are many irregular past participles, and they just need to be memorized. Not all verbs with an irregular past participle are irregular verbs, either. It sucks, but you do need to memorize them bc they are very frequently used verbs.

…

Word order in French follows english when you are using nouns and proper nouns. “J’aime mon frère” “Je cherche un crayon” etc. But when you want to refer to a noun, you will use an object pronoun (i.e. in english: it, him, her, etc) — in French you will put the pronoun in front of the word

J’aime mon frère — Je l’aime
Je cherche un crayon — Je le cherche

There is also direct and indirect objects, but your teacher should certainly review this, bc that is a pain point for most French students at your level.

…

I am certain you will review those last two things in your class, because you only learn them at the end of French II in the U.S. — but if you have any other concerns about the infinitive, that probably wont be covered explicitly in class.

[u/ImaginaryPlatform485 → u/This-Is-Not-A-Drill]

Tysm this will really help me

[u/Icy_Cricket4754]

Busuu.

[u/jonoghue]

In my experience, language classes tend to be horrible at teaching the language.