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Section 8
 “Nous arrivions à Maisons-Laffitte. Je baisai la main de ma vieille amie.
Je n'avais rien trouvé à lui dire que d'affreuses banalités. J'étais trop

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bouleversé pour parler.”
“Le soir, tout seul, chez moi, je me regardai longtemps dans ma glace, très
longtemps. Et je finis par me rappeler ce que j'avais été, par revoir en
pensée ma moustache brune et mes cheveux noirs, et la physionomie
jeune de mon visage. Maintenant j'étais vieux. Adieu.”
"We had reached. Maisons-Laffitte. I kissed my old friend's hand. I had
found nothing to utter but the most commonplace remarks. I was too much
upset to talk.
"At night, alone, at home, I stood in front of the mirror for a long time, a
very long time. And I finally remembered what I had been, finally saw in
my mind's eye my brown mustache, my black hair and the youthful
expression of my face. Now I was old. Farewell!"
Chapter 9 – Les Verbes – (Verbs)
 
A verb is a word that expresses an action (go, eat) or a state of being (think,
be). 
A verb has tenses which describes whether the action or state of being is
currently happening, happened in the past or will happen in the future. To
make it easier to study and understand, verb tenses are divided into three
main categories:
Past
Present
Future

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A verb also has moods which describes the way the person regards the
action or state of being. These moods are:
Indicative – Makes a statement or asks a question
Condition – describes what could or should happen if something
else was possible
Subjunctive – Indicates a wish, a fear, a regret, or something else
of that sort.
Imperative- expresses a command or something that needs to be
done.
Verbs have to agree with the noun or pronoun that does the action or is in
the state of being. When conjugating verbs, it is important to take note of
the Subject noun or pronoun.
A French verb that is not conjugated appears in the infinitive form which is
accompanied by “to”. 
Examples:
Manger (to eat)
Finir (to finish)
Ecrire (to write)
There are two types of verbs in French, like in English. These are the
regular and irregular verbs. Most verbs are regular and easy to conjugate. 
However, you will encounter some that are irregular.
Examples:
Dormir (to sleep)
Être (to be)
Avoir (to have)

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Regular verbs follow a pattern when conjugated into the tenses, while
irregular verbs may have unique forms.
There are also three verb endings that you will encounter as you learn
verbs. These are –er, -ir, -re. For regular verbs, the conjugation pattern is
unique to the verb ending. This will be further discussed as you learn how
to form the different tenses.
Unlike English which only has 6 verb tenses, French has 14. There are the
7 simple and 7 compound tenses.