Having friends come over is a lot of fun! French kids spend time with each other after school and on weekends. They even have “sleep-overs” like you do. Now stop and think; what questions do you need to ask when you invite your friend over?

Use What You Know! — Sers-toi de ce que tu connais!

Remember how in Chapter 2, you learned about time and the days of the week? And in Chapter 3, you learned to explain in French where you live and what you like to do. Now you're going to use your French to invite friends over. That's the awesome thing about learning a new language — you can combine words you know in new ways to say new things.

To really make your invitations work, you have to add a couple of new verbs. Pay attention, because these are verbs you'll need! You'll use them as often in French as you do in English. One is pouvoir, which means “can” in French. The other one is vouloir, which means “want” in French. They both follow the same conjugation map. Here it is:

Can: Singular — Pouvoir: Singulier

The Conjugation Map — La carte des conjugaisons

You know how to read a map, right? You get from point A to point B by following the lines. And you try to find the best way of getting from point A to point B, too. The same thing is true of a conjugation map; instead of going from one place to another, you go from the subject to the verb. The subject and the verb have to “match”; not any old version of the verb will do!

You can't say “you goes” instead of “you go” in English, at least not without getting corrected! The same thing is true in French. You can't say tu allez when the correct form is tu vas.

To study how French subjects and verbs match up, look at the previous table, where pouvoir, (“can”) is conjugated. Vou-loir, the French verb for “want,” follows the same conjugation map. All you have to do is change the “p” to a “v”! So je peux (“I can”) is je veux (“I want”). And nous pouvons (“we can”) is nous voulons (“we want”).