French language Q&A Forum

I am having the same difficulty as others here--my definitions of the English words don't match the definitions used in the lessons, so it's hard for me to wrap my brain around the translations.

One particular translation I am confused by is "plusieurs". I learned that to mean 'many', and that is how Google Translate defines it, but in my writing exercise "plusieurs défauts" for 'many faults' was marked wrong, and the lesson says it means 'several'. Is that right? It's so confusing!

If you say the stem has to be the stem of the infinitive, then yes, you'll find lots of irregular verbs. But there's a much better rule, and I'd say the few verbs that don't follow it could be called irregular in the Subjonctif Présent.

- je/tu/il/elle/on/ils/elles: the stem is the Indicatif Présent third person plural, minus -ent

- nous/vous: the stem is the Indicatif Présent second/third first plural, minus -ons 

Examples:

aimer -> ils aiment -> aim-

venir -> ils viennent -> vienn-

tenir -> ils tiennent -> tienn-

prendre -> ils prennent -> prenn-

...

There are not that many exceptions to this rule. Some important ones:

NOTE: where there are two stems, the second one is for nous/vous, the first one is for all others.