Home truths that French grammar brings you

1. You don't have to be regular all the time. It is okay to be irregular, because the verb `to be’ is always such.   

You don’t have to be that perfect person all the time, because you can’t be. Just as the imperfect tense of any verb is quite regular ,from working to playing, to dancing to loving,  you can be imperfect and yet people will try and understand you.  They may not always be right but the one thing they will have in common with you is their regular imperfectness.
  

2. You need the help of others to make your wish come true, if you want to be able to do something or even if you must do it.  But the future is yours alone as was your imperfect past.  If it was perfect, you had help.

Just like the verbs `to wish’(vouloir), `to be able to do(pouvoir)’ and `must do(devoir)’ can never be on their own, you need the help and support of others so often in life.  There is always someone above you or around you to help you  achieve and accomplish.  But just as all verbs in the future and in the imperfect tense stand alone, so do you reap the fruits of your action in the future by yourself and any imperfection in your past is also your own undoing.  You have no one else to blame.  Au contraire, just as all verbs in the past perfect take the help of auxillary verbs, you owe all the perfection in your perfect past to someone.


3.  Look at the object you describe and change your adjectives accordingly.  Please the object and agree with it

You adjust to people around you and even agree with them most times, to function smoothly.  That is a bitter home truth but one of the signs of maturity is,  when you stop asking questions and simply move along with the crowd.  You flatter because the object, by its very nature, demands it. 

 4. Do not agree with what the British say

There is only one exception to home truth at number three. That is, say and do the exact opposite of what the Brit says and does.  The French burst( éclater)into laughter and dissolve(dissoudre) into tears, while the British burst into tears and dissolve into fits of giggles.  The French do not pronounce many letters that the British do but definitely pronounce the `l' in calm and the `p' in psychology. If the British take french leave, the French `filer comme un anglais'. 

But both claim to be the thesis and neither wants to be the antithesis.  They agree on that one point.