French for Beginners

The big picture

Bienvenue. Welcome to French. At first glance French spelling can look intimidating, because many letters are written but never spoken. The good news is that the sounds themselves are remarkably consistent once you learn the patterns behind them. French also shares thousands of words with English, such as table, orange, restaurant, and impossible, so you already recognize far more than you think. The single most useful habit you can build is to read every new word aloud. This lesson covers the vowels, the nasal sounds, the five accent marks, and a handful of consonants that behave differently from English.

Key idea: French pronunciation is rule-governed. Learn the vowels, the nasals, and the accent marks once, and you can sound out new words on sight, long before you know what they mean.

Key vowel sounds

French vowels are pure and short. They do not glide the way English vowels do: the o in the French mot stays steady, while the o in the English boat slides toward a w. Keep each vowel clean and clipped. Here are the essentials, each with an English approximation and a French example.

Sound	Like	French	English
a	ah in father	chat	cat
i / y	ee in see	midi	noon
ou	oo in food	vous	you
u	tight ee with rounded lips (no English match)	tu	you
é	ay in day (short)	café	coffee
è / ê	eh in met	père	father
o	oh in more	mot	word
eau / au	oh, a long o	eau	water

The vowel u, as in tu (you), has no English equivalent. Say a long "ee" and then round your lips as if to whistle, keeping the tongue high and forward. Do not confuse it with ou, as in vous (you, formal or plural), which is the plain "oo" of food. These are two different sounds that separate real words: tu (you) and tout (all), or rue (street) and roue (wheel). The pair eu, as in deux (two) and bleu (blue), is a rounded sound between them, close to the vowel in the English word her.

Nasal sounds

French has nasal vowels, made by letting air flow through the nose. They appear when a vowel is followed by n or m at the end of a syllable. The n or m is not fully pronounced on its own; instead it colors the vowel and then almost vanishes. There are three main nasal sounds to recognize.

Spelling	French	English
an, am, en, em	enfant	child
on, om	bon	good
in, im, ain, ein, un	pain	bread

Practice them gently: bon (good), vin (wine), pain (bread), un (one, a), enfant (child), temps (time, weather), and grand (big). A useful contrast is bon (good), which is nasal, against bonne (good, feminine), where the doubled n breaks the nasal and you hear a clear n. When a single n or m is followed by a vowel, the nasal also disappears, so ami (friend) and une (a, feminine) are not nasal at all.

The five accent marks

Accents are not decoration. They change a sound, distinguish two words, or record a letter dropped from the spelling centuries ago.

• accent aigu (é): only on e, giving the crisp "ay" sound, as in été (summer) and café (coffee).
• accent grave (è, à, ù): on e it gives the open "eh" of mère (mother); on a and u it mostly separates look-alike words, such as a (has) versus à (to), and ou (or) versus où (where).
• accent circonflexe (â, ê, î, ô, û): the little hat often marks a lost letter, usually an s, as in hôpital (hospital) and forêt (forest).
• tréma (ë, ï, ü): two dots showing that neighboring vowels are pronounced separately, as in Noël (Christmas) and naïf (naive).
• cédille (ç): the hook under c makes a soft "s" before a, o, or u, as in français (French) and garçon (boy).

A few consonants worth noting

Most French consonants resemble English, but several stand out. The French r comes from the back of the throat, near where you gargle, not from the tip of the tongue; hear it in rue (street) and Paris. The letter h is always silent, so heure (hour) and homme (man) begin on their vowel. The pair ch usually says "sh", as in chat (cat) and chocolat (chocolate). A j, and a g before e or i, give the soft "zh" of je (I) and jour (day).

Three more deserve a note. The group gn sounds like the "ny" in canyon, as in montagne (mountain) and Espagne (Spain). The cluster qu is a plain "k", not "kw", so qui (who) sounds like "kee" and quatre (four) begins with a hard k. Finally, ll after i is often a "y" glide, as in fille (girl, daughter) and travailler (to work), although in ville (city) it stays a clear l. These few habits already sharpen your accent noticeably.

Reading French aloud

Read these lines, applying the rules. Each gives the English meaning and a hint.

• Je voudrais un café. (I would like a coffee. Soft j, crisp final é.)
• Le garçon mange du pain. (The boy eats some bread. Soft ç, nasal pain.)
• Où est la forêt? (Where is the forest? Accent grave on où, silent circumflex.)
• Nous parlons français. (We speak French. Nasal on, soft ç.)
• C'est une belle journée. (It is a beautiful day. Silent final letters, clear é.)

A short dialogue

Here is a tiny dialogue that uses several of today's sounds.

• Sophie: Bonjour! Comment tu t'appelles? (Hello. What is your name?)
• Hugo: Je m'appelle Hugo. Et toi? (My name is Hugo. And you?)
• Sophie: Moi, c'est Sophie. Ça s'écrit S, o, p, h, i, e. (I am Sophie. It is spelled S, o, p, h, i, e.)
• Hugo: Enchanté, Sophie. (Pleased to meet you, Sophie.)

Vowel letter combinations

French writes many of its vowels with two or three letters that together make a single sound. Once you know this short list you can read almost any word on sight.

Spelling	Sound	Example	English
ai, ei	eh, as in met	lait, seize	milk, sixteen
au, eau	oh	chaud, bateau	hot, boat
ou	oo, as in food	rouge, jour	red, day
oi	wah	moi, trois	me, three
eu, oeu	rounded uh, as in her	deux, soeur	two, sister
ui	wee with rounded lips	huit, nuit	eight, night
er, ez (final)	ay	parler, vous avez	to speak, you have
ill (after a vowel)	y glide	travailler, fille	to work, girl

The pair oi catches everyone out, because the letters suggest nothing like the sound. Moi is "mwah", trois is "trwah", and pourquoi (why) ends "kwah". Practise it on the words you will use every day: moi, toi (you), voilà (there you are), boire (to drink), noir (black), froid (cold).

Nasal or not: pairs that decide it

A vowel goes nasal only when the n or m closes the syllable. If the n or m is doubled, or if a vowel follows it, the nasal disappears and you hear an ordinary n or m. Say each pair aloud and feel the difference in your nose.

Nasal	English	Not nasal	English
bon	good (m)	bonne	good (f)
un	a, one (m)	une	a, one (f)
américain	American (m)	américaine	American (f)
an	year	âne	donkey
plein	full (m)	pleine	full (f)
vin	wine	vine	vine (in vigne)

This is not a small point of polish. The nasal is often the only audible difference between a masculine and a feminine form, because the written final e is silent. If you nasalise américaine, you have said américain, and your listener will hear a man.

Getting the French r

The standard French r is made at the very back of the mouth, where the tongue almost touches the soft palate, producing a light friction rather than the tongue-tip movement of English, Spanish, or Italian. A reliable way to find it: say the English word ah, then start to gargle very gently without water, then say ah again with that same slight scrape at the back. Another approach is to say the g of ago and let it soften until air keeps flowing. Do not substitute the English r, which curls the tongue tip back and instantly marks the accent; a slightly wrong French r is far less noticeable than a correct English one. Practise on Paris, rue, merci, frère (brother), rouge (red), bonjour.

The rhythm of a French sentence

English gives one syllable in a word a strong beat and swallows the rest, so PHOtograph and phoTOGraphy sound quite different. French does not do this. Every syllable gets roughly equal length, and a small extra push falls on the last syllable of a whole group of words rather than on any individual word. That is why Je m'appelle Sophie comes out as an even chain with the beat at the end, and why un restaurant is not "a RES-taurant" but four steady syllables closing on rant. Two practical consequences follow. First, do not weaken any vowel into the English uh; the a in chocolat is a full a. Second, listen for pauses rather than for word boundaries, because within a group the words are run together deliberately.

Which French is this?

French is an official language in twenty-nine countries and is spoken across France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, much of West and Central Africa, and elsewhere. This course teaches the standard European variety, which is what most textbooks, dictionaries, and international exams use, and which is understood everywhere. A few differences are worth knowing about from the start so that nothing surprises you. Quebec French has a distinct accent and preserves some older vowel distinctions; it also has its own everyday vocabulary, so a car is often un char rather than une voiture. Belgian and Swiss French use septante for seventy and nonante for ninety, which are far more regular than the French soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix, and Swiss French also uses huitante for eighty in several cantons. Across much of Africa, French is a second language spoken alongside others and has its own well-established usages. None of these is a corruption of a purer form; they are simply the shapes a large language takes.

Common misconceptions

• French is spelled illogically. Reading is actually very regular; it is going from sound to spelling that is hard, because several letters can be silent. Read aloud and the patterns appear.
• The u in tu and the ou in vous are the same. They are different sounds, and confusing them changes the word. Round your lips for u.
• Accents are optional. They are part of correct spelling. ou means or, but où means where; a means has, but à means to.
• The h is pronounced. It is always silent, though a so-called aspirated h can still block linking between words, a detail for a later lesson.
• oi is said like the oy in boy. It is "wah", so moi is mwah and trois is trwah.
• A word is stressed the way English stresses it. French keeps every syllable roughly equal and puts a light beat at the end of a group.
• The circumflex changes the sound. Usually it only records an s that dropped out of the spelling, which is why hôpital is a cousin of hospital and forêt of forest.
• The nasal is optional polish. It often carries the whole distinction between masculine and feminine, as in américain and américaine.

Recap

• French vowels are pure and short; keep them clean and do not let them glide, and never weaken one to the English uh.
• The u of tu is rounded and has no English match; ou is the plain oo of food.
• Letter groups make single sounds: ai is eh, au and eau are oh, oi is wah, eu is a rounded uh, and final er and ez are ay.
• Nasal vowels appear before a syllable-final n or m, as in bon, vin, and pain, and vanish when the n is doubled or a vowel follows.
• The five accents (aigu, grave, circonflexe, tréma, cédille) change sound or meaning.
• Watch the throaty r, the silent h, and the groups ch, gn, and qu.
• Every syllable is roughly equal in length, with a light beat at the end of a group of words.

Sources

1. "Liaison." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
2. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
3. "Tex's French Grammar." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
4. Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr.
5. Dinneen, D., & Madeleine, A. Chapeau! First-Year French. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
6. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

Two features make spoken French sound different from the way it is written. First, many final letters are silent, so a word is often shorter to the ear than to the eye. Second, some of those silent letters spring back to life when the next word starts with a vowel, a link called liaison. Master both and your listening and your accent will improve together. We finish with the alphabet, so you can spell your own name aloud, which is one of the first things a new acquaintance will ask you to do.

Key idea: In French the ear and the page disagree on purpose. Learn which letters fall silent and when they return, and the flow of real speech stops sounding like a blur.

Silent final letters

As a rule of thumb, a final e is silent, and many final consonants are silent too. The letters that tend to go quiet at the end of a word are d, s, t, x, z, p, and g. So petit (small) sounds like "puh-TEE", Paris ends on a silent s, and grand (big) ends on a silent d. The silent final e explains why ami (male friend) and amie (female friend) sound identical, even though they are spelled differently.

Word	English	Final letter
petit	small	silent t
Paris	Paris	silent s
grand	big	silent d
nez	nose	silent z
trop	too much	silent p

The consonants that stay

A helpful counter-rule uses the English word CaReFuL. The consonants inside it, c, r, f, l, are usually pronounced at the end of a word. So you do hear the final letter in sac (bag), mer (sea), chef (chef, boss), and animal (animal). This is a guideline, not a law, and a handful of common words break it, but it steers you right most of the time.

Word	English	Final letter
sac	bag	c sounded
mer	sea	r sounded
chef	chef, boss	f sounded
animal	animal	l sounded

Liaison

A normally silent final consonant is often pronounced when the next word begins with a vowel or a silent h. This link is called liaison, and it makes speech flow instead of stopping between words. In liaison a final s or x usually sounds like a z. Compare the word on its own with the same word inside a phrase.

• vous alone: the final s is silent.
• vous avez (you have): the s links over, sounding like "voo-za-VAY".
• les amis (the friends): "lay-za-MEE".
• un enfant (a child): "un-na-FAN".
• nous habitons (we live): the s links across the silent h, "noo-za-bee-TON".

Liaison is required in fixed cases like these, an article or pronoun before a vowel, and it is forbidden in a few others. As a beginner you do not need the full rulebook. Simply notice the link in the set phrases you learn and copy it. Your ear will pick up the natural connections long before you can name every rule that governs them.

The French alphabet

French uses the same 26 letters as English, but several letter names sound quite different. Knowing them lets you spell your name and read out an email address or a code over the phone. Here are the ones most worth practicing.

Letter	Name	Letter	Name
a	ah	j	zhee
e	euh	g	zhay
i	ee	h	ahsh
w	doo-bluh-vay	y	ee-grek
c	say	q	kew
r	air	v	vay
x	eeks	z	zed

Notice how easy it is to confuse g ("zhay") with j ("zhee"), the reverse of the English pairing, and i ("ee") with e ("euh"). To ask how a word is written, say Comment ça s'écrit? (How is it spelled?). A useful habit is to read the letters in small groups and to flag any accent, for example "e accent aigu" for é or "c cédille" for ç.

A short dialogue

Spelling a name aloud is a common first task. Here is a tiny dialogue at a front desk.

• Employée: Votre nom, s'il vous plaît? (Your name, please?)
• Client: Je m'appelle Loïc Béart. (My name is Loïc Béart.)
• Employée: Comment ça s'écrit? (How is that spelled?)
• Client: L, o, i tréma, c. Puis B, é accent aigu, a, r, t. (L, o, i with a tréma, c. Then B, é, a, r, t.)
• Employée: Merci beaucoup. (Thank you very much.)

The whole alphabet, spelled aloud

Letter	Name	Letter	Name	Letter	Name
a	ah	j	zhee	s	ess
b	bay	k	kah	t	tay
c	say	l	ell	u	ew
d	day	m	emm	v	vay
e	euh	n	enn	w	doo-bluh-vay
f	eff	o	oh	x	eeks
g	zhay	p	pay	y	ee-grek
h	ahsh	q	kew	z	zed
i	ee	r	air

Two of these will trip you up for weeks, because they are almost exactly reversed from English: French g is "zhay" and j is "zhee", while English G is "jee" and J is "jay". When you spell an accented letter aloud you name the accent after the letter, so é is "e accent aigu" and ç is "c cédille". A doubled letter is announced with deux: the surname Dubois with two s letters would be spelled with "deux esse". Useful phrases: Comment ça s'écrit? (How is it spelled?), Vous pouvez épeler, s'il vous plaît? (Could you spell that, please?), and en majuscules (in capitals).

Where liaison happens and where it does not

You do not need the full rulebook, but three groups are worth knowing because they are fixed.

Status	Case	Example	English
required	article or determiner + noun	les amis, un enfant, ces hommes	the friends, a child, these men
required	subject pronoun + verb	nous avons, ils ont, vous êtes	we have, they have, you are
required	short adjective + noun	un petit ami, de grands arbres	a boyfriend, tall trees
required	after a one-syllable preposition	en avion, chez elle, sans elle	by plane, at her place, without her
forbidden	after et	un livre et un stylo	a book and a pen
forbidden	before an aspirated h	les haricots, en haut	the beans, at the top
forbidden	singular noun + adjective	un enfant intelligent	an intelligent child

The word et never links, which is a genuinely useful rule: if you hear a z between two words, the first one was not et. The so-called h aspiré is not pronounced any differently from any other h, but it behaves as though a consonant were there, blocking both liaison and elision. Compare l'homme (the man, elision) with le héros (the hero, no elision), and les hommes with a z against les haricots with none. Dictionaries mark these words, and there are only a few dozen common ones.

Elision: when a vowel is dropped

Liaison adds a sound; elision removes one. A small set of short words lose their final vowel before another vowel or a silent h, and an apostrophe takes its place. This is compulsory in writing as well as in speech.

• le + ami becomes l'ami (the friend)
• la + école becomes l'école (the school)
• je + habite becomes j'habite (I live)
• ne + est becomes n'est (is not)
• de + Italie becomes d'Italie (from Italy)
• que + il becomes qu'il (that he)
• ce + est becomes c'est (it is)
• si + il becomes s'il (if he), as in s'il vous plaît

Note the last one carefully: si elides only before il and ils, never before elle, so it is si elle veut (if she wants) with no apostrophe.

Why French sounds so fast

Beginners almost always say the same thing after their first real conversation: everyone speaks too quickly. In fact French is not spoken faster than English; it is spoken more continuously. Elision, liaison, and the even rhythm from Lesson 1 all work to erase the boundaries between words, so a phrase such as Est-ce qu'il y a une école ici? arrives as one long ribbon of sound rather than seven separate items. This is why a sentence you can read easily can be impossible to catch by ear. The fix is not to ask people to slow down, useful though Pouvez-vous parler plus lentement? is, but to practise listening to whole groups instead of hunting for individual words, and to read aloud yourself in the same linked way.

Common misconceptions

• Every final consonant is silent. Not so. The CaReFuL consonants c, r, f, l are usually sounded, as in sac, mer, chef, and animal.
• Liaison happens between any two words. It links only in certain cases, mostly a small word before a vowel, and is banned in others.
• The silent final e does nothing. It is silent, yet it can change the sound before it: grand hides its d, but the feminine grande makes the d ring out.
• French letters sound like English ones. Many differ sharply. French g is "zhay" and j is "zhee", the opposite of what an English speaker expects.
• The h aspiré is pronounced. It is not. It is silent like any other h, but it blocks liaison and elision, so it is le héros and les haricots with no z.
• Elision is optional shorthand. It is compulsory in writing too: j'habite and l'école, never "je habite" or "la école".
• et links to the next word. It never does, which makes it a handy landmark in fast speech.
• The final -s of a plural noun is heard. It is silent; the article carries the number, so le livre and les livres differ only in the small word.

Recap

• A final e is silent, and the consonants d, s, t, x, z, p, g are usually silent too.
• The CaReFuL consonants c, r, f, l are usually pronounced at the end of a word.
• Liaison revives a silent final consonant before a vowel, and s or x then sounds like z.
• The 26 letters match English, but many names differ, such as g "zhay" and j "zhee".
• Ask Comment ça s'écrit? and spell back in small groups, naming any accent.

Sources

1. "Liaison." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
2. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
3. "Tex's French Grammar." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
4. Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Patto, M. FREN 101: Introduction to French Level I. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

French conversation runs on politeness, and a small stock of set phrases will let you open and close almost any exchange with confidence. The all-purpose hello is bonjour, used from morning through late afternoon; in the evening you switch to bonsoir. Saying bonjour when you enter a shop or greet a neighbor is a genuine social rule in France, not an optional nicety. This lesson gives you greetings, farewells, ways to ask how someone is, the courtesy words that smooth every interaction, and the all-important choice between tu and vous.

Key idea: A dozen fixed phrases, plus the right choice of tu or vous, will carry you into and out of real conversations from your very first day.

Hello and goodbye

Greetings depend a little on the time of day and a lot on formality. The words below are used across the French-speaking world.

French	English
Bonjour	Hello / Good day
Bonsoir	Good evening
Salut	Hi / Bye (informal)
Au revoir	Goodbye
À bientôt	See you soon
À demain	See you tomorrow
Bonne nuit	Good night (going to bed)
Bonne journée	Have a good day

A few extras are handy. Coucou is a very casual hi among friends. When you leave a shop, staff often wish you Bonne journée (have a good day) or Bonne soirée (have a good evening), and the polite reply is simply the same phrase back, or Merci, vous aussi (thank you, you too).

Greetings often come with a gesture. In professional settings people shake hands, while friends and family may exchange a light cheek kiss known as la bise. You do not need to master that custom now. A warm bonjour and a smile are welcome and appropriate everywhere, and locals rarely expect a newcomer to know every regional habit.

How are you?

To ask how someone is, the informal form is Comment ça va? or just Ça va? (How is it going?). The formal or polite form is Comment allez-vous? Return the question with Et vous? (formal) or Et toi? (informal). Here are common answers, from best to worst.

French	English
Ça va bien, merci.	I am well, thank you.
Très bien.	Very well.
Comme ci, comme ça.	So-so.
Pas mal.	Not bad.
Ça peut aller.	I am getting by.

French replies tend to be a bit more literal than the automatic English "fine". Comme ci, comme ça honestly means so-so, and a friend may really tell you the day is hard. Notice that ça va is wonderfully flexible: as a question it asks "are you okay?", and as an answer it means "I am okay".

Courtesy words

Politeness words appear constantly, and using them well often matters more than perfect grammar. Learn this handful and sprinkle them everywhere.

French	English
s'il vous plaît	please (formal)
s'il te plaît	please (informal)
merci / merci beaucoup	thank you / thank you very much
de rien	you are welcome
pardon / excusez-moi	excuse me, sorry
oui / non	yes / no

Two quick notes. Pardon works both to apologize and to slip past someone in a crowd, while excusez-moi is a slightly fuller "excuse me". And de rien, literally "of nothing", is the everyday answer to merci, much like the English "you are welcome".

Tu or vous?

French has two words for "you", and choosing between them is a matter of courtesy. Use tu with friends, family, classmates, children, and pets. Use vous to show respect to strangers, elders, officials, and anyone in a professional setting. Vous is also the plural "you" for addressing two or more people, whoever they are. When in doubt with an adult you have just met, start with vous; it is the safe, polite default, and the other person can invite you to switch with On peut se tutoyer (we can use tu).

Putting phrases together

String the pieces into short, natural lines. Each example gives the English.

• Bonjour, madame. Comment allez-vous? (Hello, madam. How are you?)
• Salut, ça va? Oui, ça va, et toi? (Hi, how is it going? Yes, fine, and you?)
• Merci beaucoup. De rien. (Thank you very much. You are welcome.)
• Excusez-moi, pardon. (Excuse me, sorry.)
• Au revoir et bonne soirée! (Goodbye and have a good evening.)

A short dialogue

Here is an exchange you could already use with a new colleague.

• Camille: Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? (Hello. How are you?)
• Marc: Très bien, merci. Et vous? (Very well, thank you. And you?)
• Camille: Ça va bien. Bonne journée! (I am well. Have a good day.)
• Marc: Merci, vous aussi. Au revoir. (Thank you, you too. Goodbye.)

Greetings and farewells in full

French	English	When to use it
Bonjour	Hello, good morning, good day	all day until evening, with anyone
Bonsoir	Good evening	from late afternoon, hello or goodbye
Salut	Hi, bye	informal only, with friends
Coucou	Hi there	very informal, close friends and family
Au revoir	Goodbye	neutral, works everywhere
Bonne nuit	Good night	only when going to bed
À bientôt	See you soon	neutral
À demain	See you tomorrow	neutral
À tout à l'heure	See you later today	neutral
Bonne journée	Have a good day	as you leave, very common
Bonne soirée	Have a good evening	as you leave in the evening

Watch the pair bonne nuit and bonsoir. Bonsoir is an evening greeting and can also end a conversation; bonne nuit is said only to someone who is going to sleep. Saying bonne nuit as you leave a dinner party at nine o'clock would be odd. The same logic separates bonjour, which greets, from bonne journée, which is a parting wish.

Asking and answering how someone is

French	English	Register
Comment allez-vous?	How are you?	formal
Comment vas-tu?	How are you?	informal, careful
Comment ça va?	How is it going?	neutral, very common
Ça va?	All right?	casual
Quoi de neuf?	What is new?	casual
Très bien, merci. Et vous?	Very well, thank you. And you?	formal reply
Ça va bien, et toi?	I am fine, and you?	informal reply
Comme ci, comme ça.	So-so.	neutral
Pas mal.	Not bad.	neutral
Ça ne va pas très bien.	Things are not going very well.	neutral

Notice that et vous? goes with the formal question and et toi? with the informal one. Mixing them, as in "Comment allez-vous? Et toi?", undoes the politeness you just showed. The word ça va is remarkably flexible: as a question it means "are you all right?", as an answer it means "I am fine", and on its own with a shrug it means "it will do".

The courtesy words

• s'il vous plaît (please, formal or plural) and s'il te plaît (please, informal)
• merci (thank you), merci beaucoup (thank you very much)
• de rien (you are welcome), je vous en prie (you are welcome, formal)
• pardon and excusez-moi (excuse me, to get attention or apologise)
• désolé or désolée (sorry, said by a man or a woman)
• enchanté or enchantée (pleased to meet you)
• bienvenue (welcome)

Two of those agree with the speaker, not the listener: a woman writes désolée and enchantée with a second e, even though the extra letter is silent. And the polite je vous en prie does double duty as "please, go ahead", said when you hold a door open.

Titles and addressing people

French uses monsieur (sir, Mr.), madame (madam, Mrs. or Ms.), and, less and less, mademoiselle (miss). Since 2012 French administrative forms have dropped mademoiselle in favour of madame for every adult woman, so that is the safe modern choice. Unlike English, French adds the bare title to a greeting even without a surname, and this is not optional politeness but ordinary usage: Bonjour, madame to a shopkeeper, Merci, monsieur to a waiter. Adding the title softens everything you say, and leaving it out can sound curt even when your words are correct.

Two short dialogues

The same exchange, once formal and once informal. Watch every pronoun and verb change.

• Formal: Bonjour, madame. Comment allez-vous? (Hello, madam. How are you?)
• Formal: Très bien, merci. Et vous? (Very well, thank you. And you?)
• Formal: Ça va bien, merci. Bonne journée, madame. (I am well, thank you. Have a good day.)
• Formal: Merci, à bientôt. (Thank you, see you soon.)
• Informal: Salut Léa! Ça va? (Hi Léa! All right?)
• Informal: Ça va, et toi? Quoi de neuf? (I am fine, and you? What is new?)
• Informal: Pas grand-chose. On se voit demain? (Not much. Shall we meet tomorrow?)
• Informal: Oui, à demain! Salut! (Yes, see you tomorrow! Bye!)

Why bonjour matters

One habit is worth adopting deliberately, because English speakers often skip it and are read as rude without knowing why. In France, bonjour opens an interaction rather than decorating it. You say it when you enter a small shop, a bakery, a doctor's waiting room, a lift, or a train compartment, and to the driver as you board a bus; you say it before asking your question, not instead of asking it. Beginning with "Excuse me, where is the station?" without a bonjour first is the single most common way a visitor causes friction. The full formula is short and does all the work: Bonjour, madame. Excusez-moi, où est la gare, s'il vous plaît? Ending with merci and au revoir closes it just as cleanly. This is a matter of ordinary courtesy rather than national character, and the same care is appreciated across the French-speaking world.

Common misconceptions

• Tu and vous are interchangeable. They are not. Using tu with a stranger or an elder can sound rude; vous is the respectful default with adults you do not know.
• Bonsoir means goodbye. It is an evening hello, and can double as a farewell at night. To say good night on the way to bed, use Bonne nuit.
• Salut is only hi. Salut works for both hi and bye, but only informally, so save it for friends.
• You can skip bonjour. In France, entering a shop or starting a request without bonjour reads as brusque. Greet first, then ask.
• Mixing et vous and et toi is harmless. Match the reply to the question: et vous? after vous, et toi? after tu.
• Titles are old-fashioned. Monsieur and madame are used constantly in ordinary French, far more than sir and madam in English.
• Enchanté never changes. It agrees with the speaker, so a woman says enchantée.
• Bonjour works in the evening. After about six o'clock, switch to bonsoir.

Recap

• Bonjour serves all day until evening; bonsoir takes over at night, and bonne nuit is only for bedtime.
• Ask Comment ça va? informally or Comment allez-vous? formally; answer with ça va bien, très bien, pas mal, or comme ci, comme ça.
• Match the follow-up to the register: et vous? with vous, et toi? with tu.
• Keep the courtesy words handy: s'il vous plaît, merci, de rien, je vous en prie, pardon, excusez-moi.
• Add monsieur or madame to a greeting; it is ordinary usage, not formality.
• Use tu with intimates and children; use vous for respect and for more than one person.
• When unsure, choose vous and let the other person offer to switch.

Sources

1. "Bonjour." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
2. "Madame." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
3. "Vous." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
4. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
5. "Tex's French Grammar: pronouns." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
6. Patto, M. FREN 101: Introduction to French Level I. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

To say who does something, French uses subject pronouns, the little words that stand in for a name: I, you, he, she, we, they. Learn them thoroughly, because French differs from Spanish and Italian in one big way. Those languages can drop the pronoun, since the verb ending already reveals the subject. French almost always keeps the pronoun in place, because so many verb endings sound alike. Once you have the pronouns, you can attach a verb and start describing yourself, which is exactly what the second half of this lesson does.

Key idea: In French the subject pronoun is not optional. It is usually the clearest signal of who is acting, so it stays in the sentence even when English might leave it out.

The subject pronouns

Here are the six slots, several of which hold more than one form.

Pronoun	Meaning
je	I
tu	you (informal, singular)
il / elle / on	he / she / one (or informally we)
nous	we
vous	you (formal, or plural you all)
ils / elles	they (masculine or mixed / feminine)

A quick tour. Je is "I". Tu is the informal singular "you" from the last lesson. Il and elle are "he" and "she", and also "it" for masculine and feminine things. Nous is "we", vous is the formal or plural "you", and ils and elles are the two forms of "they". Because these pronouns carry the meaning, they appear in nearly every sentence you will build.

Because il and elle also mean "it", the pronoun follows the gender of the noun it replaces. A table is feminine, la table, so you call it elle: Elle est grande (It is big). A book is masculine, le livre, so it becomes il: Il est intéressant (It is interesting). There is no separate neuter "it" as in English, so in the grammar every thing is either he or she.

Two things to watch

First, je shortens to j' before a vowel or a silent h, as in j'habite (I live) and j'aime (I like). This elision is not optional; writing "je habite" is simply wrong. Second, on literally means "one", as in the general "one never knows", but in everyday speech it very commonly means "we": On y va (Let's go) and On mange? (Shall we eat?). It always takes the same verb form as il and elle.

One more point about "they". A group made up of both men and women is always ils, even if it is a hundred women and a single man. You use elles only when every person in the group is female. This may feel unbalanced, but it is the fixed rule, and it mirrors the way mixed groups default to the masculine elsewhere in French grammar.

Introducing yourself

Now put a verb with a pronoun and meet someone. Here are the core phrases for a first encounter, each with its translation.

French	English
Je m'appelle Marie.	My name is Marie. (I call myself Marie.)
Comment tu t'appelles?	What's your name? (informal)
Comment vous appelez-vous?	What's your name? (formal)
Enchanté / Enchantée	Pleased to meet you. (m / f)
Je suis étudiant / étudiante.	I am a student. (m / f)
Je viens du Canada.	I come from Canada.

Notice that Je m'appelle literally means "I call myself", and that enchanté adds a final e in writing when a woman says it, enchantée, although the two sound the same aloud. To ask a name informally, use Comment tu t'appelles?; the formal version inverts the verb, Comment vous appelez-vous?

Saying where you are from

To give your origin, use venir de (to come from) or habiter (to live). Watch the small words: de plus a masculine country contracts to du, so it is du Canada but de France.

French	English
Je viens de France.	I come from France.
Je viens des États-Unis.	I come from the United States.
J'habite à Paris.	I live in Paris.
Je suis américain / américaine.	I am American (m / f).

Nationalities behave like adjectives and add a final e for a woman: américain becomes américaine, and français becomes française. Remember that after être the nationality needs no article, so it is Je suis canadien, not "je suis un canadien".

A short dialogue

Here is a first meeting that reuses today's phrases.

• Léa: Bonjour, je m'appelle Léa. Et vous? (Hello, my name is Léa. And you?)
• Paul: Je m'appelle Paul. Enchanté. (My name is Paul. Pleased to meet you.)
• Léa: Enchantée. Vous venez d'où? (Pleased to meet you. Where are you from?)
• Paul: Je viens du Canada. J'habite à Montréal. (I come from Canada. I live in Montreal.)

The pronouns at a glance

Pronoun	English	Notes
je (j')	I	elides before a vowel or silent h: j'habite
tu	you, one person, informal	friends, family, children, classmates
il	he, it	also for a masculine thing: le livre, il est bleu
elle	she, it	also for a feminine thing: la table, elle est grande
on	we, one, people	takes the il form of the verb
nous	we	slightly more formal than on in speech
vous	you, formal or plural	one respected person, or any group
ils	they, masculine or mixed	one man in the group makes it ils
elles	they, all female	only when every member is female

Two of these have no clean English partner. On began as an impersonal "one" and is now the ordinary spoken word for "we": On y va (Let us go), On mange à huit heures (We eat at eight). It always takes the same verb form as il, which makes it easy to use. And vous is genuinely two words in one, the polite singular and the plural, so Vous êtes français? can address one professor or a whole room.

Stressed pronouns: moi, toi, lui, elle

French has a second set of pronouns used when the word stands alone, follows a preposition, or needs emphasis. You have already met one in Et toi?

Subject	Stressed	Example	English
je	moi	Moi, je suis américain.	Me, I am American.
tu	toi	Et toi?	And you?
il	lui	C'est pour lui.	It is for him.
elle	elle	avec elle	with her
nous	nous	chez nous	at our place
vous	vous	après vous	after you
ils	eux	Eux, ils habitent à Lyon.	They live in Lyon.
elles	elles	sans elles	without them

The one to memorise is moi, because it appears in the commonest phrases in the language: Moi aussi (Me too), Moi non plus (Me neither), Chez moi (At my place), Excusez-moi (Excuse me). Note that Moi aussi answers a positive statement and Moi non plus answers a negative one; using the wrong one is a very visible slip.

Everything you need to introduce yourself

• Je m'appelle Claire. (My name is Claire.)
• Comment vous appelez-vous? (What is your name? Formal.)
• Comment tu t'appelles? (What is your name? Informal.)
• Moi, c'est Paul. (I am Paul. Casual.)
• Enchanté. / Enchantée. (Pleased to meet you.)
• Je viens des États-Unis. (I come from the United States.)
• Je suis canadienne. (I am Canadian, said by a woman.)
• J'habite à Montréal. (I live in Montreal.)
• Je suis étudiant en histoire. (I am a history student.)
• Je parle anglais et un peu de français. (I speak English and a little French.)
• Vous parlez anglais? (Do you speak English?)
• Je ne comprends pas. (I do not understand.)

Notice Je viens des États-Unis. The preposition changes with the country: de before a feminine country (de France, d'Italie), du before a masculine one (du Canada, du Japon), and des before a plural one (des États-Unis, des Pays-Bas). Most countries ending in -e are feminine, with le Mexique as the famous exception.

Nationalities

Country	Male	Female
la France	français	française
les États-Unis	américain	américaine
le Canada	canadien	canadienne
l'Angleterre	anglais	anglaise
l'Espagne	espagnol	espagnole
l'Allemagne	allemand	allemande
l'Italie	italien	italienne
le Sénégal	sénégalais	sénégalaise
la Belgique	belge	belge
la Suisse	suisse	suisse

Listen to what the feminine -e does: it makes the silent final consonant sound. Français ends on a vowel, but française ends in a clear z sound; américain is nasal, while américaine has a plain n. So the extra letter is not silent decoration, it is the audible signal of gender. Nationalities take a small letter as adjectives (je suis français) but a capital when they name a person (un Français), and the language is lower case: le français.

A short dialogue

• Amina: Bonjour! Comment vous appelez-vous? (Hello! What is your name?)
• Marc: Je m'appelle Marc Dupont. Et vous? (My name is Marc Dupont. And you?)
• Amina: Moi, c'est Amina. Enchantée. (I am Amina. Pleased to meet you.)
• Marc: Enchanté. Vous êtes d'ici? (Pleased to meet you. Are you from here?)
• Amina: Non, je viens du Sénégal, mais j'habite à Lyon. (No, I come from Senegal, but I live in Lyon.)
• Marc: Nous, on habite à Paris. On est étudiants. (We live in Paris. We are students.)
• Amina: Vous parlez anglais? (Do you speak English?)
• Marc: Un peu. Je préfère parler français avec vous. (A little. I prefer to speak French with you.)

Common misconceptions

• You can drop the pronoun as in Spanish. French keeps it. "Parle français" is a command; to say "I speak French" you need "Je parle français".
• On only means "one". In real speech on usually means "we", and it takes the il and elle verb form.
• Elles works for any group of people. Use elles only when everyone is female; a mixed group is always ils.
• Vous is always plural. Vous is also the singular formal "you", so context tells you whether one respected person or several are meant.
• moi and je are interchangeable. Je only sits in front of a verb; anywhere else you need moi, as in C'est moi and avec moi.
• Moi aussi answers anything. It answers a positive statement; after a negative you need moi non plus.
• Nationalities take a capital letter. As adjectives they do not: je suis anglais, but un Anglais for the person.
• You always say de before a country. It becomes du before a masculine country and des before a plural one.

Recap

• The subject pronouns are je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles, and they stay in the sentence.
• Je becomes j' before a vowel or silent h: j'habite, j'aime.
• On means "we" in everyday speech and uses the il and elle verb form.
• A mixed group is ils; elles is only for an all-female group.
• The stressed pronouns moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles stand alone and follow prepositions.
• Introduce yourself with Je m'appelle, add enchanté or enchantée, and give your origin with Je viens de, du, or des.
• Nationalities add -e for the feminine, which makes the final consonant audible.

Sources

1. "Tex's French Grammar: pronouns." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
2. "Tu." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
3. "Vous." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
4. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Carrasco, S., Zahedi, K., & Parrish, C. French OER 1. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

The verb être means "to be", and it is the single most important verb in French. You will reach for it constantly to say who you are, where things are, and what they are like, and later to build other structures. Like "to be" in English, être is highly irregular, so its forms cannot be guessed from a pattern and must simply be memorized. The good news is that you will use them so often that they stick fast within a few days of practice.

Key idea: Être is irregular and everywhere. Memorize its six present-tense forms now, and a huge range of sentences about identity and description opens up at once.

The forms of être

Here is the full present tense, with an example and its English for every person.

Pronoun	Etre	Example	English
je	suis	Je suis Marie.	I am Marie.
tu	es	Tu es grand.	You are tall.
il / elle / on	est	Elle est médecin.	She is a doctor.
nous	sommes	Nous sommes amis.	We are friends.
vous	êtes	Vous êtes gentil.	You are kind.
ils / elles	sont	Ils sont français.	They are French.

Two sound notes. The forms est (is) and es (are, with tu) are pronounced almost the same, so the pronoun and the context tell them apart. In vous êtes the final s of vous links onto the vowel of êtes by liaison, so the pair sounds like "voo-ZET". The t of sont stays silent alone, but it links onto a following vowel, as in sont amis (are friends), heard as "son-ta-MEE".

Watch the verb in full sentences: Je suis à la maison (I am at home), Tu es mon ami (You are my friend), Il est tard (It is late), Nous sommes en France (We are in France), Vous êtes prêts? (Are you ready?), and Elles sont contentes (They are happy). The same six forms serve for people, things, places, and times, so this one paradigm carries an enormous amount of everyday speech.

Using être

Use être for identity and description of many kinds.

• Identity: Je suis Paul. (I am Paul.)
• Nationality: Nous sommes canadiens. (We are Canadian.)
• Description: Le livre est intéressant. (The book is interesting.)
• Feelings and states: Je suis fatigué. (I am tired.)

Here are common adjectives to pair with être. Remember that many add a final e for a feminine subject.

French	English
fatigué / fatiguée	tired (m / f)
content / contente	happy, glad
malade	sick, ill
gentil / gentille	kind, nice
grand / petit	tall / short

C'est and il est

French has two ways to say "it is" or "he is", and beginners mix them up. Use il est or elle est with a bare adjective or a bare profession: Il est grand (He is tall), Elle est médecin (She is a doctor). Use c'est before an article plus noun, or before a name: C'est un ami (He is a friend), C'est Marie (It is Marie). A simple test: if the next word is un, une, le, or la, reach for c'est.

Professions drop the article

One pattern surprises English speakers. After être, French usually drops the article before a job. English says "She is a doctor", but French says Elle est médecin, with no word for "a". The same holds for Il est professeur (He is a teacher) and Je suis étudiant (I am a student). If you add a describing word, the article returns, and you switch to c'est: C'est un bon médecin (He is a good doctor).

French	English
médecin	doctor
professeur	teacher
étudiant / étudiante	student (m / f)
ingénieur	engineer
infirmier / infirmière	nurse (m / f)

Useful expressions with être

Several everyday phrases are built on être. Learn them as whole units rather than word by word.

French	English
être d'accord	to agree
être en retard	to be late
être en avance	to be early
être à l'heure	to be on time
être là	to be there, to be here

For example, Je suis d'accord means "I agree", and Nous sommes en retard means "We are late". Notice once more that where English uses "to be" plus an adjective, French sometimes uses avoir instead, as with hunger or age, so it pays to treat each expression as its own small package.

A short dialogue

Two neighbors compare jobs.

• Sarah: Tu es étudiante? (Are you a student?)
• Yanis: Non, je suis ingénieur. Et toi? (No, I am an engineer. And you?)
• Sarah: Je suis professeure. Nous sommes voisins, non? (I am a teacher. We are neighbors, right?)
• Yanis: Oui, c'est vrai. (Yes, that is true.)

Common misconceptions

• Age uses être. It does not. French gives age with avoir: J'ai vingt ans, not "je suis vingt ans". You will meet this in the next module.
• Jobs need "a" after être. They do not. Say Elle est médecin, with no article, unless you add a describing word and switch to c'est.
• Est and es are different sounds. They sound alike; only the spelling and the pronoun distinguish il est from tu es.
• Être also covers "there is". For "there is" or "there are", French uses the separate expression il y a, not a form of être.
• The final -s of suis and sont is heard. Both are silent on their own; the s of sont only surfaces in liaison, as in ils sont ici.
• C'est and il est are interchangeable. Use il est plus a bare profession or adjective, and c'est plus an article: Il est professeur but C'est un bon professeur.
• Adjectives after être do not agree. They do: Elle est fatiguée and Ils sont fatigués.
• être is used for the weather. Weather takes faire: Il fait beau, not "il est beau" when you mean the weather.

Twenty sentences with être

• Je suis étudiant. (I am a student.)
• Tu es très gentil. (You are very kind.)
• Il est français. (He is French.)
• Elle est fatiguée aujourd'hui. (She is tired today.)
• On est en retard. (We are late.)
• Nous sommes de Bruxelles. (We are from Brussels.)
• Vous êtes prêts? (Are you ready?)
• Ils sont dans la cuisine. (They are in the kitchen.)
• Elles sont canadiennes. (They are Canadian, all female.)
• Ce n'est pas facile. (It is not easy.)
• C'est une bonne idée. (That is a good idea.)
• Je ne suis pas d'accord. (I do not agree.)
• Où est la gare? (Where is the station?)
• Le livre est sur la table. (The book is on the table.)
• Nous sommes lundi. (It is Monday.)
• Il est huit heures. (It is eight o'clock.)
• Est-ce que vous êtes professeur? (Are you a teacher?)
• Mes parents sont à la maison. (My parents are at home.)
• Je suis désolé, je suis en retard. (I am sorry, I am late.)
• C'est moi. (It is me.)

c'est or il est?

This pair confuses learners for months, so it is worth a clean rule now. Use il est or elle est when what follows is a bare adjective or a bare profession. Use c'est when what follows has an article, a possessive, or a name.

Use il / elle est	English	Use c'est	English
Il est médecin.	He is a doctor.	C'est un bon médecin.	He is a good doctor.
Elle est belge.	She is Belgian.	C'est une amie belge.	She is a Belgian friend.
Il est grand.	He is tall.	C'est mon frère.	That is my brother.
Elle est intelligente.	She is intelligent.	C'est Marie.	That is Marie.

The plural of c'est is ce sont: Ce sont mes parents (Those are my parents). In relaxed speech many people say c'est mes parents, but ce sont is the careful form.

Adjectives after être

Whenever être links a subject to a describing word, the describing word agrees in gender and number, and the change is often audible.

Masculine	Feminine	English
Il est fatigué.	Elle est fatiguée.	He / She is tired.
Il est content.	Elle est contente.	He / She is happy.
Ils sont français.	Elles sont françaises.	They are French.
Il est petit.	Elle est petite.	He / She is small.
Il est heureux.	Elle est heureuse.	He / She is happy.

Say each pair aloud. In content and petit the masculine ends on a vowel and the feminine rings out a t; in heureux the x is silent while heureuse ends in a clear z. Only fatigué and fatiguée sound identical, because the consonant before the ending is already pronounced.

être in the negative and in questions

• Je ne suis pas fatigué. (I am not tired.)
• Il n'est pas là. (He is not here.)
• Nous ne sommes pas d'accord. (We do not agree.)
• Vous êtes français? (Are you French? Rising tone.)
• Est-ce que tu es prêt? (Are you ready?)
• Êtes-vous professeur? (Are you a teacher? Formal inversion.)

Notice that ne becomes n' before a vowel, which is why it is il n'est pas and not "il ne est pas". You will study negation and questions in full later; for now these six patterns cover almost everything you need with être.

A short dialogue

• Léa: Bonjour! Vous êtes le nouveau professeur? (Hello! Are you the new teacher?)
• M. Roche: Oui, c'est moi. Je suis Antoine Roche. (Yes, that is me. I am Antoine Roche.)
• Léa: Enchantée. Vous êtes d'ici? (Pleased to meet you. Are you from here?)
• M. Roche: Non, je suis suisse. Ma femme est française. (No, I am Swiss. My wife is French.)
• Léa: Et les cours sont le matin? (And are the classes in the morning?)
• M. Roche: Ils sont à neuf heures. Vous êtes prête? (They are at nine. Are you ready?)
• Léa: Je suis prête, mais je suis un peu fatiguée. (I am ready, but I am a little tired.)
• M. Roche: Ce n'est pas grave. C'est une longue semaine! (Never mind. It is a long week!)

Recap

• Être (to be) is irregular: suis, es, est, sommes, êtes, sont.
• Est and es sound alike; vous êtes links by liaison to "voo-ZET".
• Use être for identity, nationality, description, feelings, location, the day, and the time.
• Drop the article after être before a profession: Elle est médecin. With an article, switch to c'est.
• Adjectives after être agree in gender and number, and the change is usually audible.
• Negate with ne ... pas around the verb, shortening ne to n' before a vowel.
• Do not use être for age or the weather; French uses avoir and faire there instead.

Sources

1. "Être." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
2. Conjugaison Larousse, larousse.fr.
3. "Tex's French Grammar: -er verbs." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
4. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Dinneen, D., & Madeleine, A. Chapeau! First-Year French. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

Every French noun, meaning a person, place, thing, or idea, carries a gender: it is either masculine or feminine. This is grammatical, not biological, so la table (the table) is feminine and le livre (the book) is masculine, with no deeper reason behind it. Gender matters because it controls the words around the noun, the articles and adjectives especially. For that reason the golden rule of French vocabulary is to learn every noun together with its article, storing le livre and la maison as single units rather than as bare words.

Key idea: Gender is a property of the word, not of the thing. Always learn a noun with le or la attached, because that one habit prevents a thousand later mistakes.

Definite and indefinite articles

French has three words for "the" in the singular and one in the plural, plus words for "a" and "some".

	Masculine	Feminine	Before a vowel	Plural
the (definite)	le	la	l'	les
a / an (indefinite)	un	une	un / une	des (some)

So "the book" is le livre and "the house" is la maison. Before a vowel, both le and la shrink to l', as in l'ami (the friend) and l'école (the school). "A book" is un livre, "a house" is une maison, and "some books" is des livres. French often uses des where English uses nothing at all, so "I have friends" becomes J'ai des amis, literally "I have some friends".

Guessing gender from endings

You cannot always predict gender, but word endings give strong hints. The table below shows reliable tendencies. Treat them as helpful bets, not guarantees, and keep learning each noun with its article anyway.

Ending	Usually	Example	English
-tion	feminine	la nation	nation
-té	feminine	la liberté	freedom
-ette	feminine	la baguette	baguette
-age	masculine	le fromage	cheese
-ment	masculine	le gouvernement	government
-eau	masculine	le bateau	boat

A few more feminine endings are -ée, as in la journée (the day), and -ance, as in la distance. A few more masculine ones are -isme, as in le tourisme, and -eur for many machines and agents, as in le moteur (the engine). These patterns cover a large share of common nouns, which speeds up your guessing while your memory catches up.

The partitive: some

To talk about an unspecified amount of something, food above all, French uses the partitive article: du for masculine, de la for feminine, de l' before a vowel, and des for plural. English usually leaves "some" out, but French keeps it in place.

French	English
du pain	some bread (m)
de la soupe	some soup (f)
de l'eau	some water (before a vowel)
des fruits	some fruit (plural)

So Je mange du pain is "I eat some bread" and Je bois de l'eau is "I drink some water". To make most nouns plural you add -s in writing, though that final s is normally silent, so le livre and les livres differ mainly in the article you hear rather than the noun itself.

Making nouns plural

Most nouns add a written -s to become plural, though that s stays silent. A few groups behave differently and are worth knowing early. Nouns already ending in -s, -x, or -z do not change at all, so le fils (the son) and les fils look and sound alike. Nouns ending in -eau or -eu take -x instead, as in le bateau and les bateaux (the boats). Many nouns ending in -al switch to -aux, so le journal (the newspaper) becomes les journaux. Because these endings are usually silent, the article you hear, le versus les, remains your clearest signal of number.

Singular	Plural	English
le livre	les livres	the book(s)
le bateau	les bateaux	the boat(s)
le journal	les journaux	the newspaper(s)
le fils	les fils	the son(s)

The, a, or some? Choosing by meaning

Once a noun has its gender, the article you pick depends on your meaning. Use the definite article le, la, les for a specific thing or for a whole category, as in J'aime le café (I like coffee, in general) and Le livre est sur la table (The book is on the table). Use the indefinite un, une, des for one unspecified item you could count, as in Je mange une pomme (I eat an apple).

Use the partitive du, de la for an amount of a mass you would not count, as in Je bois du café (I drink some coffee). The same noun can even take all three: le café (coffee in general), un café (one cup of coffee), and du café (some coffee). One word, three articles, three shades of meaning.

A short dialogue

A quick stop at a food shop uses several articles at once.

• Client: Bonjour, je voudrais une baguette et du fromage. (Hello, I would like a baguette and some cheese.)
• Vendeur: Voilà. Et avec ça? (Here you are. Anything else?)
• Client: De l'eau, s'il vous plaît. (Some water, please.)
• Vendeur: Très bien. Voici l'eau et les fruits. (Very good. Here is the water and the fruit.)

All three sets of articles on one page

French has three families of article, and choosing between them is the hardest part of the noun system for an English speaker, because English often uses no article at all.

Family	Masc. sg.	Fem. sg.	Before a vowel	Plural	Meaning
definite	le livre	la table	l'ami, l'école	les livres	the; also a general idea
indefinite	un livre	une table	un ami, une école	des livres	a, an; some countable things
partitive	du pain	de la viande	de l'eau	des épinards	some of an uncountable thing

The rule of thumb is to ask what kind of thing you mean. If you can count it and there is one, use un or une; if you can count them and there are several, use des; if you cannot count it and you mean a portion of it, use du, de la, or de l'; and if you mean the whole category or a specific known item, use le, la, or les. Compare: Je mange une pomme (I am eating an apple), Je mange du pain (I am eating some bread), and J'aime le pain (I like bread, in general).

Endings that predict gender

Usually feminine	Examples	Usually masculine	Examples
-tion, -sion	la nation, la télévision	-age	le fromage, le voyage
-té, -tié	la liberté, l'amitié	-ment	le moment, le gouvernement
-ette	la baguette, la fourchette	-eau	le bateau, le gâteau
-ance, -ence	la chance, la science	-isme	le tourisme, le réalisme
-ure	la voiture, la nature	-eur (machines, jobs)	l'ordinateur, le professeur
-ie	la boulangerie, la vie	-ier	le cahier, le quartier

These cover a large share of the vocabulary, but they are tendencies rather than laws, and the exceptions are common words: le musée, le lycée, and le silence are masculine despite their endings, and la page, la plage, and l'image are feminine despite -age. The practical habit that never fails is to learn la voiture rather than voiture, so the gender arrives with the word.

Making nouns plural

Rule	Singular	Plural
add -s (the default)	le livre, la table	les livres, les tables
already ends in -s, -x, -z: no change	le fils, le prix, le nez	les fils, les prix, les nez
-eau, -eu take -x	le bateau, le jeu	les bateaux, les jeux
-al becomes -aux	le journal, l'animal	les journaux, les animaux
-ail often becomes -aux	le travail	les travaux
irregular	l'oeil, monsieur, madame	les yeux, messieurs, mesdames

Almost all of this is invisible to the ear, because the plural endings are silent. That is why the article does the real work: le journal and les journaux differ audibly in the small word at the front, not at the end. Train yourself to listen for le against les and un against des, since that is the only signal a listener gets.

Articles that change after a negative

One quirk trips up every beginner. After a negative verb, un, une, des, du, de la, and de l' all collapse into a plain de. The definite articles le, la, and les do not change.

• J'ai une voiture. It becomes Je n'ai pas de voiture. (I do not have a car.)
• Je bois du café. It becomes Je ne bois pas de café. (I do not drink coffee.)
• Il y a des places. It becomes Il n'y a pas de places. (There are no seats.)
• J'aime le café. It becomes Je n'aime pas le café. (I do not like coffee. No change.)
• C'est un ami. It becomes Ce n'est pas un ami. (He is not a friend. No change after être.)

Note the last line: after the verb être the article survives, so the rule is about having and consuming rather than about being.

Twenty nouns to store with their articles

• le livre (book), le cahier (notebook), le stylo (pen), le sac (bag), le bureau (desk, office)
• la table (table), la chaise (chair), la porte (door), la fenêtre (window), la clé (key)
• l'ami / l'amie (friend), l'école (school), l'université (university), l'eau (water), l'homme (man)
• la voiture (car), la maison (house), la ville (city), le pays (country), le travail (work)

The words beginning with a vowel are the ones to be careful with, since l' hides the gender. Store them as une école and un homme instead, where the indefinite article shows it clearly.

False friends worth learning now

French	Actually means	The English word is
la librairie	bookshop	la bibliothèque (library)
le journal	newspaper	le trajet, le voyage (journey)
la monnaie	change, currency	l'argent (money)
le collège	middle school	l'université (college)
la veste	jacket	le gilet (vest, waistcoat)
le pain	bread	la douleur (pain)

Common misconceptions

• Gender reflects meaning. It does not. La table and le livre carry grammatical gender with no link to male or female; learn each noun with its article.
• Des can be dropped like English "some". French keeps it: J'ai des amis, never "j'ai amis".
• A French word that looks English means the same. Beware false friends. La librairie is a bookshop, not a library; a library is la bibliothèque.
• The plural -s is heard. It is usually silent, so the article, le versus les, is your main clue that a noun is plural.
• l' tells you the gender. It hides it. Learn vowel-initial nouns with un or une instead.
• Articles never change after a negative. The indefinite and partitive ones all become de: pas de voiture, pas de café.
• The plural of journal is journals. Nouns in -al take -aux: les journaux, les animaux.
• You can say j'aime du café for I like coffee. A general liking takes the definite article: J'aime le café.

Recap

• Every noun is masculine or feminine; store it with le or la, and with un or une when it begins with a vowel.
• The is le, la, l', or les; a is un or une; some is des for countables and du, de la, de l' for uncountables.
• Endings hint at gender: -tion, -té, -ette, -ance, -ure, and -ie lean feminine, while -age, -ment, -eau, -isme, and -ier lean masculine.
• The partitive du, de la, de l', des means "some" and cannot be dropped.
• After a negative verb the indefinite and partitive articles become plain de, but le, la, les do not change.
• Plurals add -s, or -x after -eau and -eu, and -al becomes -aux.
• The plural -s is written but usually silent, so the article carries the number.

Sources

1. "Tex's French Grammar: determiners." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
2. "Tex's French Grammar: nouns." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
3. "Genre." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
4. "Partitif." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Dinneen, D., & Madeleine, A. Chapeau! First-Year French. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr.

The big picture

Avoir means "to have", and after être it is the second pillar of French. You reach for it to say what you own, how old you are, and how your body feels, and later to build the past tense. Like "to have" in English, avoir is irregular, so its six present-tense forms cannot be guessed from a pattern and must be memorized. The reward is large: with être and avoir together you can already describe most of what surrounds you.

Key idea: French often uses avoir where English uses "to be". You are not "hungry" in French; you "have hunger". Learn the forms first, then learn the idioms as whole packages rather than word by word.

The forms of avoir

Here is the full present tense, with an example and its English for every person.

Pronoun	Avoir	Example	English
j'	ai	J'ai un chien.	I have a dog.
tu	as	Tu as une sœur.	You have a sister.
il / elle / on	a	Il a un vélo.	He has a bicycle.
nous	avons	Nous avons faim.	We are hungry.
vous	avez	Vous avez raison.	You are right.
ils / elles	ont	Elles ont des livres.	They have books.

Notice that je becomes j' before the vowel of ai, giving j'ai. Two liaisons are worth hearing: nous avons links the s as a z ("noo-za-VON"), and vous avez does the same ("voo-za-VAY"). Take special care with ils ont (they have) against ils sont (they are): the first links a z, "eel-zON", while the second keeps a clear s, "eel-SON". Confusing the two changes the meaning of the whole sentence.

Possession: the everyday use

The plainest job of avoir is to show what you own or have with you. Build simple sentences with a noun and its article.

• J'ai une voiture rouge. (I have a red car.)
• Tu as un frère et une sœur. (You have a brother and a sister.)
• Nous avons un petit appartement. (We have a small apartment.)
• Ils ont deux enfants. (They have two children.)

Age: the idiom you must know

The single most important avoir idiom is age. French does not use "to be" for age; it uses avoir plus the word ans (years). So J'ai vingt ans literally says "I have twenty years", meaning "I am twenty years old". You cannot drop ans, and you cannot swap in être. To ask someone's age, say Quel âge as-tu? informally, or Quel âge avez-vous? politely.

French	English
J'ai vingt ans.	I am twenty years old.
Elle a trente ans.	She is thirty years old.
Quel âge as-tu?	How old are you? (informal)
Quel âge avez-vous?	How old are you? (formal)

Feelings and states with avoir

French uses avoir for many physical and emotional states where English uses "to be". Learn each as a fixed unit, since the logic here is French, not English.

French	English
avoir faim	to be hungry
avoir soif	to be thirsty
avoir froid	to be cold
avoir chaud	to be hot
avoir peur	to be afraid
avoir raison	to be right

So Nous avons faim means "We are hungry", Tu as raison means "You are right", and J'ai froid means "I am cold". Two more everyday pairs round out the set: avoir sommeil (to be sleepy) and avoir tort (to be wrong), the natural opposite of avoir raison.

More useful avoir expressions

Several high-frequency structures are built on avoir and repay early practice.

French	English
avoir besoin de	to need (to have need of)
avoir envie de	to feel like, to want
avoir l'air	to seem, to look
il y a	there is, there are

For example, J'ai besoin d'aide (I need help), J'ai envie d'un café (I feel like a coffee), and Elle a l'air fatiguée (She seems tired). The phrase il y a is especially common and never changes for number: Il y a un problème (There is a problem) and Il y a des livres sur la table (There are books on the table).

A short dialogue

Two students compare their afternoon.

• Inès: Tu as faim? Il y a un café en bas. (Are you hungry? There is a café downstairs.)
• Théo: Oui, et j'ai soif aussi. (Yes, and I am thirsty too.)
• Inès: Quel âge as-tu, au fait? (How old are you, by the way?)
• Théo: J'ai dix-neuf ans, et j'ai besoin d'un vrai déjeuner. (I am nineteen, and I need a real lunch.)

The full list of avoir expressions

French treats a whole family of bodily and mental states as things you have. Learn each as a block, because translating word by word from English will always give you être.

Expression	English	Example
avoir ... ans	to be ... years old	J'ai dix-neuf ans. (I am nineteen.)
avoir faim	to be hungry	Tu as faim? (Are you hungry?)
avoir soif	to be thirsty	Nous avons soif. (We are thirsty.)
avoir froid	to be cold	Les enfants ont froid. (The children are cold.)
avoir chaud	to be hot	J'ai très chaud. (I am very hot.)
avoir sommeil	to be sleepy	Il a sommeil. (He is sleepy.)
avoir peur (de)	to be afraid (of)	Elle a peur des chiens. (She is afraid of dogs.)
avoir raison	to be right	Vous avez raison. (You are right.)
avoir tort	to be wrong	J'ai tort. (I am wrong.)
avoir besoin de	to need	J'ai besoin d'aide. (I need help.)
avoir envie de	to feel like	J'ai envie d'un café. (I feel like a coffee.)
avoir de la chance	to be lucky	Tu as de la chance! (You are lucky!)
avoir mal à	to have a pain in	J'ai mal à la tête. (I have a headache.)
avoir l'air	to look, to seem	Elle a l'air fatiguée. (She looks tired.)

Because these are nouns rather than adjectives, you strengthen them with très in speech (j'ai très faim) and you drop the article after a negative: Je n'ai pas faim, never "pas de la faim". The phrase avoir mal à merges with the article, giving j'ai mal au dos (my back hurts), j'ai mal à la gorge (I have a sore throat), and j'ai mal aux dents (I have toothache).

il y a: there is and there are

One fixed phrase covers both English forms, and it never changes for number.

• Il y a un livre sur la table. (There is a book on the table.)
• Il y a vingt étudiants dans la classe. (There are twenty students in the class.)
• Il n'y a pas de place. (There is no room.)
• Est-ce qu'il y a une pharmacie ici? (Is there a pharmacy here?)
• Qu'est-ce qu'il y a? (What is the matter?)
• Il y a deux ans. (Two years ago.)

That last use surprises people: with a period of time, il y a means "ago". So il y a une heure is "an hour ago", not "there is an hour".

Telling ont and sont apart

This pair causes more listening errors than any other in first-year French, because the two words are only one consonant apart and both follow the same pronouns.

avoir	English	être	English
Ils ont un chien.	They have a dog.	Ils sont contents.	They are happy.
Elles ont faim.	They are hungry.	Elles sont françaises.	They are French.
Vous avez raison.	You are right.	Vous êtes prêt.	You are ready.
Nous avons froid.	We are cold.	Nous sommes ici.	We are here.

The clue is the liaison. In ils ont the s links across as a z, giving "eel-ZON", while ils sont keeps a clean s, giving "eel-SON". Practise the pair aloud until you can hear the difference without thinking about it. And note the meaning test: if the English is "they have", it is ont; if it is "they are" plus a describing word, it is sont, unless the state is one of the avoir expressions above.

Fifteen sentences with avoir

• J'ai deux frères et une soeur. (I have two brothers and a sister.)
• Tu as une voiture? (Do you have a car?)
• Il a vingt-cinq ans. (He is twenty-five.)
• Nous avons cours à neuf heures. (We have class at nine.)
• Vous avez l'heure, s'il vous plaît? (Do you have the time, please?)
• Ils ont beaucoup de travail. (They have a lot of work.)
• Je n'ai pas de monnaie. (I do not have any change.)
• Quel âge as-tu? (How old are you?)
• Elle a les yeux bleus. (She has blue eyes.)
• Nous avons besoin de pain. (We need bread.)
• J'ai envie de sortir ce soir. (I feel like going out tonight.)
• Il a mal au ventre. (He has a stomach ache.)
• Vous avez des questions? (Do you have any questions?)
• Il y a un problème. (There is a problem.)
• Je n'ai pas peur. (I am not afraid.)

A short dialogue

• Zoé: Tu as faim? Il y a un café en face. (Are you hungry? There is a cafe opposite.)
• Karim: J'ai très faim, et j'ai soif aussi. (I am very hungry, and I am thirsty too.)
• Zoé: Tu as de la monnaie? Je n'ai pas d'argent sur moi. (Do you have any change? I have no money on me.)
• Karim: Oui, j'ai dix euros. Ça suffit? (Yes, I have ten euros. Is that enough?)
• Zoé: Ça suffit. Tu as quel âge, au fait? (That is enough. How old are you, by the way?)
• Karim: J'ai vingt et un ans. Et toi? (I am twenty-one. And you?)
• Zoé: Vingt. J'ai besoin d'un café, j'ai sommeil. (Twenty. I need a coffee, I am sleepy.)
• Karim: Tu as raison. On y va. (You are right. Let us go.)

Common misconceptions

• Age uses être. It does not. French says J'ai vingt ans (I have twenty years), never "je suis vingt ans", and the word ans can never be left out.
• Ils ont and ils sont are the same. They are not. Ils ont (avoir) means "they have"; ils sont (être) means "they are". Listen for the z of ont against the s of sont.
• "There is" uses être. French uses the fixed phrase il y a for both "there is" and "there are", not a form of être.
• Hunger and thirst are adjectives. In French they are nouns you "have": avoir faim, avoir soif. After a negative the article drops, as in Je n'ai pas faim (I am not hungry).
• il y a changes for the plural. It never does: il y a un livre and il y a vingt livres.
• il y a always means there is. With a period of time it means "ago": il y a deux jours.
• avoir mal takes a possessive. It takes the article, merged with à: j'ai mal à la tête and j'ai mal au dos.
• You strengthen faim with beaucoup. Use très: j'ai très faim.

Recap

• Avoir (to have) is irregular: ai, as, a, avons, avez, ont.
• Je becomes j' before ai, and nous, vous, and ils link an s as z before a vowel.
• Give age with avoir plus ans: J'ai vingt ans, and ask Quel âge as-tu?
• Many states use avoir: avoir faim, soif, froid, chaud, peur, and raison.
• Learn il y a (there is or there are), avoir besoin de, and avoir envie de as set phrases.
• Listen for the liaison to tell ils ont from ils sont.
• With a period of time, il y a means "ago": il y a deux jours.

Sources

1. "Avoir." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
2. Conjugaison Larousse, larousse.fr.
3. "Tex's French Grammar: -er verbs." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
4. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Patto, M. FREN 101: Introduction to French Level I. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

A French verb in its base form is the infinitive, the "to" form you find in a dictionary. Every infinitive ends in one of three ways: -er, -ir, or -re. By far the biggest group ends in -er, and almost all of them follow one steady pattern. Learn that pattern once and you can use hundreds of verbs, from parler (to speak) to manger (to eat). This lesson gives you the endings, the pronunciation, the meaning of the present tense, and a set of verbs to practice.

Key idea: To conjugate a regular -er verb, drop the -er to find the stem, then add fixed endings. The same six endings serve the whole family.

The -er pattern

Take parler (to speak). Remove -er to get the stem parl-, then add -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent.

Pronoun	parler	English
je	parle	I speak
tu	parles	you speak
il / elle / on	parle	he / she speaks
nous	parlons	we speak
vous	parlez	you speak
ils / elles	parlent	they speak

A crucial pronunciation point

The endings -e, -es, and -ent are all silent. That means je parle, tu parles, il parle, and ils parlent sound exactly alike, all "parl". Only the nous form (parlons, "par-LON") and the vous form (parlez, "par-LAY") sound different. This is why the subject pronoun matters so much in French: with four forms sounding the same, the small word in front is often the only clue to who is acting.

One tense, three English meanings

The French present covers three English ideas at once. Je parle français can mean "I speak French", "I am speaking French", or "I do speak French", depending on context. There is no separate "am speaking" form to learn. A few more examples:

• Nous mangeons du pain. (We eat some bread.)
• Elle habite à Paris. (She lives in Paris.)
• Ils regardent un film. (They are watching a film.)
• Tu aimes le café. (You like coffee.)

Common -er verbs

All of these follow the parler pattern exactly. Drop -er and add the six endings.

French	English	French	English
aimer	to like, to love	écouter	to listen
habiter	to live	chanter	to sing
manger	to eat	jouer	to play
travailler	to work	étudier	to study
regarder	to watch	donner	to give

Two small spelling changes

A handful of -er verbs adjust their spelling to keep a soft sound, and only in the nous form. Verbs ending in -ger add an e, so manger gives nous mangeons and voyager gives nous voyageons. Verbs ending in -cer take a cédille, so commencer gives nous commençons. That extra letter keeps the g and the c soft; without it, the g in "mangons" would harden. Every other form stays perfectly regular.

Building real sentences

A conjugated verb becomes a sentence as soon as you add a subject and, often, an object. Keep the order subject, verb, then the rest: Je regarde la télévision (I watch television), Nous étudions le français (We study French), and Ils habitent une grande maison (They live in a big house). To say how often something happens, place a frequency adverb right after the verb: toujours (always), souvent (often), parfois (sometimes), or rarement (rarely). For instance, Elle chante souvent (She often sings) and Je travaille rarement le week-end (I rarely work on weekends).

Two structures you have already met combine smoothly with these verbs. Make a sentence negative by wrapping ne ... pas around the verb: Je ne travaille pas aujourd'hui (I am not working today). Turn a statement into a question with est-ce que at the front: Est-ce que tu aimes le café? (Do you like coffee?). Because the stem of a regular verb never changes and only the ending shifts, the same stem carries you through statements, questions, and negatives alike.

A short dialogue

Two friends talk about their weekends.

• Léa: Tu travailles le samedi? (Do you work on Saturdays?)
• Karim: Non, je regarde des films et j'écoute de la musique. (No, I watch films and listen to music.)
• Léa: Nous aimons le cinéma aussi. Vous jouez au foot? (We like the cinema too. Do you play football?)
• Karim: Oui, on joue le dimanche. (Yes, we play on Sundays.)

Three -er verbs written out in full

Pronoun	parler (to speak)	habiter (to live)	travailler (to work)
je / j'	parle	habite	travaille
tu	parles	habites	travailles
il / elle / on	parle	habite	travaille
nous	parlons	habitons	travaillons
vous	parlez	habitez	travaillez
ils / elles	parlent	habitent	travaillent

Read the first column aloud and listen to what actually happens: parle, parles, parle, and parlent are all pronounced identically, because -e, -es, and -ent are silent. Only parlons and parlez sound different. So a family of six written forms has just three spoken ones, which is a large piece of good luck for a beginner and also the reason the subject pronoun can never be dropped: without je, tu, or ils in front, nothing in the sound tells the listener who is speaking.

Thirty -er verbs worth owning

Verb	English	Verb	English	Verb	English
parler	to speak	chercher	to look for	donner	to give
habiter	to live	trouver	to find	montrer	to show
travailler	to work	écouter	to listen to	demander	to ask
étudier	to study	regarder	to watch	penser	to think
aimer	to like, to love	rester	to stay	porter	to wear, to carry
adorer	to adore	rentrer	to go home	jouer	to play
détester	to hate	arriver	to arrive	chanter	to sing
manger	to eat	entrer	to enter	danser	to dance
commencer	to begin	voyager	to travel	acheter	to buy
préférer	to prefer	oublier	to forget	marcher	to walk

Three of these hide a trap for English speakers, because the French verb already contains the little word English needs afterwards. Écouter means "to listen to", regarder means "to look at", and chercher means "to look for". So you say J'écoute la radio and Je cherche mon stylo, with no extra preposition. Going the other way, téléphoner and demander need an à that English does not: Je téléphone à ma mère (I phone my mother).

The spelling adjustments

A few -er verbs change their spelling to keep the sound of the stem consistent. Nothing about the endings changes.

Pattern	Why	Example
-ger keeps an e before -ons	to keep the soft g	nous mangeons, nous voyageons
-cer takes a cedilla before -ons	to keep the soft c	nous commençons, nous avançons
e becomes è in the silent-ending forms	the stress lands on it	j'achète, tu achètes, but nous achetons
é becomes è in the same forms	the same reason	je préfère, il préfère, but nous préférons
l or t doubles	an older spelling of the same change	j'appelle, il jette, but nous appelons
y becomes i	before a silent ending	je paie, nous payons

All of these follow one idea: the vowel in the stem is stressed in the four forms with silent endings and unstressed in nous and vous, so the spelling shifts to match. If you notice that je préfère has a grave accent but nous préférons keeps the acute, you have understood the whole pattern.

Fifteen sentences to read aloud

• Je parle français et anglais. (I speak French and English.)
• Tu habites à Paris? (Do you live in Paris?)
• Elle travaille dans un hôpital. (She works in a hospital.)
• Nous étudions l'histoire. (We study history.)
• Vous écoutez souvent la radio? (Do you often listen to the radio?)
• Ils regardent un film ce soir. (They are watching a film this evening.)
• J'aime beaucoup le chocolat. (I like chocolate a lot.)
• On mange à huit heures. (We eat at eight.)
• Nous mangeons au restaurant. (We are eating at the restaurant.)
• Je cherche la gare. (I am looking for the station.)
• Elle préfère le thé. (She prefers tea.)
• Nous commençons à neuf heures. (We start at nine.)
• Tu joues au foot? (Do you play football?)
• Ils voyagent en Europe. (They travel in Europe.)
• Je n'aime pas travailler le week-end. (I do not like working at weekends.)

The last sentence shows a pattern worth taking now: when two verbs sit together, only the first is conjugated and the second stays in the infinitive. The same works with aimer, détester, préférer, and adorer: J'adore voyager (I love travelling).

Useful adverbs of frequency

French	English	French	English
toujours	always	parfois	sometimes
souvent	often	rarement	rarely
quelquefois	sometimes	ne ... jamais	never
tous les jours	every day	le week-end	at weekends
maintenant	now	d'habitude	usually

Short adverbs normally sit straight after the conjugated verb, which is different from English: Je regarde souvent la télévision, not "je souvent regarde". Longer time phrases can go at either end of the sentence: Tous les jours, je travaille or Je travaille tous les jours.

A short dialogue

• Inès: Tu habites où? (Where do you live?)
• Théo: J'habite à Nantes, mais je travaille à Rennes. (I live in Nantes, but I work in Rennes.)
• Inès: Tu voyages tous les jours? (Do you travel every day?)
• Théo: Non, deux fois par semaine. Je préfère travailler à la maison. (No, twice a week. I prefer working at home.)
• Inès: Nous commençons un nouveau projet lundi. (We are starting a new project on Monday.)
• Théo: Vous cherchez quelqu'un? (Are you looking for someone?)
• Inès: Oui. On mange ensemble et on parle du projet? (Yes. Shall we eat together and talk about the project?)
• Théo: Volontiers. J'adore les restaurants du centre. (Gladly. I love the restaurants in the centre.)

Common misconceptions

• Tu and vous take the same ending. They do not. Tu adds -es (tu parles) and vous adds -ez (vous parlez); the vous form is also how you address more than one person.
• The -ent ending is pronounced. It is silent, so ils parlent sounds like "parl", identical to je parle. Only nous and vous stand out by ear.
• Every -er verb is regular. Almost all are, but aller (to go) is irregular and only looks like this family. Learn it on its own.
• The present needs a helper for "am doing". It does not. Je parle already means both "I speak" and "I am speaking"; French has no separate progressive form here.
• You need a preposition after écouter and chercher. The verb already contains it: J'écoute la radio, Je cherche mon sac.
• Adverbs go where English puts them. A short adverb follows the verb: Je mange souvent ici.
• The accent in préférer never changes. It becomes grave when the ending is silent: je préfère against nous préférons.
• Both verbs are conjugated in a pair. Only the first: J'aime voyager, never "j'aime voyage".

Recap

• -er is the largest, mostly regular family; drop -er and add -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent.
• The -e, -es, and -ent endings are silent; only nous (-ons) and vous (-ez) sound different, which is why the pronoun must stay.
• One present tense covers "I speak", "I am speaking", and "I do speak".
• Nous forms of -ger and -cer verbs add e or ç: nous mangeons, nous commençons, and stem vowels shift in acheter, préférer, appeler, and payer.
• Écouter, regarder, and chercher already contain to, at, and for.
• When two verbs sit together, only the first is conjugated.
• Aller looks like an -er verb but is irregular.

Sources

1. "Tex's French Grammar: -er verbs." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
2. Conjugaison Larousse, larousse.fr.
3. "Faire." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
4. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Carrasco, S., Zahedi, K., & Parrish, C. French OER 1. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

Beyond the large -er family, French has two more regular verb groups: those whose infinitive ends in -ir and those ending in -re. They are smaller, but they include many verbs you will use daily, such as finir (to finish) and vendre (to sell). Each group has its own set of endings, yet the method is the same as before: find the stem, then add the endings. Learn these two patterns and, together with the -er family, you can conjugate the great majority of French verbs.

Key idea: Same recipe, different endings. Drop the infinitive ending to get the stem, then add the group's endings. The -ir group even inserts a small piece, -iss-, in its plural forms.

Regular -ir verbs

The model is finir (to finish). Its most distinctive feature is the -iss- that appears in the three plural forms. Drop -ir and add -is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent.

Pronoun	finir	English
je	finis	I finish
tu	finis	you finish
il / elle / on	finit	he / she finishes
nous	finissons	we finish
vous	finissez	you finish
ils / elles	finissent	they finish

The three singular forms sound almost alike, close to "fee-NEE", while the plural forms bring in a clear "-iss" sound. Several everyday verbs follow this exact pattern.

French	English
choisir	to choose
réussir	to succeed
grandir	to grow, to grow up
finir	to finish

Regular -re verbs

The model is vendre (to sell). Drop -re and add -s, -s, [nothing], -ons, -ez, -ent. The surprise is the il / elle form, which adds no ending at all, so the bare stem stands alone as il vend, with a silent final d.

Pronoun	vendre	English
je	vends	I sell
tu	vends	you sell
il / elle / on	vend	he / she sells
nous	vendons	we sell
vous	vendez	you sell
ils / elles	vendent	they sell

Other common -re verbs share this pattern exactly.

French	English
attendre	to wait (for)
entendre	to hear
répondre	to answer
perdre	to lose

Putting them to work

Here are the two families in real sentences, each with its English gloss.

• Je finis mes devoirs. (I finish my homework.)
• Nous choisissons un cadeau. (We are choosing a gift.)
• Il attend le bus. (He is waiting for the bus.)
• Vous vendez la maison. (You are selling the house.)
• Elle répond à la question. (She answers the question.)

One point about attendre prevents many mistakes: it already means "to wait for", so the "for" is built into the verb. You say J'attends le train (I am waiting for the train), with no extra word. In the same way, répondre is followed by à: Je réponds à mon ami (I answer my friend).

Telling the three families apart

Because the endings differ, it helps to compare the three regular families side by side. Look at the nous and ils forms, which show the clearest contrasts: nous parlons against nous finissons and nous vendons, then ils parlent against ils finissent and ils vendent. The -iss- block signals the -ir group, while the bare stem in il vend signals the -re group.

Family	je	nous	ils / elles
-er (parler)	parle	parlons	parlent
-ir (finir)	finis	finissons	finissent
-re (vendre)	vends	vendons	vendent

Whenever you meet a new verb, first check its ending to decide which pattern to use. If the infinitive ends in -ir and behaves like finir, expect the -iss- in the plural; if it ends in -re like vendre, remember the empty il / elle slot. A good way to practice is to take one verb from each family and say all six forms out loud in a row, listening for the endings that carry the meaning. Regular verbs reward this drilling, because once the pattern is automatic you never have to stop and think about it again.

A short dialogue

Two colleagues at the end of the day.

• Nadia: Tu finis à quelle heure? (What time do you finish?)
• Marc: Je finis à six heures. J'attends un client. (I finish at six. I am waiting for a client.)
• Nadia: Nous vendons beaucoup aujourd'hui, non? (We are selling a lot today, right?)
• Marc: Oui, et je choisis de rester un peu plus. (Yes, and I choose to stay a little longer.)

The three families side by side

Pronoun	-er: parler	-ir: finir	-re: vendre
je	parle	finis	vends
tu	parles	finis	vends
il / elle / on	parle	finit	vend
nous	parlons	finissons	vendons
vous	parlez	finissez	vendez
ils / elles	parlent	finissent	vendent

Notice how much is shared. Every nous form ends in -ons and every vous form in -ez, in all three families and in almost every French verb, regular or not. The singular endings differ, but they are all silent, so je finis, tu finis, and il finit sound the same, and so do je vends, tu vends, and il vend. The one place where the ear can tell singular from plural is the -ir family, where the -iss- of finissons and finissent is clearly audible.

More verbs in each family

-ir verbs	English	-re verbs	English
finir	to finish	vendre	to sell
choisir	to choose	attendre	to wait for
réussir	to succeed, to pass	entendre	to hear
grandir	to grow up	répondre	to answer
réfléchir	to think, to reflect	perdre	to lose
obéir	to obey	descendre	to go down
remplir	to fill	rendre	to give back
maigrir	to lose weight	défendre	to defend, to forbid

Many -ir verbs are built on an adjective, which makes them easy to remember: grand gives grandir (to grow), rouge gives rougir (to blush), maigre gives maigrir (to get thinner), and vieux gives vieillir (to grow old). The pattern is "to become that adjective".

Verbs that need a preposition, and verbs that do not

French	English	Watch out
attendre quelqu'un	to wait for someone	no pour
chercher quelque chose	to look for something	no pour
écouter quelqu'un	to listen to someone	no à
regarder quelque chose	to look at something	no à
répondre à quelqu'un	to answer someone	à is required
téléphoner à quelqu'un	to phone someone	à is required
obéir à quelqu'un	to obey someone	à is required
réfléchir à quelque chose	to think about something	à is required

The top four surprise English speakers by needing nothing, and the bottom four by needing something. There is no shortcut; learn each verb with the little word that belongs to it, exactly as you learn a noun with its article.

Two more irregular verbs you cannot avoid

Two very common verbs look like they belong to these families and do not. Learn them now.

Pronoun	faire (to do, to make)	prendre (to take)
je	fais	prends
tu	fais	prends
il / elle / on	fait	prend
nous	faisons	prenons
vous	faites	prenez
ils / elles	font	prennent

Faire appears in dozens of set phrases: faire les courses (to do the shopping), faire la cuisine (to cook), faire du sport (to do sport), faire attention (to pay attention), and above all the weather, il fait beau (the weather is fine) and il fait froid (it is cold). Vous faites is one of only three verbs in the language whose vous form does not end in -ez, the others being vous êtes and vous dites. Prendre is used for transport and for food and drink: Je prends le train (I take the train), Je prends un café (I will have a coffee).

Fifteen sentences to read aloud

• Je finis mon travail à six heures. (I finish my work at six.)
• Tu choisis le rouge ou le bleu? (Are you choosing the red one or the blue one?)
• Elle réussit toujours ses examens. (She always passes her exams.)
• Nous finissons la leçon. (We are finishing the lesson.)
• Vous choisissez un dessert? (Are you choosing a dessert?)
• Les enfants grandissent vite. (Children grow up fast.)
• J'attends le bus depuis dix minutes. (I have been waiting for the bus for ten minutes.)
• Il vend sa voiture. (He is selling his car.)
• Tu entends la musique? (Can you hear the music?)
• Nous répondons à la question. (We are answering the question.)
• Elles perdent souvent leurs clés. (They often lose their keys.)
• Je descends à la prochaine station. (I am getting off at the next stop.)
• Qu'est-ce que tu fais ce soir? (What are you doing this evening?)
• Nous prenons le train de huit heures. (We are taking the eight o'clock train.)
• Il fait beau aujourd'hui. (The weather is fine today.)

Look at J'attends le bus depuis dix minutes. Like Italian and Spanish, French uses the present tense with depuis for something that started in the past and is still going on, where English uses a past form. So J'habite ici depuis trois ans means "I have lived here for three years".

A short dialogue

• Yann: Tu attends quelqu'un? (Are you waiting for someone?)
• Chloé: J'attends Sarah. Elle finit son cours à cinq heures. (I am waiting for Sarah. She finishes her class at five.)
• Yann: Vous prenez le bus ensemble? (Are you taking the bus together?)
• Chloé: Non, on descend en ville à pied. Et toi, tu fais quoi? (No, we are walking into town. And you, what are you doing?)
• Yann: Je réfléchis à un cadeau pour ma soeur. Je ne choisis jamais vite. (I am thinking about a present for my sister. I never choose quickly.)
• Chloé: Le magasin vend de jolies choses. (The shop sells nice things.)
• Yann: Bonne idée. J'y réponds tout de suite, attends deux minutes. (Good idea. I will answer that right away, wait two minutes.)

Common misconceptions

• Attendre means "to attend". It is a false friend. Attendre means "to wait (for)"; to attend an event is assister à. So j'attends le bus is "I am waiting for the bus", not "I attend the bus".
• -re verbs add an ending in the il / elle form. They do not. The bare stem stands alone: il vend, il attend, il répond, each with a silent final d.
• -ir verbs have no -iss-. Regular -ir verbs like finir do add -iss- in the plural: nous finissons, vous finissez, ils finissent.
• Attendre and répondre need "for" and "to" added. Attendre already includes "for" (j'attends le train), while répondre takes à (répondre à une question).
• Every verb ending in -ir is regular. Many common ones are not: venir, partir, sortir, dormir, and ouvrir all follow different patterns.
• vous always ends in -ez. Three verbs break it: vous êtes, vous faites, and vous dites.
• depuis takes a past tense. French uses the present: J'habite ici depuis trois ans.
• The final d of il vend is heard. It is silent, though it surfaces as a t sound in inversion: vend-il?

Recap

• Regular -ir verbs (finir) add -is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent, with -iss- in the plural.
• Regular -re verbs (vendre) add -s, -s, nothing, -ons, -ez, -ent; il / elle is the bare stem.
• -ir examples: choisir, réussir, grandir; -re examples: attendre, entendre, répondre, perdre.
• Attendre means "to wait for", with the "for" already included in the verb.
• With the -er, -ir, and -re patterns learned, you can conjugate most French verbs.
• Every nous form ends in -ons and every vous form in -ez, apart from êtes, faites, and dites.
• Two irregular verbs are needed straight away: faire and prendre.
• With depuis, French uses the present where English uses a past form.

Sources

1. "Tex's French Grammar: -er verbs." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
2. Conjugaison Larousse, larousse.fr.
3. "Faire." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
4. "Avoir." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Dinneen, D., & Madeleine, A. Chapeau! First-Year French. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

An adjective describes a noun: a tall man, a red car, a kind teacher. In French an adjective must agree with its noun in two ways at once, in gender (masculine or feminine) and in number (singular or plural). This is a real break from English, where an adjective never changes shape. Because gender belongs to the noun, agreement is one more reason to store every noun with its article. This lesson shows how the forms change, where the adjective sits in the sentence, and which common adjectives break the pattern.

Key idea: An adjective copies its noun. Add -e for feminine and -s for plural, then place most adjectives after the noun, with a short, common set going before it.

How agreement works

The basic rule is simple: add -e for feminine and -s for plural. Take grand (tall, big):

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	grand	grands
Feminine	grande	grandes

So you say un homme grand (a tall man), une femme grande (a tall woman), des hommes grands, and des femmes grandes. Adding the feminine -e often wakes up a silent final consonant: grand ends in a silent d, but in grande you hear the d clearly. Adjectives that already end in -e, such as rouge (red) or facile (easy), do not change for gender, only for number: une robe rouge, des robes rouges.

Common adjectives and their feminine forms

Many adjectives follow small sub-patterns for the feminine. Learn a few models and the rest fall into place.

Masculine	Feminine	English
petit	petite	small
bon	bonne	good
gentil	gentille	kind, nice
heureux	heureuse	happy
sportif	sportive	athletic
blanc	blanche	white

The patterns are worth naming. Endings in -eux become -euse (heureux to heureuse), endings in -f become -ve (sportif to sportive), and some simply double the consonant before -e (bon to bonne, gentil to gentille). A few are fully irregular, such as beau / belle (handsome / beautiful) and vieux / vieille (old), and are best memorized as pairs.

Where adjectives go

Unlike English, most French adjectives come after the noun: une voiture rouge (a red car), un livre intéressant (an interesting book), and un film français (a French film). A small set of short, common adjectives comes before the noun instead. A handy memory aid is the acronym BAGS: Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size. These include beau (beautiful), joli (pretty), jeune (young), vieux (old), bon (good), mauvais (bad), grand (big), and petit (small).

So you say un bon repas (a good meal), une petite maison (a small house), and un jeune homme (a young man). When two adjectives apply, each keeps its normal spot: J'ai une petite voiture rouge means "I have a small red car", with petite (a BAGS adjective) before the noun and rouge after it. Notice too that a plural BAGS adjective before the noun turns des into de in careful French: de jolies fleurs (pretty flowers).

Describing with colors and opposites

Colors are adjectives, so they agree too. Learn a few useful ones with their feminine forms: noir / noire (black), vert / verte (green), bleu / bleue (blue), and blanc / blanche (white). A couple of colors never change at all, notably orange and marron (brown), which keep one form for every noun. Like most descriptive adjectives, colors follow the noun: une robe noire (a black dress), des yeux verts (green eyes), and une voiture bleue (a blue car).

It also helps to learn adjectives in opposite pairs, since they turn up together in real descriptions: grand / petit (big / small), jeune / vieux (young / old), bon / mauvais (good / bad), facile / difficile (easy / hard), and content / triste (happy / sad). To strengthen or soften a description, add a small adverb before the adjective: très (very), assez (quite), or un peu (a little), as in un très bon film (a very good film). When you combine a size and a color, the size goes first and the color after: une grande voiture rouge (a big red car).

A short dialogue

Two friends describe a new neighbor.

• Léa: Comment est ta nouvelle voisine? (What is your new neighbor like?)
• Sami: Elle est gentille et très sportive. (She is kind and very athletic.)
• Léa: Elle a une grande maison blanche, non? (She has a big white house, right?)
• Sami: Oui, avec un joli jardin. (Yes, with a pretty garden.)

The main patterns of agreement

Masc. sg.	Fem. sg.	Masc. pl.	Fem. pl.	English
grand	grande	grands	grandes	tall, big
petit	petite	petits	petites	small
rouge	rouge	rouges	rouges	red
heureux	heureuse	heureux	heureuses	happy
sportif	sportive	sportifs	sportives	sporty
cher	chère	chers	chères	expensive, dear
bon	bonne	bons	bonnes	good
italien	italienne	italiens	italiennes	Italian
gentil	gentille	gentils	gentilles	kind
beau (bel)	belle	beaux	belles	beautiful
nouveau (nouvel)	nouvelle	nouveaux	nouvelles	new
vieux (vieil)	vieille	vieux	vieilles	old

Six sub-patterns cover almost everything: add -e by default; change nothing if the word already ends in -e; -eux becomes -euse; -if becomes -ive; a final consonant doubles in -on, -en, -el, and -il before the -e; and a small group has a completely separate feminine. Note that a masculine plural already ending in -s or -x adds nothing, which is why heureux and vieux look the same in both numbers.

The three adjectives with a second masculine form

Beau, nouveau, and vieux have an extra masculine singular form used before a vowel or silent h, purely so that two vowels do not collide.

• un beau garçon but un bel homme (a handsome boy, a handsome man)
• un nouveau livre but un nouvel ami (a new book, a new friend)
• un vieux château but un vieil arbre (an old castle, an old tree)

The feminine forms need no such help, because belle, nouvelle, and vieille already end in a consonant sound.

Before or after the noun

Most French adjectives follow the noun, which is the opposite of English and takes deliberate practice. A short list comes before it, and the usual memory aid is BANGS: Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size.

Group	Adjectives	Example
Beauty	beau, joli	une jolie maison (a pretty house)
Age	jeune, vieux, nouveau	un jeune homme (a young man)
Number	premier, deuxième, dernier	le premier jour (the first day)
Goodness	bon, mauvais, gentil	un bon repas (a good meal)
Size	grand, petit, gros, long	une grande ville (a big city)
Everything else	colour, shape, nationality, mood	une voiture rouge, un film français

A handful of adjectives change meaning depending on where they sit, and misreading them can reverse a sentence.

Before	Meaning	After	Meaning
un ancien élève	a former pupil	un livre ancien	an old, antique book
un grand homme	a great man	un homme grand	a tall man
ma propre chambre	my own room	une chambre propre	a clean room
un pauvre homme	an unfortunate man	un homme pauvre	a man with no money
la dernière semaine	the final week	la semaine dernière	last week

An adjective vocabulary

French	English	Opposite	English
grand	tall, big	petit	small
jeune	young	vieux	old
facile	easy	difficile	difficult
content	pleased	triste	sad
gentil	kind	méchant	nasty
cher	expensive	bon marché	cheap
intéressant	interesting	ennuyeux	boring
fatigué	tired	reposé	rested
propre	clean	sale	dirty
fort	strong	faible	weak

Note that bon marché never changes: des chaussures bon marché. And be careful with sale, which means dirty and has nothing to do with the English word.

Making comparisons

Pattern	French	English
plus ... que	Paul est plus grand que Marc.	Paul is taller than Marc.
moins ... que	Ce livre est moins cher que l'autre.	This book is cheaper than the other.
aussi ... que	Elle est aussi gentille que sa soeur.	She is as kind as her sister.
le plus ... de	C'est le restaurant le plus cher de la ville.	It is the most expensive restaurant in the city.
très	Il est très fatigué.	He is very tired.

One adjective is irregular and very common: bon becomes meilleur for "better", never "plus bon". So Ce café est meilleur que l'autre (This coffee is better than the other). The adverb bien has its own irregular comparative, mieux.

Sentences to read aloud

• C'est une grande maison blanche. (It is a big white house.)
• J'ai un nouvel ordinateur. (I have a new computer.)
• Ce sont de bons étudiants. (They are good students.)
• Mes soeurs sont très sportives. (My sisters are very sporty.)
• Elle porte une jolie robe rouge. (She is wearing a pretty red dress.)
• Les vieux quartiers sont intéressants. (The old districts are interesting.)
• Ce film est moins long que l'autre. (This film is shorter than the other.)
• Mon appartement est petit mais propre. (My flat is small but clean.)
• Elles sont heureuses aujourd'hui. (They are happy today.)
• C'est la meilleure boulangerie du quartier. (It is the best bakery in the area.)

Look at Ce sont de bons étudiants. When a plural adjective comes in front of the noun, des becomes de. You will hear both in speech, but de bons amis is the careful form.

Common misconceptions

• Sensible means "sensible". It is a false friend. Sensible means "sensitive" in French; to say sensible or reasonable, use raisonnable. So une personne sensible is "a sensitive person", not a level-headed one.
• Adjectives never change. In French they must agree: une femme grande, des femmes grandes. Forgetting the -e or the -s is a real error, not a small slip.
• All adjectives follow the noun. Most do, but the short BANGS adjectives (beau, joli, jeune, vieux, nouveau, premier, bon, mauvais, grand, petit) come before it.
• The feminine -e is never heard. Often it is: it makes a silent final consonant sound, so grande, petite, and française ring out the final letter that the masculine hides.
• plus bon means better. It does not exist. Use meilleur, and mieux for the adverb.
• beau has one masculine form. Before a vowel it becomes bel, and likewise nouvel and vieil.
• Moving an adjective is only a stylistic choice. With ancien, grand, propre, pauvre, and dernier it changes the meaning outright.
• des stays before a plural adjective. It becomes de: de bons amis.

Recap

• Adjectives agree in gender and number: add -e for feminine, -s for plural.
• The feminine -e often makes a silent final consonant audible (grand to grande).
• Adjectives already ending in -e change only for number (rouge, rouges).
• Most adjectives follow the noun; the short BAGS set (Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size) comes before it.
• Sensible is a false friend: it means "sensitive", not "sensible".
• Beau, nouveau, and vieux become bel, nouvel, and vieil before a vowel.
• Compare with plus, moins, or aussi ... que, and remember that better is meilleur, not plus bon.

Sources

1. "Tex's French Grammar: adjectives." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
2. "Genre." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
3. "Nombre." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
4. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
5. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
6. Carrasco, S., Zahedi, K., & Parrish, C. French OER 1. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr.

The big picture

Numbers run through daily life: prices, ages, phone numbers, addresses, room numbers, and the clock. French counting is mostly regular and easy to build, with a few famous quirks in the seventies, eighties, and nineties that surprise every learner at first. The plan is simple. Master the building blocks from zero to twenty and the round tens, learn how to join a ten and a unit, then meet the arithmetic-style numbers above sixty. After a little practice they become automatic.

Key idea: Build big numbers from small parts. Learn 0 to 20 and the tens, add units with a hyphen, and use et (and) only for the number one.

Zero to fifty

Start with the essential building blocks, the numbers every larger figure is made from.

#	French	#	French
0	zéro	11	onze
1	un	12	douze
2	deux	13	treize
3	trois	14	quatorze
4	quatre	15	quinze
5	cinq	16	seize
6	six	17	dix-sept
7	sept	20	vingt
8	huit	30	trente
9	neuf	40	quarante
10	dix	50	cinquante

Numbers 17 to 19 are built as "ten plus a unit": dix-sept (17), dix-huit (18), and dix-neuf (19). From 21 onward, join a ten and a unit with a hyphen, and use et (and) only when the unit is one: vingt et un (21), but vingt-deux (22), trente-trois (33), and quarante-cinq (45).

The tricky seventies, eighties, and nineties

Standard French builds these by arithmetic. Seventy is "sixty-ten", eighty is "four-twenties", and ninety is "four-twenties-ten".

#	French	Literally
60	soixante	sixty
70	soixante-dix	sixty-ten
71	soixante et onze	sixty and eleven
80	quatre-vingts	four-twenties
90	quatre-vingt-dix	four-twenties-ten
91	quatre-vingt-onze	four-twenties-eleven
100	cent	hundred

So 75 is soixante-quinze (60 + 15), 85 is quatre-vingt-cinq (80 + 5), and 99 is quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (80 + 19). It feels strange at first, yet with a little practice it becomes second nature. Belgian and Swiss French use the simpler words septante (70) and nonante (90), but the forms above are standard in France and understood everywhere.

Ordinals: first, second, third

To rank things, French uses ordinal numbers. Most are formed by adding -ième to the number, with premier as the special word for "first".

French	English
premier / première	first
deuxième	second
troisième	third
quatrième	fourth

So you might live au premier étage (on the first floor) or take la deuxième rue à droite (the second street on the right). Note the small spelling tidy-ups: quatre loses its e in quatrième, and neuf becomes neuvième (ninth).

Using numbers every day

Numbers show up in set situations, so it helps to practice them in context. For age, French uses avoir: J'ai vingt-cinq ans (I am twenty-five). For a price, say the number plus euros: Ça coûte douze euros (That costs twelve euros), and ask Combien ça coûte? (How much is it?). Phone numbers in France are usually read in pairs, so 06 12 34 56 is spoken as "zéro-six, douze, trente-quatre, cinquante-six" rather than digit by digit.

Hundreds, thousands, and beyond

Above one hundred, French keeps building by combination. Cent is 100, deux cents is 200, and mille is 1000. Unlike English, mille never takes an s, so 3000 is trois mille. You simply stack the parts in order, biggest first: cent vingt (120), deux cent cinquante (250), and mille neuf cents (1900). There is no word for "and" between the parts, so 101 is cent un, never "cent et un", and 1100 is usually mille cent.

French also punctuates numbers differently from English. It uses a comma where English uses a decimal point, and a space or a period where English uses a thousands comma. So a price written 12,50 is read douze euros cinquante, and 1 000 or 1.000 means one thousand. Years follow the same building logic, so 2025 is deux mille vingt-cinq. Reading prices, room numbers, and years aloud is one of the fastest ways to make all these figures feel natural.

A short dialogue

At a market stall.

• Client: Bonjour, combien coûtent les pommes? (Hello, how much are the apples?)
• Vendeur: Trois euros le kilo. (Three euros a kilo.)
• Client: Deux kilos, s'il vous plaît. Ça fait combien? (Two kilos, please. How much is that?)
• Vendeur: Six euros, merci. (Six euros, thank you.)

Every number from one to twenty in one place

#	French	#	French	#	French
0	zéro	7	sept	14	quatorze
1	un / une	8	huit	15	quinze
2	deux	9	neuf	16	seize
3	trois	10	dix	17	dix-sept
4	quatre	11	onze	18	dix-huit
5	cinq	12	douze	19	dix-neuf
6	six	13	treize	20	vingt

The number one is the only one that agrees with its noun: un livre but une table, and likewise vingt et une pages. Everything else is invariable, apart from the on-and-off s of quatre-vingts and cents.

How the numbers sound

Several numbers change their pronunciation according to what follows, which surprises learners the first time they hear it. The final consonant of cinq, six, huit, and dix is sounded when the number stands alone or before a vowel, but goes quiet before a consonant. So six on its own is "seess", six ans links as "see-ZAN", and six livres is simply "see leevr". The same happens with dix. And neuf turns its f into a v in exactly two everyday phrases, neuf ans and neuf heures, which are the two you will use most.

Septante, nonante, huitante

The arithmetic of seventy and ninety is not universal. In Belgium and most of French-speaking Switzerland the regular forms septante (70) and nonante (90) are standard, and several Swiss cantons also use huitante (80). These are perfectly correct French, simply not used in France or Quebec, and it is worth recognising them so that a Belgian phone number does not stop you. This course teaches the French forms because they are what international exams and most textbooks expect.

Writing numbers down

French punctuation of numbers is the reverse of English. Thousands are separated with a space rather than a comma, and the decimal point is a comma. So 1 250,75 is one thousand two hundred and fifty point seven five, read aloud as mille deux cent cinquante virgule soixante-quinze. Copying the English habit into a French text can genuinely change the amount, which matters on an invoice or a form.

Common misconceptions

• Quatre-vingts always keeps its s. It does not. It ends in s when it stands alone (quatre-vingts), but drops the s before another number: quatre-vingt-un (81), quatre-vingt-cinq (85).
• Seventy-two is soixante-deux-deux. It is soixante-douze: from 70 to 79 you continue with the teens.
• Et joins every compound number. It joins only when the unit is one: vingt et un, trente et un, soixante et onze. All others use a hyphen and no et.
• Seventy is a single new word. In standard French it is arithmetic: soixante-dix (60 + 10). The one-word septante is Belgian and Swiss.
• Cent never changes. It does. Cent takes an s when multiplied and standing alone (deux cents, 200), but drops that s before another number (deux cent un, 201).
• Mille behaves like cent. It does not. Mille never takes an s: trois mille.
• The number one never changes. It agrees: un livre but une table, and trente et une personnes.
• A comma separates thousands. In French a space does, and the comma marks the decimal: 1 250,75.
• six and dix always sound the same. Their final consonant is sounded alone and before a vowel, and silent before a consonant.

Recap

• Zero to twenty are zéro, un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, dix, onze, douze, treize, quatorze, quinze, seize, dix-sept, dix-huit, dix-neuf, vingt.
• The tens are vingt, trente, quarante, cinquante, soixante, soixante-dix, quatre-vingts, quatre-vingt-dix.
• Hundreds and thousands: cent, deux cents, deux cent un, mille, deux mille, un million.
• Learn 0 to 20 and the tens, then join a ten and a unit with a hyphen.
• Use et only when the unit is one: vingt et un, soixante et onze.
• 70 is soixante-dix, 80 is quatre-vingts, 90 is quatre-vingt-dix.
• Quatre-vingts drops its s before another number: quatre-vingt-un.
• Ordinals add -ième, with premier as the special word for first; cinq gains a u and neuf changes f to v.
• Mille never takes an s, and one agrees: un livre but une table.
• Belgium and Switzerland use the regular septante and nonante, and Switzerland also huitante.
• French writes thousands with a space and decimals with a comma: 1 250,75.

Sources

1. Académie française. "Questions de langue." Académie française, academie-francaise.fr.
2. Office québécois de la langue française. Banque de dépannage linguistique, bdl.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca.
3. "Nombre." Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, cnrtl.fr.
4. "Tex's French Grammar: determiners." COERLL, University of Texas at Austin, laits.utexas.edu.
5. Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr.
6. Patto, M. FREN 101: Introduction to French Level I. Humanities LibreTexts, human.libretexts.org.
7. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

With numbers in hand, you can talk about the calendar and the clock, two of the most practical skills for daily life. You will name the days and months, give a date the French way, and tell the time in both the casual and the official systems. None of it is difficult, but several details differ from English: days and months are not capitalized, dates use plain numbers, and France often uses the 24-hour clock for anything scheduled. This lesson walks through each piece with examples you can use straight away.

Key idea: The calendar and clock follow small, fixed patterns. Learn the day and month names, the date formula le + number + month, and the phrase Il est ... heure(s) for the time.

Days of the week

The French week, which begins on Monday, runs as follows.

French	English
lundi	Monday
mardi	Tuesday
mercredi	Wednesday
jeudi	Thursday
vendredi	Friday
samedi	Saturday
dimanche	Sunday

To ask the day, say Quel jour sommes-nous? and answer Nous sommes lundi (It is Monday). The article changes the meaning: plain lundi means this coming Monday, while le lundi means every Monday, as a habit.

Months of the year

The twelve months are close to their English cousins, which makes them quick to learn.

French	English	French	English
janvier	January	juillet	July
février	February	août	August
mars	March	septembre	September
avril	April	octobre	October
mai	May	novembre	November
juin	June	décembre	December

Giving a date

The pattern is le + number + month: le 5 mai (the 5th of May) and le 14 juillet (the 14th of July). Unlike English, French uses plain cardinal numbers, not "fifth" or "fourteenth", with one exception: the first of the month uses premier, as in le premier janvier (January 1st). To ask the date, say Quelle est la date? A full answer looks like C'est le 3 mars (It is March 3rd).

To place an event in a year, use en, as in en 2025 (in 2025). The four seasons are le printemps (spring), l'été (summer), l'automne (autumn), and l'hiver (winter). Three of them take en, as in en été (in summer), but spring uses au: au printemps (in spring).

Telling time

To ask the time, say Quelle heure est-il? (What time is it?). The answer uses Il est ... heure(s), where heure means "hour" or "o'clock".

French	English
Il est une heure.	It is one o'clock.
Il est trois heures.	It is three o'clock.
Il est trois heures et quart.	It is a quarter past three.
Il est trois heures et demie.	It is half past three.
Il est quatre heures moins le quart.	It is a quarter to four.
Il est midi / minuit.	It is noon / midnight.

Notice that une heure is singular ("heure"), while every other hour is plural ("heures"). Past the hour you add minutes with et quart (quarter past) and et demie (half past); before the hour you count back with moins (less), so quatre heures moins le quart is a quarter to four. Noon and midnight have their own words, midi and minuit.

Morning, evening, and the 24-hour clock

In casual speech you clarify the part of the day by adding du matin (in the morning), de l'après-midi (in the afternoon), or du soir (in the evening). For anything official, France uses the 24-hour clock: Il est quinze heures is 3 p.m. (15:00), and vingt heures trente is 8:30 p.m. (20:30). Train times, appointments, and television schedules almost always use this system, so both are worth knowing well.

Jour or journée?

French has two words for "day", and they are not interchangeable. Jour counts a day as a unit, as in trois jours (three days), while journée means the day as a stretch of time you live through, as in une bonne journée (a good day). The same pairing appears with an / année (year), matin / matinée (morning), and soir / soirée (evening). Use the plain form for counting and the -ée form when you mean the whole span.

A short dialogue

Two colleagues set a meeting.

• Amel: On se voit quel jour? (What day shall we meet?)
• Luc: Mardi, le 12 mars, ça va? (Tuesday, March 12th, is that okay?)
• Amel: Parfait. À quelle heure? (Perfect. At what time?)
• Luc: À quatorze heures, après le déjeuner. (At 2 p.m., after lunch.)

Common misconceptions

• Journée means a journey. It is a false friend. Journée means a day; a journey or trip is un voyage. So passez une bonne journée is "have a good day".
• Days and months are capitalized. They are not, unless one begins a sentence: lundi, janvier, not Lundi, Janvier.
• Dates use ordinal numbers. They use plain numbers (le 14 juillet), with the single exception of premier for the first: le premier mai.
• Every hour is plural. One o'clock is singular, une heure, while all the others take heures.

Recap

• Name the days (lundi to dimanche) and months (janvier to décembre); none are capitalized.
• Give a date with le + number + month, using premier only for the first.
• Ask Quelle heure est-il? and answer Il est ... heure(s); une heure is singular.
• Add et quart, et demie, or moins le quart for parts of the hour.
• France uses the 24-hour clock for schedules: quinze heures is 3 p.m.

Sources

1. "Date and time notation in France." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
2. "French grammar." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
3. "French/Grammar." Wikibooks, en.wikibooks.org.
4. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

Asking questions is how a conversation grows past hello. French gives you three ways to turn a statement into a yes-or-no question, from very casual to quite formal, plus a small set of question words for asking who, what, where, when, why, and how. The good news for a beginner is that one method, est-ce que, works in almost every situation and requires no rearranging of the sentence. Learn that first, add the question words, and you can already interview a new acquaintance about their name, home, plans, and reasons.

Key idea: To ask yes or no, you can raise your voice, add est-ce que, or invert the verb and pronoun. For details, put a question word in front, most easily with est-ce que.

Three ways to ask yes or no

Take the statement Tu parles français (You speak French). You can turn it into a question in three ways.

1. Intonation (most casual): keep the same words and raise your voice at the end. Tu parles français?
2. Est-ce que (neutral, very common): put est-ce que at the front. Est-ce que tu parles français? It adds no meaning; it simply signals that a question is coming.
3. Inversion (formal): swap the verb and the pronoun and join them with a hyphen. Parles-tu français?

All three mean exactly the same thing; only the tone differs. Intonation suits close friends, est-ce que suits nearly everyone, and inversion suits writing and formal speech. To answer, use oui (yes) or non (no).

Question words

To ask for specific information, use these interrogatives. They combine easily with est-ce que in everyday speech.

French	English	Example
qui	who	Qui est-ce? (Who is it?)
que / qu'est-ce que	what	Qu'est-ce que tu veux? (What do you want?)
où	where	Où habites-tu? (Where do you live?)
quand	when	Quand arrives-tu? (When do you arrive?)
pourquoi	why	Pourquoi étudies-tu? (Why do you study?)
comment	how	Comment ça va? (How's it going?)
combien	how much / many	Combien ça coûte? (How much does it cost?)

To answer a pourquoi (why) question, use parce que (because): Pourquoi étudies-tu le français? Parce que j'aime la langue (Why do you study French? Because I like the language). Two of these words carry a trap. Où (where) wears an accent to separate it from ou (or), and combien is often followed by de, as in Combien de frères as-tu? (How many brothers do you have?).

Answering, and a word about "now"

Most answers are simple: oui or non, then a short sentence. One special case is worth knowing early. To contradict a negative question, French uses si, not oui. So if someone asks Tu ne viens pas? (You are not coming?) and you are in fact coming, you answer Si! (Yes, I am!). To say what is happening at the moment, use maintenant (now) or actuellement (currently, at present), a word we return to below.

Building information questions

Question words attach to the same three structures. Take où (where) with the verb habiter. In casual speech you can simply place the word at the end: Tu habites où? With est-ce que you keep normal order: Où est-ce que tu habites? And by inversion you get the formal Où habites-tu? All three ask "Where do you live?". As a beginner, the est-ce que version is the safest, since the words after it never move.

A few more everyday examples show the range. Quand est-ce que le film commence? (When does the film start?), Comment est-ce qu'on va à la gare? (How do we get to the station?), and Pourquoi est-ce que tu apprends le français? (Why are you learning French?). Notice that que becomes qu' before a vowel, as in est-ce qu'on. To ask what someone is doing, say Qu'est-ce que tu fais? (What are you doing?), one of the most useful questions of all.

A short dialogue

A quick getting-to-know-you exchange.

• Théo: Où est-ce que tu habites? (Where do you live?)
• Lila: J'habite à Lyon. Et toi, pourquoi es-tu ici? (I live in Lyon. And you, why are you here?)
• Théo: Parce que je travaille ici. Tu étudies quoi? (Because I work here. What do you study?)
• Lila: Le droit. Combien de cours as-tu cette semaine? (Law. How many classes do you have this week?)

Common misconceptions

• Actuellement means "actually". It is a false friend. Actuellement means "currently" or "at present"; to say "actually", use en fait or vraiment. So je travaille actuellement is "I am currently working".
• Est-ce que changes the meaning. It does not. Est-ce que only marks that a question is coming; the sentence after it keeps normal word order.
• Ou and où are the same word. They are not. Où, with the accent, means "where"; ou, with no accent, means "or". Only the accent tells them apart in writing.
• You always answer with oui. Not to a negative question. To say "yes" against a negative, French uses si: Tu ne viens pas? Si!

Recap

• Three yes-or-no forms: intonation (casual), est-ce que (neutral), inversion (formal).
• Est-ce que adds no meaning and needs no reordering, so it is the easiest for beginners.
• Question words: qui, que, où, quand, pourquoi, comment, combien.
• Answer a pourquoi with parce que; answer a negative question with si, not oui.
• Actuellement means "currently", not "actually".

Sources

1. "French grammar." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
2. "Interrogative word." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
3. "French/Grammar." Wikibooks, en.wikibooks.org.
4. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

To say that something is not the case, French wraps the verb in two words, ne and pas. Where English adds a single "not" or "doesn't", standard French uses this pair, with one part before the verb and one part after it. It feels unusual at first, but the pattern is completely regular, so once you have seen it a few times you can make any sentence negative. This lesson covers the basic rule, a spelling change to the article that catches many learners, and a family of related negatives such as "never" and "nothing".

Key idea: Negation is a sandwich. Put ne before the conjugated verb and pas after it, and remember that an indefinite article usually turns into de.

The basic rule

Place ne before the conjugated verb and pas after it: ne + verb + pas. Compare the affirmative and the negative side by side.

Affirmative	Negative
Je parle français. (I speak French.)	Je ne parle pas français. (I do not speak French.)
Il est ici. (He is here.)	Il n'est pas ici. (He is not here.)
Nous avons faim. (We are hungry.)	Nous n'avons pas faim. (We are not hungry.)

Two things to notice. First, ne shortens to n' before a vowel or a silent h, as in n'est and n'avons. Second, in casual spoken French people often drop the ne and say just Je parle pas, but in writing and careful speech you should keep both halves of the pair.

Negation and the article

Here is the rule that trips up beginners most often. After a negative, the indefinite and partitive articles, un, une, des, du, and de la, usually change to de (or d' before a vowel). So J'ai un chien (I have a dog) becomes Je n'ai pas de chien (I do not have a dog), and Je mange du pain becomes Je ne mange pas de pain. The definite articles le, la, and les do not change, so Je n'aime pas le café keeps its le.

A family of negatives

French has a whole set of negatives that keep ne before the verb but replace pas with another word.

French	English	Example
ne ... jamais	never	Je ne fume jamais. (I never smoke.)
ne ... rien	nothing	Il ne mange rien. (He eats nothing.)
ne ... personne	nobody	Je ne vois personne. (I see nobody.)
ne ... plus	no longer	Elle n'habite plus ici. (She no longer lives here.)
ne ... que	only	Je n'ai que dix euros. (I have only ten euros.)

Learn ne ... pas thoroughly first; the others then follow the same shape around the verb. One of them is not truly a negative: ne ... que means "only", not "not", so Je ne bois que de l'eau means "I drink only water". Note also that rien and personne can stand as subjects at the front: Personne ne parle (Nobody is speaking) and Rien ne bouge (Nothing is moving).

Everyday ways to say no

Beyond wrapping a verb, French has a few short expressions for declining and disagreeing. To refuse politely, pair non with a reason: Non merci, je n'ai pas faim (No thank you, I am not hungry). To say "not yet", use pas encore: Je ne suis pas encore prêt (I am not ready yet). To agree with someone else's negative, use non plus (neither): if a friend says Je n'aime pas le froid (I do not like the cold), you can reply Moi non plus (Me neither).

The near future negates just like the present: wrap ne ... pas around the conjugated verb, which there is a form of aller. So Je vais sortir (I am going to go out) becomes Je ne vais pas sortir (I am not going to go out). And to stress a firm "not at all", add du tout: Je n'aime pas du tout ce film (I do not like this film at all). These small phrases make your negatives sound natural rather than mechanical.

A short dialogue

A waiter checks an order.

• Serveur: Vous voulez de la viande? (Would you like some meat?)
• Client: Non merci, je ne mange pas de viande. (No thank you, I do not eat meat.)
• Serveur: Et à boire? (And to drink?)
• Client: Je ne bois que de l'eau, s'il vous plaît. (I drink only water, please.)

Common misconceptions

• You can drop ne freely. In relaxed speech many speakers do, but in writing and formal speech both ne and pas are required: Je ne sais pas, not "je sais pas".
• Un stays after a negative. It does not. Indefinite and partitive articles become de: Je n'ai pas de voiture, Je ne bois pas de café. Only le, la, and les stay.
• Personne always means "a person". As a noun, une personne is "a person", but in the negative ne ... personne means "nobody". Context and the ne tell you which.
• Ne ... que is a negative. It looks like one but means "only": Je n'ai qu'un frère is "I have only one brother", not "I have no brother".

Recap

• Wrap the verb: ne + conjugated verb + pas, as in Il n'est pas ici.
• Ne shortens to n' before a vowel; ne is often dropped in casual speech but kept in writing.
• After a negative, un, une, des, du, de la become de; le, la, les do not change.
• Other negatives share the frame: ne ... jamais, ne ... rien, ne ... personne, ne ... plus.
• Ne ... que means "only", not "not".

Sources

1. "French grammar." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
2. "Affirmation and negation." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
3. "French/Grammar." Wikibooks, en.wikibooks.org.
4. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

You do not need a whole new tense to talk about the future. French has an easy, very common structure called the near future (le futur proche), which works just like the English phrase "going to". You take the verb aller (to go), conjugate it, and follow it with an infinitive. Because only aller changes and the second verb stays in its base form, this is one of the highest-value patterns a beginner can learn: master a single irregular verb and you can express countless plans.

Key idea: The near future is aller + infinitive. Conjugate aller for the subject, then add the plain infinitive, with no linking word in between.

The verb aller

First you need aller itself, which is irregular and must be memorized.

Pronoun	aller	English
je	vais	I go
tu	vas	you go
il / elle / on	va	he / she goes
nous	allons	we go
vous	allez	you go
ils / elles	vont	they go

On its own, aller means to go somewhere: Je vais à Paris (I am going to Paris). Watch the small word à: with the masculine article it contracts to au (Je vais au marché, I am going to the market) and with the plural to aux (aux États-Unis). The same verb appears in the greeting Comment allez-vous? (How are you?), which literally asks how you are "going".

Building the near future

The formula could not be simpler: a conjugated form of aller plus an infinitive. There is no word for "to" in between, unlike Spanish, which inserts "a". Watch it come together.

French	English
Je vais manger.	I am going to eat.
Tu vas partir.	You are going to leave.
Elle va étudier.	She is going to study.
Nous allons voyager.	We are going to travel.
Ils vont travailler.	They are going to work.

Only the aller part changes to match the subject; the infinitive never moves. That is why beginners love this structure: you already know how to conjugate aller, so any infinitive you meet can be turned into a plan at once.

Saying when

Pair the near future with a time expression to say exactly when something will happen.

French	English
aujourd'hui	today
demain	tomorrow
ce soir	tonight
ce week-end	this weekend
la semaine prochaine	next week

For example, Demain, je vais visiter le musée (Tomorrow, I am going to visit the museum) and Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire ce week-end? (What are you going to do this weekend?). The time word can open the sentence or close it, so Je vais voyager la semaine prochaine means the same as La semaine prochaine, je vais voyager.

Making it negative

To make the near future negative, wrap ne ... pas around the aller part only, leaving the infinitive outside: Je ne vais pas sortir (I am not going to go out). Compare Nous allons travailler (We are going to work) with Nous n'allons pas travailler (We are not going to work). It is exactly the sandwich from the negation lesson, closed around the one conjugated verb.

Infinitives to plug in

The near future is only as useful as the infinitives you know, so it helps to keep a handful ready. All of these slot straight in after a form of aller.

French	English	French	English
faire	to do, to make	voir	to see
prendre	to take	sortir	to go out
acheter	to buy	rester	to stay

So you can say Je vais faire les courses (I am going to do the shopping), On va prendre le train (We are going to take the train), and Ils vont sortir ce soir (They are going to go out tonight). Because the infinitive never changes, learning one new verb instantly gives you a new plan you can make.

One last comparison helps. French also has a one-word simple future (for example je mangerai, I will eat), which you will meet later on. For now, the near future covers your needs: it is easier to build and is what French speakers reach for most in conversation when they talk about plans and intentions.

A short dialogue

Two friends make weekend plans.

• Chloé: Qu'est-ce que tu vas faire ce week-end? (What are you going to do this weekend?)
• Yanis: Je vais voir mes parents. Et toi? (I am going to see my parents. And you?)
• Chloé: Nous allons visiter un musée, mais nous n'allons pas rester longtemps. (We are going to visit a museum, but we are not going to stay long.)
• Yanis: Super. On va manger ensemble dimanche? (Great. Shall we eat together on Sunday?)

Common misconceptions

• You add a word for "to". You do not. French puts the infinitive straight after aller: Je vais manger, never "je vais à manger".
• Both verbs change. Only aller is conjugated. The second verb stays an infinitive: Ils vont travailler, not "ils vont travaillent".
• Aller only means "to go". It also reports how you are, as in Comment allez-vous? and Ça va (literally "it goes"), and it builds the near future.
• The near future is only for the distant future. It covers anything you plan or expect, from the next minute to next year: Je vais manger dans cinq minutes.

Recap

• Aller is irregular: vais, vas, va, allons, allez, vont.
• The near future is aller + infinitive, with no linking word: Je vais partir.
• Only aller changes; the infinitive stays the same for every subject.
• Add a time word like demain or ce soir to say when.
• Negate by wrapping ne ... pas around aller: Je ne vais pas sortir.

Sources

1. "French conjugation." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
2. "French verbs." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
3. "French/Grammar." Wikibooks, en.wikibooks.org.
4. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

Talking about your family is one of the most natural early conversations, and it lets you practice gender, articles, and the verbs être and avoir all at once. This lesson gives you the words for family members, the possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her) that show whose relative you mean, and the vocabulary to describe how someone looks and what they are like. By the end you can introduce your whole family and paint a short picture of each person.

Key idea: French possessives agree with the thing owned, not with the owner. That is why son and sa can each mean both "his" and "her".

Family members

Here are the core members, paired by gender.

French	English	French	English
le père	father	la mère	mother
le fils	son	la fille	daughter / girl
le frère	brother	la sœur	sister
le grand-père	grandfather	la grand-mère	grandmother
l'oncle	uncle	la tante	aunt
le mari	husband	la femme	wife / woman

A handy feature: the masculine plural covers a mixed group. Les parents means "the parents", and les grands-parents means "the grandparents". A few more useful words are les enfants (the children), le cousin / la cousine (the cousin), and le bébé (the baby).

Whose family? Possessive adjectives

To show whose relative you mean, use a possessive adjective. It agrees with the noun that follows, so the form depends on the thing owned, not on you. Here are the forms for a single owner.

Owner	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
my	mon	ma	mes
your (informal)	ton	ta	tes
his / her	son	sa	ses

So mon père is "my father", ma mère is "my mother", and mes parents is "my parents". The point that surprises English speakers: son and sa mean both "his" and "her", because they agree with the following noun. So sa mère is "his mother" or "her mother", and son frère is "his brother" or "her brother", with context deciding. One more tidy rule: before a feminine noun starting with a vowel, use the masculine form for sound, as in mon amie (my female friend), never "ma amie".

Describing people

To describe someone, combine être with adjectives, keeping agreement in mind. For general looks and character use être; for hair and eyes use avoir.

French	English
Il est grand / petit.	He is tall / short.
Elle est jeune / âgée.	She is young / elderly.
Il est gentil et drôle.	He is kind and funny.
Elle a les cheveux bruns.	She has brown hair.
Il a les yeux bleus.	He has blue eyes.

Notice the split: French says avoir les cheveux ... (to have ... hair) and avoir les yeux ... (to have ... eyes), where English tends to use "to be". A full description strings these together, so Ma sœur est gentille et elle a les cheveux longs means "My sister is kind and she has long hair".

Our, your, and their

The table above covers a single owner. For a group of owners, French adds three more possessives, and these are simpler, because they do not change for the gender of the noun, only for its number.

Owner	Singular noun	Plural noun
our	notre	nos
your (plural or formal)	votre	vos
their	leur	leurs

So notre maison is "our house", vos enfants is "your children", and leur voiture is "their car". Notice that notre and votre serve for both masculine and feminine nouns, which makes them easy to use.

Words for character

To describe personality, keep a few common adjectives handy, remembering that they agree with the person described: sympathique (nice, likeable), timide (shy), sérieux / sérieuse (serious), drôle (funny), and travailleur / travailleuse (hard-working). For example, Mon oncle est très sympathique (My uncle is very likeable) and Ma cousine est timide mais drôle (My cousin is shy but funny).

A short dialogue

Two friends look at a family photo.

• Emma: C'est ta famille? Qui est-ce? (Is this your family? Who is that?)
• Noah: C'est mon frère. Il est grand et très sportif. (That is my brother. He is tall and very athletic.)
• Emma: Et la femme à côté? (And the woman next to him?)
• Noah: C'est ma mère. Elle a les yeux verts, comme moi. (That is my mother. She has green eyes, like me.)

Common misconceptions

• Son means only "his". It does not. Son and sa agree with the noun, so sa mère is "his mother" or "her mother" depending on context, not on the owner's gender.
• Elles works for any family group. A group with even one man is ils, so a family of a mother, a daughter, and a father is referred to as ils.
• Femme only means "woman". It means both "woman" and "wife"; ma femme is "my wife". Likewise les parents can mean "the parents" or, more broadly, "the relatives".
• Use ma before any feminine word. Not before a vowel. Say mon amie and mon école, using the masculine form purely for sound.

Recap

• Learn family words with their gender: le père, la mère, le frère, la sœur.
• Possessive adjectives agree with the thing owned: mon, ma, mes; ton, ta, tes; son, sa, ses.
• Son and sa mean both "his" and "her".
• Use mon, ton, son before a feminine noun starting with a vowel: mon amie.
• Describe with être for character and avoir for hair and eyes.

Sources

1. "French articles and determiners." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
2. "French grammar." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
3. "French/Grammar." Wikibooks, en.wikibooks.org.
4. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

Food is one of the most rewarding topics for a new speaker, because you can use it the very same day, especially in France, where café culture is everywhere. This lesson builds a small menu, shows how French marks "some" of a food with the partitive article, and teaches you to order politely in a café or restaurant. Along the way you will reuse the gender, articles, and verbs you already know. By the end you can read a simple menu, ask for what you want, and pay the bill.

Key idea: For an unspecified amount of food, French uses the partitive du, de la, or de l' (some). For general likes, it switches to le, la, les.

A small menu

Start with common foods and drinks.

French	English	French	English
le pain	bread	l'eau	water
le fromage	cheese	le café	coffee
la viande	meat	le thé	tea
le poulet	chicken	le lait	milk
le poisson	fish	le vin	wine
la pomme	apple	la soupe	soup

A few more everyday items round out the basics: les légumes (vegetables), les fruits (fruit), le riz (rice), les œufs (eggs), and le sucre (sugar). The three meals are le petit-déjeuner (breakfast), le déjeuner (lunch), and le dîner (dinner). To eat is manger and to drink is boire.

The partitive with food

Recall the partitive article from the nouns lesson: for "some" of a food you use du (masculine), de la (feminine), or de l' (before a vowel). So Je mange du pain (I eat some bread), Je bois de l'eau (I drink some water), and Je veux de la soupe (I want some soup). English often drops "some", but French keeps it. After a negative, these all become de, as in Je ne mange pas de viande (I do not eat meat).

Some, or in general?

French carefully separates an amount from a general taste. Use the partitive for a portion, but the definite article for a like or dislike: Je mange du poisson (I eat some fish) against J'aime le poisson (I like fish, in general). So after verbs of liking, such as aimer, adorer, and détester, you use le, la, or les, never the partitive: J'adore le chocolat (I love chocolate), not "j'adore du chocolat".

Ordering politely

To order, the key phrase is Je voudrais (I would like), a softened form of vouloir (to want) and far more courteous than Je veux (I want). A few lines carry you through most meals.

French	English
Je voudrais un café.	I would like a coffee.
Vous désirez?	What would you like?
Et avec ceci?	And with that?
L'addition, s'il vous plaît.	The check, please.

Talking about quantities

When you want a specific amount rather than a vague "some", French uses a quantity word plus de, with no article after it. So you say un verre de vin (a glass of wine), une tasse de café (a cup of coffee), une bouteille d'eau (a bottle of water), and un morceau de fromage (a piece of cheese). The same holds for measured amounts, as in un kilo de pommes (a kilo of apples) and beaucoup de légumes (a lot of vegetables).

Notice the pattern: after an expression of quantity, the partitive du or de la shrinks to plain de. To order a set number, simply use the number, as in deux cafés et une eau (two coffees and a water).

Saying what you like

To share your tastes, pair a liking verb with the definite article. Rank them from strong to weak: J'adore (I love), J'aime (I like), Je n'aime pas (I do not like), and Je déteste (I hate). For example, J'adore le fromage mais je n'aime pas le poisson (I love cheese but I do not like fish). To offer, use Tu veux ...? (Do you want ...?) or, more politely, Vous voulez ...?, and accept with Oui, volontiers (Yes, gladly) or decline with Non merci (No thank you). These few verbs, together with the foods above, let you talk about almost any meal.

A short dialogue

A quick order at a café.

• Serveur: Bonjour, vous désirez? (Hello, what would you like?)
• Cliente: Je voudrais un café et un croissant, s'il vous plaît. (I would like a coffee and a croissant, please.)
• Serveur: Très bien. Et avec ceci? (Very good. And with that?)
• Cliente: C'est tout, merci. L'addition, s'il vous plaît. (That's all, thank you. The check, please.)

Common misconceptions

• Entrée is the main course. In France it is the opposite: the entrée is the starter, and the main dish is the plat principal. The American use of "entrée" for the main course does not match French usage.
• You can drop "some" like English. French cannot. Say Je mange du pain, not "je mange pain".
• Likes use the partitive. They do not. General likes take the definite article: J'aime le café, never "j'aime du café".
• Je voudrais and je veux are equally polite. They are not. Je veux (I want) can sound blunt; Je voudrais (I would like) is the courteous choice when ordering.

Recap

• Learn foods with their gender: le pain, la viande, l'eau.
• Use the partitive du, de la, de l' for "some" of a food; it becomes de after a negative.
• For general likes, switch to the definite article: J'aime le café.
• Order politely with Je voudrais, and ask for l'addition to pay.
• An entrée is a starter in France, not the main course.

Sources

1. "French articles and determiners." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
2. "French grammar." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
3. "French/Grammar." Wikibooks, en.wikibooks.org.
4. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.

The big picture

This final lesson pulls the whole course together so you can talk about your daily life (la vie quotidienne). Describing your day is one of the most useful things a beginner can do, and it recycles almost everything you have learned: subject pronouns, être and avoir, regular verbs, articles, adjectives, numbers, time, questions, negation, and the near future. You will meet a set of everyday verbs, learn to sequence actions, and then build short paragraphs about today and tomorrow.

Key idea: You already own the pieces. Combine familiar verbs with time words like d'abord and ensuite to narrate a whole day from morning to night.

Everyday verbs and places

Here are high-frequency verbs for a daily routine. Some are regular and some irregular, but you have met all the patterns.

French	English
se lever	to get up
manger	to eat
aller au travail	to go to work
travailler	to work
rentrer	to go home
se coucher	to go to bed

Two of these, se lever (to get up) and se coucher (to go to bed), are reflexive: the action turns back on the doer, so they carry an extra pronoun, as in je me lève (I get up) and je me couche (I go to bed). You do not need the full system yet; simply learn these two as set phrases for now.

You will also need places to go. Some of the most useful ones are listed here.

French	English
la maison	home, house
le travail	work
l'école	school
le magasin	the shop, store
le parc	the park

Watch the contractions with à (to, at): à + le becomes au (au travail, to work), and à + les becomes aux. In the same way, de + le becomes du (from the). These little contractions are not optional, so they are worth saying aloud until they feel automatic.

Sequencing your day

Link actions with time words: d'abord (first), ensuite (then), après (afterward), le matin (in the morning), l'après-midi (in the afternoon), and le soir (in the evening). Here is a short routine in the present tense.

• Le matin, je me lève à sept heures. (In the morning, I get up at seven.)
• D'abord, je mange et je bois un café. (First, I eat and drink a coffee.)
• Ensuite, je vais au travail. (Then, I go to work.)
• Le soir, je rentre à la maison et je me couche à onze heures. (In the evening, I go home and go to bed at eleven.)

Weekends and free time deserve their own words. Common ones are faire les courses (to do the shopping), faire le ménage (to do the housework), voir des amis (to see friends), and se reposer (to rest). For example, Le week-end, je fais les courses le matin et je vois des amis l'après-midi (On the weekend, I do the shopping in the morning and see friends in the afternoon).

Bringing it all together

Now stretch beyond today. With the near future you can describe tomorrow: Demain, je vais visiter mes grands-parents et nous allons manger ensemble (Tomorrow, I am going to visit my grandparents and we are going to eat together). With negation you can say what will not happen: Ce soir, je ne vais pas travailler (Tonight, I am not going to work). With questions you can ask about someone else's day: Qu'est-ce que tu fais le week-end? (What do you do on weekends?).

Put together, these tools let you hold a real, if simple, conversation. You can greet someone, introduce yourself, describe your family and your day, order a meal, ask and answer questions, and make plans. Keep reading French aloud, and keep building sentences about your own life. Félicitations, and congratulations on completing the course.

A short dialogue

Two friends compare their routines.

• Manon: Tu te lèves à quelle heure? (What time do you get up?)
• Léo: À six heures. D'abord je vais au parc, ensuite je vais au travail. (At six. First I go to the park, then I go to work.)
• Manon: Et le soir? (And in the evening?)
• Léo: Je rentre à la maison et je ne fais rien. Demain, je vais me reposer. (I go home and do nothing. Tomorrow, I am going to rest.)

Common misconceptions

• À le is correct. It is not. À + le always contracts to au (au travail), and à + les to aux. Never write "à le" or "à les".
• Se lever works without the extra pronoun. It does not. Reflexive verbs need it: je me lève, tu te lèves, not "je lève" when you mean getting yourself up.
• You can drop the subject pronoun. French keeps it. Say je rentre, not just "rentre", which on its own is a command.
• Rentrer means "to rent". It is a false friend. Rentrer means "to go home" or "to return"; to rent is louer.

Recap

• Describe your day with everyday verbs and the reflexive se lever and se coucher.
• Contract à + le to au and à + les to aux: je vais au travail.
• Sequence with d'abord, ensuite, and après, and set the scene with le matin and le soir.
• Use the near future for tomorrow and ne ... pas to say what will not happen.
• You now have greetings, verbs, articles, adjectives, numbers, time, questions, negation, and the near future, a genuine foundation.

Sources

1. "French grammar." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
2. "French verbs." Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org.
3. "French/Grammar." Wikibooks, en.wikibooks.org.
4. "Apprendre et enseigner le français." Le Point du FLE, lepointdufle.net.