French for Beginners

Welcome to French. French spelling looks intimidating at first because many letters are written but not spoken, yet the sounds themselves are consistent once you learn the patterns. The single most useful habit you can build is to read every new word aloud. Let us start with the sounds, then the accent marks that sit on top of certain letters.

Key vowel sounds

French vowels are pure and short, never gliding the way English vowels do. Here are the essentials 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

The sound u (as in tu) has no English equivalent: say "ee" but round your lips as if to whistle. Do not confuse it with ou (as in vous), which is the plain "oo" of food. These two sounds are different words, so the distinction matters.

Nasal sounds

French has nasal vowels, made by letting air pass through the nose. They usually appear when a vowel is followed by n or m at the end of a syllable. The n or m itself is not fully pronounced; it colors the vowel. Examples: bon (good), vin (wine), pain (bread), un (one, a), enfant (child). Try them gently through the nose.

The five accent marks

Accents are not decoration; they change sound or meaning.

• accent aigu (é): only on e, giving the "ay" sound, as in été (summer).
• accent grave (è, à, ù): on e it gives "eh" (mère, mother); on a and u it mainly separates words that are spelled alike, such as a (has) versus à (to).
• accent circonflexe (â, ê, î, ô, û): often marks a letter, usually s, that was dropped long ago, as in hôpital (hospital) or forêt (forest).
• trema (ë, ï): shows that two vowels are pronounced separately, as in Noël (Christmas).
• cedille (ç): under a c, it makes a soft "s" sound before a, o, or u, as in français (French).

Do not aim for a flawless accent on day one. French listeners understand learners readily, and clear vowels plus correct nasal sounds carry you a long way. Read aloud constantly and your ear will train your mouth.

Two features make spoken French sound different from its spelling: many final letters are silent, and some silent letters come back to life between words. Understanding both will sharpen your listening and your accent.

Silent final letters

As a rule of thumb, a final e is silent, and final consonants are often silent too, especially the group remembered by the nonsense word C-A-R-E-F-U-L is too loose; instead learn this: the letters d, s, t, x, z, p, g at the end of a word are usually not pronounced. So petit (small) sounds like "puh-TEE", Paris ends in a silent s, and grand (big) ends in a silent d. A helpful counter-rule: the consonants in the English word CaReFuL - c, r, f, l - are often pronounced at the end of a word, as in sac (bag), mer (sea), chef (chef), and animal.

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. Compare:

• vous alone: the s is silent.
• vous avez (you have): the s links over and sounds like "voo-za-VAY".
• les amis (the friends): "lay-za-MEE".
• un enfant (a child): "un-na-FAN".

Liaison is required in set cases like these (article or pronoun before a vowel) and forbidden in others, but as a beginner you only need to recognize it and imitate common phrases.

The alphabet

French uses the same 26 letters as English. Knowing the letter names lets you spell your name aloud. A few names differ notably from English.

Letter	Name	Letter	Name
a	ah	j	zhee
e	euh	g	zhay
i	ee	h	ahsh
w	doo-bluh-vay	y	ee-grek

To ask how a word is spelled, say Comment ca s'ecrit? (How is it written?). Practice spelling your own name; it is one of the first things a new acquaintance will ask.

French conversation runs on politeness. A handful of set phrases will let you open almost any exchange. The all-purpose hello is bonjour, used from morning through late afternoon. In the evening you switch to bonsoir.

French	English
Bonjour	Hello / Good day
Bonsoir	Good evening
Salut	Hi / Bye (informal)
Au revoir	Goodbye
A bientot	See you soon
A demain	See you tomorrow
Bonne nuit	Good night (going to bed)

How are you?

To ask how someone is, the informal form is Comment ca va? or simply Ca va? (How's it going?). The polite or formal form is Comment allez-vous? Common answers include Ca va bien, merci (I'm well, thank you), Tres bien (Very well), Comme ci, comme ca (So-so), and Pas mal (Not bad). Return the question with Et vous? (formal) or Et toi? (informal).

Courtesy words appear constantly. Learn s'il vous plait (please, formal), s'il te plait (please, informal), merci (thank you), merci beaucoup (thank you very much), de rien (you're welcome), pardon or excusez-moi (excuse me), and oui / non (yes / no). Here is a tiny dialogue you could already use:

• Bonjour! Comment ca va? (Hello! How are you?)
• Ca va bien, merci. Et vous? (I'm well, thank you. And you?)
• Tres bien, merci. (Very well, thank you.)

Note the key difference between tu and vous. Use tu with friends, family, classmates, and children. Use vous to show respect to strangers, elders, and people in a professional setting; vous is also the plural "you" for addressing more than one person. When in doubt with an adult you have just met, vous is the safe, polite choice.

To say who does something, French uses subject pronouns. Learn them well, because unlike Spanish or Italian, French almost always keeps the pronoun in the sentence; the verb endings alone are not enough to show the subject.

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)

Two notes. First, je shortens to j' before a vowel or silent h, as in j'habite (I live). Second, on literally means "one" but in everyday speech very commonly means "we", as in On y va (Let's go). Also, a mixed group of men and women is always ils; you use elles only when every person is female.

Introducing yourself

Here are the core phrases for a first meeting, with translations.

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)
Enchante / Enchantee	Pleased to meet you. (m / f)
Je suis etudiant / etudiante.	I am a student. (m / f)
Je viens du Canada.	I come from Canada.

A short exchange: Bonjour, je m'appelle Marie. Et vous? (Hello, my name is Marie. And you?) - Je m'appelle Paul. Enchante. (My name is Paul. Pleased to meet you.) With these lines plus a greeting, you can already open a real conversation and learn a new person's name.

The verb etre means "to be" and is the single most important verb in French. It is irregular, so its forms must be memorized. You will use it constantly to say who you are, how things are, and to build other structures later.

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 medecin.	She is a doctor.
nous	sommes	Nous sommes amis.	We are friends.
vous	etes	Vous etes gentil.	You are kind.
ils / elles	sont	Ils sont francais.	They are French.

Notice that est (is) and es (are, with tu) sound almost the same but are spelled differently; context and the pronoun tell them apart. With vous etes, liaison links the s, so it sounds like "voo-ZET".

Using etre

Use etre to state identity and description of many kinds:

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

One special point about professions: after etre, French usually drops the article. English says "She is a doctor," but French says Elle est medecin, with no word for "a". The same goes for Il est professeur (He is a teacher). This is a small but very common pattern, so watch for it. With etre plus a handful of adjectives and jobs, you can already describe yourself and others.

Every French noun (a person, place, or thing) has a gender: it is either masculine or feminine. This is grammatical, not biological, so a table (la table) is feminine and a book (le livre) is masculine. Because the gender controls the words around the noun, always learn a noun together with its article.

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, "the house" is la maison, and before a vowel both le and la shorten to l', as in l'ami (the friend) and l'ecole (the school). "A book" is un livre, "a house" is une maison, and "some books" is des livres. Note that French uses des where English often uses nothing: "I have friends" is J'ai des amis.

Guessing gender from endings

You cannot always predict gender, but endings give strong hints. Nouns ending in -tion, -te, -ette, or -ee are usually feminine (la nation, la liberte, la baguette). Nouns ending in -age, -ment, -eau, or -isme are usually masculine (le fromage, cheese; le gouvernement; le bateau, boat). These are patterns, not laws, so keep learning each noun with its article.

The partitive: some

To talk about an unspecified quantity of something (food especially), French uses the partitive article: du (masculine), de la (feminine), de l' (before a vowel), and des (plural). Examples: du pain (some bread), de la soupe (some soup), de l'eau (some water), des fruits (some fruit). English often leaves "some" out, but French keeps it. To make most nouns plural, simply add -s in writing, though that final s is usually silent.

The second essential French verb is avoir, meaning "to have". Like etre, it is irregular and extremely frequent, so commit its forms to memory. Beyond simple possession, French uses avoir in many everyday expressions where English uses "to be".

Pronoun	Avoir	Example	English
j'	ai	J'ai un chien.	I have a dog.
tu	as	Tu as une soeur.	You have a sister.
il / elle / on	a	Il a un velo.	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.

Note that je becomes j' here (j'ai) because ai starts with a vowel. Be careful not to confuse ils ont (they have) with ils sont (they are); the two sound different and mean different things.

Age and other avoir expressions

The most important idiom: French expresses age with avoir, not "to be". J'ai vingt ans literally means "I have twenty years", that is, "I am twenty years old". You must include the word ans (years). Other common avoir expressions describe physical and emotional states:

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", and Tu as raison means "You are right". Learning avoir and these idioms unlocks a large amount of everyday conversation.

A French verb in its base form is the infinitive, ending in -er, -ir, or -re. By far the largest group ends in -er, and almost all of them are regular, so this one pattern unlocks hundreds of verbs. To conjugate, drop the -er to find the stem, then add the endings below.

The -er pattern

Here is parler (to speak). The endings are -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 all sound identical - "parl". Only the nous form (parlons, "par-LON") and vous form (parlez, "par-LAY") sound different. This is why the subject pronoun is so important in French: it is often the only clue to who is doing the action.

Putting it to work

The French present tense covers three English ideas at once. Je parle francais can mean "I speak French", "I am speaking French", or "I do speak French". More examples with translations:

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

Other common regular -er verbs to practice: aimer (to like or love), habiter (to live), manger (to eat), travailler (to work), regarder (to watch), and ecouter (to listen). Conjugate them all the same way: drop -er and add the six endings.

Beyond the big -er family, French has two more regular groups: verbs ending in -ir and verbs ending in -re. They are smaller but include many useful verbs, and their patterns are steady once learned.

Regular -ir verbs

The model is finir (to finish). A distinctive feature is the -iss- that appears in the 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

Other verbs on this pattern: choisir (to choose), reussir (to succeed), and grandir (to grow).

Regular -re verbs

The model is vendre (to sell). Drop -re and add -s, -s, [nothing], -ons, -ez, -ent. Note that the il / elle form adds no ending, so the stem stands alone.

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 -re verbs: attendre (to wait for), entendre (to hear), repondre (to answer), and perdre (to lose). Example sentences: 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), and Vous vendez la maison (You are selling the house). With all three regular families, you can now conjugate a very large share of French verbs.

An adjective describes a noun. In French, an adjective must agree with its noun in both gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). This is a major difference from English, where adjectives never change form.

How agreement works

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

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	grand	grands
Feminine	grande	grandes

So we 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 makes a previously silent final consonant sound: grand ends in a silent d, but grande pronounces the d. Adjectives that already end in -e (like rouge, red, or facile, easy) do not change for gender, only for number: une robe rouge, des robes rouges. A few are irregular, such as beau / belle (handsome / beautiful) and vieux / vieille (old).

Where adjectives go

Unlike English, most French adjectives come after the noun: une voiture rouge (a red car), un livre interessant (an interesting book). However, a small set of very common short adjectives comes before the noun. A useful 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). Examples: un bon repas (a good meal), une petite maison (a small house), un jeune homme (a young man). Full sentence: 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.

Numbers appear everywhere: prices, ages, phone numbers, addresses, and time. French counting is mostly regular but has a few famous quirks in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Start with the building blocks from zero to twenty, then the tens.

#	French	#	French
0	zero	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": dix-sept (17), dix-huit (18), dix-neuf (19). From 21 onward, join a ten and a unit, using et (and) only for the number one: vingt et un (21), but vingt-deux (22), trente-trois (33), 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, but with a little practice it becomes automatic. Belgian and Swiss French use simpler words (septante for 70, nonante for 90), but the forms above are standard in France and widely understood everywhere.

With numbers in hand, you can talk about the calendar and the clock, two of the most practical skills for daily life.

Days and months

The days of the week are lundi (Monday), mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, and dimanche. The months are janvier, fevrier, mars, avril, mai, juin, juillet, aout, septembre, octobre, novembre, decembre. Importantly, days and months are not capitalized in French unless they start a sentence.

Giving a date

The pattern is le + number + month: le 5 mai (the 5th of May), le 14 juillet (the 14th of July). Unlike English, French uses plain 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? To ask the day, say Quel jour sommes-nous? and answer Nous sommes lundi (It is Monday).

Telling time

To ask the time, say Quelle heure est-il? (What time is it?). The answer uses Il est ... heure(s). The word 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.

Note that une heure is singular ("heure") but all other hours are plural ("heures"). To be clear about morning or evening in casual speech, add du matin (in the morning), de l'apres-midi (in the afternoon), or du soir (in the evening). France also commonly uses the 24-hour clock for schedules: Il est quinze heures means 3 p.m. (15:00), and vingt heures trente is 8:30 p.m. (20:30). Both systems are worth knowing.

Asking questions is how conversations grow, and French gives you three ways to turn a statement into a yes-or-no question, ranging from casual to formal. Take the statement Tu parles francais (You speak French).

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

All three mean exactly the same thing. As a beginner, est-ce que is your friend because it works everywhere and requires no rearranging. To answer, use oui (yes) or non (no).

Question words

To ask for specific information, use these interrogatives. They typically combine with est-ce que in 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?)
ou	where	Ou habites-tu? (Where do you live?)
quand	when	Quand arrives-tu? (When do you arrive?)
pourquoi	why	Pourquoi etudies-tu? (Why do you study?)
comment	how	Comment ca va? (How's it going?)
combien	how much / many	Combien ca coute? (How much does it cost?)

To answer a pourquoi (why) question, use parce que (because): Pourquoi etudies-tu le francais? - Parce que j'aime la langue (Because I like the language). With these question words plus a verb, you can already interview a new acquaintance about their name, home, plans, and reasons.

To say that something is not the case, French wraps the verb in two words: ne and pas. Unlike English, which uses a single "not", standard French uses this pair, one part before the verb and one part after.

The basic rule

Place ne before the conjugated verb and pas after it: ne + verb + pas. Compare:

Affirmative	Negative
Je parle francais. (I speak French.)	Je ne parle pas francais. (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 silent h, as in n'est and n'avons. Second, in casual spoken French people often drop the ne entirely and say just Je parle pas, but in writing and careful speech you should keep both parts.

Negation and the indefinite article

A special rule: after a negative, the indefinite and partitive articles (un, une, des, du, 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, les) do not change.

Other negatives

French has a family of negatives that all use ne before the verb but replace pas with another word:

• 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.)

Learn ne...pas thoroughly first; the others follow the same two-part pattern around the verb.

You do not need a whole new tense to talk about the future. French has an easy, extremely common structure called the near future (le futur proche). It works just like the English phrase "going to". First you need the verb aller (to go), which is irregular.

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 a Paris (I am going to Paris). It is also the verb 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 + an infinitive. There is no linking word in between (unlike Spanish, which needs "a"). Look how it comes together:

French	English
Je vais manger.	I am going to eat.
Tu vas partir.	You are going to leave.
Elle va etudier.	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; the infinitive stays the same. This is why beginners love it: master one verb and you can express countless plans.

Talking about when

Pair the near future with time expressions: 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 musee (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?). To make the near future negative, wrap ne...pas around the aller part: Je ne vais pas sortir (I am not going to go out).

Talking about family (la famille) is a natural early conversation. Here are the core members with their genders.

French	English	French	English
le pere	father	la mere	mother
le fils	son	la fille	daughter / girl
le frere	brother	la soeur	sister
le grand-pere	grandfather	la grand-mere	grandmother
l'oncle	uncle	la tante	aunt
le mari	husband	la femme	wife / woman

A useful feature: the masculine plural covers a mixed group. Les parents means "the parents", and les grands-parents means "the grandparents".

Whose family? Possessive adjectives

To show whose relative you mean, use possessive adjectives, which agree with the thing owned, not the owner. Here are the singular forms.

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

So mon pere is "my father", ma mere is "my mother", and mes parents is "my parents". A key point that surprises English speakers: son and sa mean both "his" and "her". Because they agree with the noun, sa mere means "his mother" or "her mother" depending on context, and son frere means "his brother" or "her brother". Also, before a feminine noun starting with a vowel, use the masculine form for sound: mon amie (my female friend), not "ma amie".

Describing people

Combine etre with adjectives, remembering agreement. For appearance: grand / petit (tall / short), jeune / vieux (young / old), beau / belle (handsome / beautiful). For hair and eyes, use avoir: Il a les cheveux bruns (He has brown hair), Elle a les yeux bleus (She has blue eyes). For character: gentil (kind), intelligent (smart), drole (funny). A full description: Ma soeur est gentille et elle a les cheveux longs means "My sister is kind and she has long hair".

Food is one of the most rewarding topics for a new speaker because you can use it right away, especially in France where cafe culture is everywhere. Let us build a small menu, then learn to order.

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

The three meals are le petit-dejeuner (breakfast), le dejeuner (lunch), and le diner (dinner). To eat is manger and to drink is boire.

The partitive with food

Recall from Module 3 that talking about "some" of a food uses the partitive article: du (masculine), de la (feminine), de l' (before a vowel). So Je mange du pain (I eat some bread), Je bois de l'eau (I drink some water), Je veux de la soupe (I want some soup). English often omits "some", but French requires it. Remember that after a negative, these become de: Je ne mange pas de viande (I do not eat meat).

Wanting and ordering

To order politely, the key phrase is Je voudrais (I would like), a softened form of vouloir (to want). It is more courteous than Je veux (I want). Here is a short cafe exchange you could use today:

• Server: Bonjour, vous desirez? (Hello, what would you like?)
• You: Je voudrais un cafe, s'il vous plait. (I would like a coffee, please.)
• Server: Et avec ceci? (And with that?)
• You: Un croissant, s'il vous plait. (A croissant, please.)
• You (at the end): L'addition, s'il vous plait. (The check, please.)

The keyword l'addition (the bill) and the polite s'il vous plait will carry you through most meals. To say you like something in general, use the definite article: J'aime le cafe (I like coffee), not the partitive.

Now you will pull the whole course together to 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 everything you have learned: verbs, articles, time, and the near future.

Everyday verbs and places

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

Useful places: la maison (home), le travail (work), l'ecole (school), le magasin (the store), le parc (the park). Note that a + le contracts to au (au travail, to work) and a + les becomes aux; likewise de + le becomes du.

Sequencing your day

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

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

Bringing it all together

You can now describe not just today but tomorrow, using the near future: Demain, je vais visiter mes grands-parents et nous allons manger ensemble means "Tomorrow, I am going to visit my grandparents and we are going to eat together". And you can make it negative: Ce soir, je ne vais pas travailler (Tonight, I am not going to work). With greetings, etre and avoir, regular verbs, articles, adjectives, numbers, time, questions, negation, and the near future, you have a genuine foundation. Keep reading aloud, keep making sentences about your own life, and your French will steadily grow. Felicitations - congratulations on completing the course.