• Introductory lessons
• Level one lessons
• Level two lessons
• Level three lessons

Introductory

• Lesson 0.01 - Introduction
• Lesson 0.02 - The Alphabet
• Lesson 0.03 - Greetings
• Lesson 0.04 - Formal Speech
• Lesson 0.05 - Numbers
• Lesson 0.06 - The Date
• Lesson 0.07 - Telling Time
• Lesson 0 Review
• Lesson 0 Test

Lesson 0.01 - Introduction

French (Français, /fʁɑ̃sɛ/) is a Romance language spoken as a first language by around 136 million people worldwide. A total of 500 million speak it as either a first, second, or foreign language. Moreover, some 200 million people learn French as a foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 56 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in France, the rest live essentially in Canada, particularly the province of Quebec, with minorities in the Atlantic provinces, Ontario, and Western Canada, as well as Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, Luxembourg, and the U.S. states of Louisiana and Maine. Most second-language speakers of French live in Francophone Africa, arguably exceeding the number of native speakers.

French is a descendant of the Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are national languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian and Catalan, and minority languages ranging from Occitan to Neapolitan and many more. Its closest relatives however are the other langues d'oïl and French-based creole languages. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.

It is an official language in 29 countries, plus the Vatican City, which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking countries. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million (or 26% of the Union's total population), in 27 member states speak French, of which 65 million are native speakers and 69 million claim to speak French either as a second language or as a foreign language, making it the third most spoken second language in the Union, after English and German. Twenty-percent of non-Francophone Europeans know how to speak French, totaling roughly 145.6 million people.

In addition, from the 17th century to the mid 20th century, French served as the pre-eminent international language of diplomacy and international affairs as well as a lingua franca among the educated classes of Europe. The dominant position of French language has only been overshadowed recently by English, since the emergence of the USA as a major power.

As a result of extensive colonial ambitions of France and Belgium, between the 17th and 20th centuries, French was introduced to America, Africa, Polynesia, South-East Asia, and the Caribbean.

History

During the Roman occupation of Gaul, the Latin language was imposed on the natives. This Latin language (Classic Latin) eventually devolved into what is known as Vulgar Latin, which was still very similar to Latin. Over the centuries, due to Celtic and Germanic influences (particularly the Franks), la langue d'oïl was developed. A dialect of la langue d'oïl known as le francien was the language of the court, and thus became the official language of what was to become the Kingdom of France, and later the Nation-State of France.

From medieval times until the 19th century, French was the dominant language of diplomacy, culture, administration, trade and royal courts across Europe. Due to these factors, French was the lingua franca of this time period.

French has influenced many languages world wide, including English. It is through French (or more precisely Norman, a dialect of la langue d'oïl) that English gets about one third of its vocabulary.

Extent of the language

French is spoken all around the world.

In modern times, French is still a significant diplomatic language: it is an official language of the United Nations, the Olympic Games, and the European Union. It is also the official language of 29 countries and the Vatican City. Spoken in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Haiti, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, the Congo, Algeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Gabon, the Seychelles, Burundi, Chad, Rwanda, Djibouti, Cameroon, Mauritius, and Canada (mostly in the province of Québec where it is the primary language, but it is also used in other parts of the country). All consumer product packages in Canada are required by law to have both English and French labels.

Advice on studying French

French tends to have a reputation among English speakers as hard to learn. While it is true that it poses certain difficulties to native English-speakers, it may be noted that English is also considered 'difficult' to learn, and yet we learned it without the benefit of already knowing a language. In fact, the French language can be learned in only 10 months, if only for the specific purpose of passing a standardized test, such as the Test d'Evaluation de Français. According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, in order to reach the level of 'Independent User' (after completing Level B2), you must complete 400 hours of effective learning (so if you study 4 hours a week, every single week of the year, you would need two years to achieve it). Any way you look at it, learning any new language requires a long-term commitment. Remember, that like any skill, it requires a certain amount of effort. And it is likely that if you do not practice your French regularly, you will begin to forget it. Try to make French practice a part of your routine; even if it's not daily, at least make it regular.

Also remember that you are learning a new skill. Try to master the easier concepts before moving on to the more complex. We all have to add and subtract before we can do calculus. French is a complete language; thus, while this book can teach you to read and write in French, these are only half of the skills that make up fluency. A written document cannot teach much about listening to and speaking French. You must train on all of these skills, and they will then reinforce one another.

The very best way to learn French is to visit France or another French-speaking country. This allows you to start with a clean slate, as babies do. However, since most of us are unwilling or unable to take that step, the next best option is immersion. If you are serious about learning French, a period of immersion (during which you live in a Francophone culture) is a good idea once you have some basic familiarity with the language. If you can't travel to a French-speaking country, then try listening to French-language programs on the radio, TV, or the Internet. Rent or buy French-language movies (many American and U.K. movies have a French language option). Pay attention to pronunciation. Grab a French speaker you meet and talk to him or her in French. Listen, speak, and practice. Read French newspapers and magazines. Google's news page, which links to French-language news stories, is an excellent source that will enrich your vocabulary.

Written versus modern spoken French

While the French written language is highly standardized, and hasn’t changed much in over two hundred years, the same cannot be said of the spoken language. This book, like all French training material, is oriented towards the written language. The speaking examples are straight from the standardized written language. If you were to become an expert in this French, you would probably be completely confused when you arrive in a French speaking country. Unlike the written language, the spoken language is very dynamic. The French people would not readily understand you, and you would not understand them. You can picture in your mind, a person learning English from a two hundred year old book, and coming to your town and saying "Hast thou" or "Wherefore art thou."

The reason written French is stressed in learning (Schools and Internet courses), is that you can go from this standardized language to modern spoken French much easier than English to spoken French, and then going backwards to learning written French.

A simple example is: Je ne comprends pas (I don't understand). For a business person (not wanting to sound too plebeian) this would be spoken as: Jeun comprends pas, with the Je ne joined together. But most people on the street simplify this even further. The ne is deemed redundant and falls by the wayside, and the hard Je sound is reduced to a sh sound: shcomprends pas. Another example might be Il ne fait pas … (he/it doesn’t…) resulting in y fay pa … (ee-fay-pah), or Il n'y a pas … becoming yapa … (yah-pah…).

French is a language that is read, spoken, and sung. Each has different rules. Lyric and Poetry have pronunciation rules that are different than the written, and spoken French has no rules in comparison. Learning written French is only step one, and modern spoken French is your step two. This book is for learning written French.

What should I learn first?

Many courses of language study assume you are going there for vacation, and so begin their lessons with common survival phrases that people use. There is some of that in this book, but consider that "verbs" are what makes a language. There are six verbs in French that, when memorized, will give you a head start when moving on to learning sentences.

The distinction between a phrase and a sentence, is that a phrase does not have a subject or verb. This is why they are easy to learn, and a main part of vacation type books. You can't go wrong with a phrase. Unlike a phrase, a sentence is a grammatical unit. You will need nouns, pronouns, adjectives (words that modify nouns), adverbs (words that modify verbs and adjectives), etc. A sentence includes a subject (what/whom the sentence is about), and a predicate (words that tell us about the subject). There are also different types of sentences: declarative (statements), interrogative (questions), exclamative (exclamations), and commandative (commands). The structure of sentences, and not just phrases, must be studied and practiced in order to learn a new language.

Most important, at beginning levels, is to get your French face on. This means pronunciation is critical. You do not want to have to unlearn anything when you get to the next level. The textual pronunciation examples here are based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and should be used to prepare your mind. The IPA symbols are designed by scientists, and are no match to listening to French people within their own environment. It is important to actually listen to a real French speaker at this stage. Use the example voices contained in the book, but also watch French media on the Internet. You should be cautioned about French songs. It is acceptable for artists to twist a word for style and for rhyme, and they love to embellish endings. You will also find that mutes are pronounced in lyric and poetry. It is often the case that a singer or poem recitation will say "ewnuh" for une and "veeuh" for vie. You may also note, to prevent boredom, a lyric may be "veeuh" on one verse, and "vee" on the next. Examples, as to why songs and poetry are added experiences in learning and enjoying the French language.

The beginning verbs are:

Just as in English, you will use these as a base to create the fourteen (14) French tenses. Present, Future, Conditional, etc. Don't worry about tenses for this exercise. They are complications that will take months and years to master. Generally, only ten (10) tenses are used except for advanced levels of French.

The above verbs must be mastered to even begin. You might think the list is too short, so feel free to add verbs into your flash-card rotation.

The next verb examples, that are important to any language, are the movement type verbs. While you can "have, know, can, etc" you also need to "go, come, or stay" in many conversations. These verbs are considered basic building blocks.

Again, feel free to add others to your flash-card rotation.

That brings us to the "Big Seven" French question words. These, like the above will quickly become complicated as well. The following is obviously simplified, but your understanding at this level, will quickly get you to the next level.

Finally, one word that is very often needed:

• Parce que (/paʀs(ə)kə/ (pahrs(uh) kuh))ː Because

ex: "Parce que vous êtes trop vieux pour ça !" (Because you are too old for this!)

Making flash-cards of all the above French words, memorizing them (forward to English/backward to French), will give you a head start in all French Language courses.

Impediment of learning by tricks

There are many methods for students to learn new subjects, and the first method is to use what are known as "tricks," designed to make it easier (so it would seem). These tricks, in most cases, merely prevent the brain from storing the information for direct lookup. One example is the French word chat. We can form a rule, whereby anytime you see a ch in French, you will substitute a c and voilà - there you go. Others, such as changing -ment to -ly or -ant to -ing are a similar waste of time.

A good example of the damage that can be done by these "tricks", is in learning Morse Code. Many teachers will begin by showing the dit's and dah's visually, and then make the sound using the key following each symbol. So that dah-di-da-dit "-.-." will be stored in the brain as a c, and somehow (magically) retrieved for use later.

Alas, this technique only works up to a certain speed, and then the students brain is so damaged, they have no hope of using the code any faster than 10 Words Per Minute. It was found (in the 1850's), that if you just associate the whole sound with a letter, and ignore the combinations of dit's and dah's, that new students listening to 20 Words Per Minute for several weeks, were able to go to work immediately. A famous Scottish-American named Andrew Carnegie went from a message boy to head telegraph operator by learning to associate sounds with whole words, and not just writing down each character, as the method used by his peers.

The advice offered in this book, is to avoid these tricks, and to associate word and sentence sounds with their meaning. Listen to the new word or sentence, and store the meaning in your brain. Do not try to translate one language into your native language before responding. When someone hands you a stick of /di.na.mit/ (dee-nah-meet) you should quickly drop it and run, and not stop to translate it into dynamite first. Simply associate the word or sentence, but do not translate it.

When you go shopping, and hear customers saying in English "How much is that?" then you form an association of that sentence to the person wanting to know a price. Similarly, if you hear people in the market asking "Combien ça coûte?" you don't have to translate the sentence, you associate it with people wanting to know a price (or more often wanting to know a lower price while smiling seductively at the assistant). After associating ten things about the word "Combien" the brain will simplify matters for you, much like it pulls the steering wheel with your arm, after the eyes see a pot-hole ahead. Forever more, "Combien" will be associated with a quantity "How much", or "How many" just as pot-holes are associated with "avoid."

Lesson 0.02 - The Alphabet

French is based on the Latin alphabet (also called the Roman alphabet), and there are twenty-six (26) letters. Originally there were twenty-five (25) letters, with 'W' being added by the mid-nineteenth century. Unlike the English, who call it a "double-u," the French use "double-v" and pronounce it (doo-bluh-vay) after the 'V' which is pronounced (vay). During the period from Old French to Modern French, the letter 'K' was added. These two letters are used mostly with adopted foreign words. The French alphabet used today is less than 200 years old.

The twenty-six letters are parted into :

• 20 Consonants (Consonnes): B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Z
• 6 Vowels (Voyelles): A E I O U Y

In addition, French uses several accents: grave accents (à, è, and ù) and acute accents (é). A circumflex applies to all vowels, except Y (considered as a vowel): â, ê, î, ô, û. A tréma (French for dieresis) is also applied: ë, ï, ü, ÿ. Two combined letters (called orthographic ligatures) are used: æ and œ. Finally, a cedilla is used on the c to make it sound like an English s: ç.

Letters and examples

Letter	Name in French	Pronunciation
Aa	/a/ (ah)	like a in father
Bb	/be/ (bay)	like b in maybe
Cc	/se/ (say)	before e and i: like c in center before a, o, or u: like c in cat
Dd	/de/ (day)	like d in dog
Ee	/ə/ (uh)	approximately like u in burp
Ff	/ɛf/ (ehf)	like f in fog
Gg	/ʒe/ (zhay)	before e and i: like s in measure before a, o, or u: like g in get
Hh	/aʃ/ (ahsh)	See Supplementary Notes below: never pronounced
Ii	/i/ (ee)	like ea in team
Jj	/ʒi/ (zhee)	like s in measure
Kk	/ka/ (kah)	like k in kite
Ll	/ɛl/ (ehl)	like l in lemon
Mm	/ɛm/ (ehm)	like m in minute
Nn	/ɛn/ (ehn)	like n in note
Oo	/o/ (oh)	closed: approximately like u in nut open: like o in nose
Pp	/pe/ (pay)	like p in pen
Qq	/ky/ (kew)	like k in kite
Rr	/ɛʁ/ (ehr)	force air through the back of your throat near the position of gargling, but sounding soft
Ss	/ɛs/ (ehs)	like s in sister at beginning of word or with two s's or like z in amazing if only one s
Tt	/te/ (tay)	like t in top
Uu	/y/ (ew)	say the English letter e, but make your lips say oo
Vv	/ve/ (vay)	like v in violin
Ww	/dubləve/ (doo-bluh-vay)	depending on the derivation of the word, like v as in violin, or w in water
Xx	/iks/ (eeks)	either /ks/ in socks, or /gz/ in exit
Yy	/igʁɛk/ (ee-grehk)	like ea in leak
Zz	/zɛd/ (zehd)	like z in zebra

Supplementary orthography · Notes

Supplementary orthography · Punctuation · La ponctuation

&	esperluette, et commercial		,	virgule		{   }	accolades		~	tilde
'	apostrophe		=	égal		%	pourcent		@	arobase, a commercial, arobe
*	astérisque		$	dollar		.	point
« »	guillemets		!	point d'exclamation		+	plus
\	barre oblique inverse		>	supérieur à		#	dièse
[   ]	crochets		<	inférieur à		?	point d'interrogation
:	deux points		-	moins, tiret, trait d'union		_	soulignement
;	point virgule		(   )	parenthèses		/	barre oblique

The punctuation symbols in French operates very similarly to English with the same meaning. The only punctuation symbol not present in French would be the quotation marks; these are replaced by the guillemets shown in the table above. For speech in fiction, no quotation marks are used. The two stroke punctuation marks (such as ;, :, ?, !) may require a non-breaking space before or after the mark in question.

Supplementary orthography · Diacritics

Five different kinds of accent marks are used in written French. In many cases, an accent changes the sound of the letter to which it is added. In others, the accent has no effect on pronunciation. Accents in French never indicate stress (which always falls on the last syllable). Accentuated letters are usually never followed by a double consonant (except châssis for instance); moreover on e accent becomes useless because a following double consonant changes its pronunciation (e.g.: jeter ([ə],throw) but je jette (pronounced è, I throw). The following table lists every French accent mark and the letters with which it can be combined:

Accent	Letters used	Examples
acute accent (accent aigu)	é	éléphant  /e.le.fɑ̃/
grave accent (accent grave)	è, à, ù	fièvre  /fjɛvʁ/, là  /la/, où  /u/
circumflex (accent circonflexe)	â, ê, î, ô, û	gâteau  /ɡa.tɔ/, être  /ɛtʁ/, île  /il/, chômage /ʃɔ.maʒ/, dû /dy/
diaeresis (tréma)	ë, ï, ü, ÿ	Noël /nɔ.ɛl/, maïs  /ma.is/, aigüe /e.ɡy/
cedilla (cédille)	ç	français  /fʁɑ̃.sɛ/

Note that the letter ÿ is only used in very rare words, mostly old town names like L'Haÿ-Les-Roses, a Paris surburb or Aÿ in Champagne region. This letter is pronounced like ï.

Note also that as of the spelling reform of 1990, the diaresis indicating gu is not a digraph on words finishing in guë and is now placed on the u in standard (académie française) French: aigüe and not aiguë; cigüe and not ciguë; ambigüe and not ambiguë. Since this reform is relatively recent and mostly unknown to laypeople, the two spellings can be used interchangeably.

Acute accent · Accent aigu

The acute accent is the most common accent used in written French. It is only used with the letter e and is always pronounced /e/ (ay).

One use of the accent aigu is to form the past participle of regular -er verbs.

Infinitive	Past participle
aimer (to love)	aimé (loved)
regarder (to watch)	regardé (watched)

Grave accent · Accent grave

à and ù

In the case of the letters à and ù, the grave accent is used to graphically distinguish one word from another.

Without accent grave	With accent grave
a (3rd pers. sing of avoir, to have)	à (preposition, to, at, etc.)
la (definite article for feminine nouns)	là (there)
ou (conjunction, or)	où (where)

è

Unlike à and ù, è is not used to distinguish words from one another. The è is used for pronunciation. In careful speech, an unaccented e is pronounced like an a on the end of a word in English /ə/, as in "Angela", and in rapid speech is sometimes not pronounced at all. The è is pronounced like the letter e in pet.

Circumflex accent · Accent circonflexe

This accent is often called a 'hat' in language and mathematics, and usually indicates the disappearance of the old-French s after the vowel wearing it (the hat) but this s can still be found in a noun or a verb of the same lexical family. Examples are: hospital --> hôpital but hospitalité, maistre --> maître, gâteau from old french gastel, ê is pronounced like è: Fenestre --> fenêtre but défenestrer, forest --> forêt but forestier.

Circumflex accent may be used to have closed-o (la Drôme (French department), un dôme... ô is pronounced [o] like in château, without this accent it would be said like the english word hot ; whereas this pronunciation is not really applied in the south of France.)

In the past participle of devoir (must), dû a circumflex accent is written to distinguish it from the article du.

According to the spelling reform of 1990 some circumflex accents are no longer compulsory (maître --> maitre, boîte --> boite...)

Cedilla · Cédille

The cedilla is used only with the letter c, and is said to make the c soft, making it equivalent to the English and French s.

garçon

Supplementary exercises

Lesson 0.03 - Greetings

Vocabulary · Greetings · Les salutations

Salut	/sa.ly/ (sah-lew)	Hi./Bye.	informal
Bonjour	/bɔ̃.ʒuʁ/ (boh(n)-zhoor)	Hello	the normal greeting; all day
Bonsoir	/bɔ̃.swaʁ/ (boh(n)-swahr)	Good evening, good night, hello	after 19h00 (7pm)
Bonne soirée	/bɔn swaʁ.e/ (bohn swah-ray)	Good evening	une soirée can also mean a party
Bonne nuit	/bɔn‿nɥi/ (bohn nooee)	Good night	the normal farewell after dark
Quoi de neuf ?	/kwɑ də nœf/ (kwah duh nuhf)	What's up?, How's it going?	lit: what's new
Pas grand-chose.	/pa gʁɑ̃ ʃoz/ (pah grah(n) shohz)	Not much.	lit: no big-thing

When talking to one's peers or to children, Salut is used as a greeting. Its English equivalents would be hi and hey. Bonjour, literally meaning good day, should be used for anyone else. One way of remembering these greetings, is that they come in masculine/feminine pairs. One is upon arrival, the other upon departure.

jour : bonjour / bonne journée
matin : bonjour / bonne matinée (early in the morning), bonne journée (early or late in the morning)
après-midi : bonjour / bon(ne) après-midi (early in the afternoon), bonne journée (early or late in the afternoon), bonne soirée (late in the afternoon)
soir : bonjour, bonsoir / bonne soirée (early or late in the evening), bonne nuit (very late in the evening)
nuit : bonjour, bonsoir / bonne nuit

The French never say Bon matin, they do use matinée, journée, soirée but never use nuitée.

Vocabulary · Good-bye · Au revoir

Salut	/sa.ly/ (sah-lew)	Hi./Bye.	informal
Au revoir	/o ʁɘ.vwaʁ/ (oh ruh-vwahr)	Good-bye	lit: to/until seeing again
À demain	/a dɘmɛ̃/ (ah duh-ma(n))	See you tomorrow	lit: to/until tomorrow
À tout à l'heure	/a tu‿ta lœʁ/ (ah too-tah luhr)	See you (later today)	idiomatic, lit: to all to the hour
À la prochaine	/a la proʃɛn/ (ah lah proh-shehn)	See you (tomorrow)	lit: to/until next time
À bientôt	/bjɛ̃.to/ (ah byuha(n)-toh)	See you soon	lit: to/until soon
À plus tard	/a ply taʁ/ (ah plew tahr)	See you later	À plus (short version for "see you")
Ciao	/tʃao/ (chow)	Bye	Italian
Bonne soirée	/bɔn swaʁ.e/ (bohn swahr-ay)	Have a good evening
Bonne journée	/bɔn ʒuʁ.ne/ (bohn zhoor-nay)	Have a nice day

In addition to being used as an informal greeting, Salut also means bye. Again, it should only be used among friends. Another informal greeting is ciao, an Italian word commonly used in France. Au revoir is the only formal way to say Good-bye. If you will be meeting someone again soon, use À bientôt or À tout à l'heure. À demain is used if you will be seeing the person the following day.

Vocabulary · Names

Tu t'appelles comment ? is used to informally ask someone for his or her name. It is normal to just reply by stating your name, however you may also respond with [[wikt:Je m'appelle [name].|Je m'appelle [name].]] , meaning I am called....

Vocabulary · How are you? · Ça va ?

Comment allez-vous ? (formal) , Comment vas-tu ? (informal) , Comment ça va ? / Ça va ? (informal)	/kɔmɑ̃‿tal.e vu/ , /kɔmɑ̃ va ty/ , /kɔmɑ̃ sa va/	How are you?	lit: How do you go?, It goes?
Est-ce que vous allez bien ?	/eskə vu‿zal.e bjɛ̃/	Are you well?
Ça va (très) bien	/sa va (tʁɛ) bjɛ̃/	I'm doing (very) well.	lit. It's going (very) well
Je vais bien	/ʒə ve bjɛ̃/	I am well.
Ça va Oui, ça va	/sa va/ /wi sa va/	Things are going fine. Yes, I'm fine.
Très bien, merci	/tʁɛ bjɛ̃ mɛʁsi/	Very well, thanks.
Pas mal	/pa mal/	Not Bad
Pas si bien/pas très bien	/pa si (tʁɛ) bjɛ̃/	Not so well
(très) mal	/tʁɛ mal/	(very) bad
Comme ci, comme ça	/kɔm si kɔm sa/	So-so
Désolé(e)	/de.zɔ.le/	Sorry.	Désolée if feminine, same pronunciation
Et toi ? Et vous ?	/e twɑ/ /e vu/	And you? (informal) And you? (formal)

DIALOGUE: Two good friends, Olivier and Luc, are meeting.

Ça va ? is used to ask someone how they are doing. The phrase literally means It goes?, referring to the body and life. A more formal way to say this is Comment allez-vous ?. You can respond by using ça va as a statement; Ça va. in this case is used for I'm fine. The adverb bien /bjɛ̃/ is used to say well, and is often said both alone and as Ça va bien. Bien is preceded by certain adverbs to specify the degree to which you are well. Common phrases are assez bien, meaning rather well, très bien, meaning very well, and vraiment bien, meaning really well. The adverb mal /mal/ is used to say badly. Pas^not /pɑ/ is commonly added to mal to form Pas mal., meaning Not bad. Comme ci, comme ça., literally translating to Like this, like that., is used to say So, so.

To be polite, you can add merci /mɛʁ.si/, meaning thank you, in your responses to the questions e.g., très bien, merci.

Exercises

ExerciseBasic phrases dialogue

Put the following conversation in order:

	First	Second	Third	Fourth
1. Michel	Je ne vais pas très bien.	Bonjour, Jacques	Au revoir	Comment ça va?
2. Jacques	Désolé.	Ça va très bien! Et vous? Allez-vous bien?	À demain.	Salut, Michel!

Solution

	First	Second	Third	Fourth
1. Michel	Bonjour, Jacques	Comment ça va?	Je ne vais pas très bien.	Au revoir
2. Jacques	Salut, Michel!	Ça va très bien! Et vous? Allez-vous bien?	Désolé.	À demain.

Lesson 0.04 - Formal Speech

Dialogue · A formal conversation · Une conversation formelle

Two people—Monsieur Bernard and Monsieur Lambert—are meeting for the first time:

Monsieur Bernard	Bonjour. Comment vous appelez-vous ?
	Hello. What's your name?
Monsieur Lambert	Je m'appelle Jean-Paul Lambert. Et vous ?
	I am Jean-Paul Lambert. And you?
Monsieur Bernard	Moi, je suis Marc Bernard. Enchanté.
	Me, I am Marc Bernard. Nice to meet you.
Monsieur Lambert	Enchanté.
	Nice to meet you.

Grammar · Vous vs. tu

This is an important difference between French and English today. English no longer distinguishes between the singular, and the plural, formal version of you. The use of thou for the informal singular version faded almost completely by the mid-nineteenth century.

In French, it is important to know when to use vous /vu/ and when to use tu /ty/.

Vous is the plural form of you. This is somewhat equivalent to you all, you guys, all of you, except that it does not carry any familiarity when used with the plural. You would use it to address your friends as well as when talking to the whole government at a press conference.

Vous is also used to refer to single individuals to show respect, to be polite or to be neutral. It is used when talking to someone who is important, someone who is older than you are, or someone with whom you are unfamiliar. This is known as Vouvoiement. Note the conversation between M. Bernard and M. Lambert above as an example of this use.

Conversely, tu is the singular and informal form of vous (you) in French. It is commonly used when referring to a friend or a family member, and is also used between children or when addressing a child. If it is used when speaking to a stranger, it signals disrespect. This is known as Tutoiement. As a rule of thumb, use tu only when you would call that person by his first name, otherwise use vous. French people will make it known when they would like you to refer to them by tu. The use of vous is less common in Quebequois than in French from France.

In sociolinguistics, a T–V distinction describes the situation wherein a language has second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, or insult toward the addressee. The expressions T-form (informal) and V-form (formal), with reference to the initial letters of these pronouns in Latin, tu and vos. In Latin, tu was originally the singular, and vos the plural, with no distinction for honorific or familiar. It was only between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries that the norms for the use of T- and V-forms crystallized.

Vocabulary · Courtesy · La politesse

Please	S'il te plaît		(Lit: If it pleases you.)
	S'il vous plaît		(formal).
Thanks (a lot)	Merci (beaucoup)
You're welcome.	De rien		(Lit: It's nothing.)
	Pas de quoi		(No problem.)
	Je t'en prie		I pray you (informal)
	Je vous en prie		(formal)

Vocabulary · Titles · Les titres

• It's acceptable to use /mɛ.dam/ or /me.dam/ (meh-dahm) or (may-dahm)
• Do not forget to liaison if saying Mesdames et Messieurs /me.dam z‿e me.sjø/ (may-dam-zay-maysy^uhew).

Vocabulary · Asking for one's name · Demander le nom de quelqu'un

Comment vous appelez-vous ? Quel est votre nom ?		How do you call yourself? (formal) What is your name?
Tu t'appelles comment ?		What is your name? (informal)
Je m'appelle… Je suis… Moi, je suis…		My name is… I am… I'm…

Note that with vous, the verb appelez is spelled with one 'l', whereas with tu it has two l's (appelles). This is an irregular conjugation which will be covered more in-depth in a later lesson.

Exercises

Lesson 0.05 - Numbers

Vocabulary · Cardinal numbers

zéro	/ze.ʁo//	0
un(e)	/œ̃/ , /yn/	1
deux	/dø/	2
trois	/tʁwa/	3
quatre	/katʁ/	4
cinq	/sɛ̃k/	5
six	/sis/	6
sept	/sɛt/	7
huit	/ɥit/	8
neuf	/nœf/	9
dix	/dis/	10
onze	/ɔ̃z/	11
douze	/duz/	12
treize	/tʁɛz/	13
quatorze	/ka.tɔʁz/	14
quinze	/kɛ̃z/	15
seize	/sɛz/	16
dix-sept	/dis.sɛt/	17
dix-huit	/dis.ɥit/	18
dix-neuf	/dis.nœf/	19
vingt	/vɛ̃/	20
vingt et un, vingt-et-un	/vɛ̃ -te-œ̃/	21
vingt-[deux - neuf]		22-29
trente	/tʁɑ̃t/	30
trente et un, trente-et-un	/tʁɑ̃.t‿e œ̃/	31
trente-[deux - neuf]		32-39
quarante	/ka.ʁɑ̃t/	40
cinquante	/sɛ̃.kɑ̃t/	50
soixante	/swa.sɑ̃t/	60
soixante-dix	/swa.sɑ̃t.dis/	70
soixante-et-onze		71
soixante-[douze - dix-neuf]		72-79
quatre-vingts	/kat.ʁvɛ̃t/	80
quatre-vingt-un	/kat.ʁvɛ̃.œ̃/	81
quatre-vingt-[deux - neuf]		82-89
quatre-vingt-dix	/kat.ʁvɛ̃.dis/	90
quatre-vingt-[onze - dix-neuf]		91-99
cent	/sɑ̃(t)/	100
[deux - neuf] cents		200-900
deux cent un		201
neuf cent un		901
mille	/mil/	1.000 (103)
(un) million	/mi.ljɔ̃/	1.000.000 (106)
(un) milliard	/miljaʁ/	1.000.000.000 (109)

Only 21, 31, 41, 51 and 61 (but not 71, 81, or 91) have et un without a hyphen; but past this it is simply both words consecutively (vingt-six, trente-trois, etc) with a hyphen in between. For 100-199, cent is added before the rest of the number; this continues up to 1000 and onward. Many speakers of French outside of France refer to the numbers 70 to 99 in the same pattern as the other numbers. For instance, in Switzerland and Belgium, 70 is septante /sɛp.tɑ̃t/, 71 is septante-et-un, 72 is septante deux, and so on; 90 is nonante /nɔ.nɑ̃t/, 91 is nonante-et-un /nɔ.nɑ̃t.e.œ̃/, 92 is nonante deux, and so on. In Switzerland, 80 is huitante or octante /ɔk.tɑ̃t/.

Supplementary vocabulary · Collective nouns

une unité	/y.ni.te/	a unity
une huitaine	/ɥi.tɛn/	about eight
une dizaine	/di.zɛn/	about ten
une douzaine	/du.zɛn/	about twelve
une quinzaine	/kɛ̃.zɛn/	about fifteen
une vingtaine	/vɛ̃.tɛn/	about twenty
une trentaine	/tʁɑ̃.tɛn/	about thirty
une quarantaine	/ka.ʁɑ̃.tɛn/	about forty
une cinquantaine	/sɛ̃.kɑ̃.tɛn/	about fifty
une soixantaine	/swa.sɑ̃.tɛn/	about sixty
une centaine	/sɑ̃.tɛn/	one hundred, about a hundred
un millier	/mi.lje/	one thousand, about a thousand

Supplementary vocabulary · Mathematics · Les mathématiques

Supplementary dialogue · In school · À l'école

Supplementary vocabulary · Ordinal numbers · Les nombres ordinaux

premier, première	/pʁə.mje/ , /pʁə.mjɛʁ/	first
deuxième	/dø.zjɛm/	second
troisième	/tʁwa.zjɛm/	third
quatrième	/ka.tʁi.jɛm/	fourth
cinquième	/sɛ̃.kjɛm/	fifth
sixième	/si.zjɛm/	sixth
septième	/sɛ.tjɛm/	seventh
huitième	/ɥi.tjɛm/	eighth
neuvième	/nœ.vjɛm/	ninth
dixième	/di.zjɛm/	tenth
onzième	/ɔ̃.zjɛm/	eleventh
douzième	/du.zjɛm/	twelfth
treizième	/tʁɛ.zjɛm/	thirteenth
quatorzième	/ka.tɔʁ.zjɛm/	fourteenth
quinzième	/kɛ̃.zjɛm/	fifteenth
seizième	/sɛ.zjɛm/	sixteenth
dix-septième	/di.sɛ.tjɛm/	seventeenth
dix-huitième	/di.ɥi.tjɛm/	eighteenth
dix-neuvième	/di.nœ.vjɛm/	nineteenth
vingtième	/vɛ̃.tiɛm/	twentieth
vingt-et-unième	/vɛ̃.te.y.njɛm/	twenty-first
vingt-deuxième	/vɛ̃t.dø.zjɛm/	twenty-second
trentième	/tʁɑ̃.tjɛm/	thirtieth
quarantième	/ka.ʁɑ̃.tjɛm/	fortieth
quarante-et-unième		forty-first
cinquantième	/sɛ̀.kɑ̃.tjɛm/	fiftieth
cinquante-et-unième		fifty-first
soixantième	/swa.sɑ̃.tjɛm/	sixtieth
soixante-dixième	/swa.sɑ̃t di.zjɛm/	seventieth
quatre-vingtième	/katʁ.vɛ̃.tjɛm/	eightieth
quatre-vingt-dixième	/ka.trə.vɛ̃.di.zjɛm/	ninetieth
centième	/sɑ̃.tjɛm/	hundredth

Exercises

Supplementary exercises

Lesson 0.06 - The Date

Vocabulary · Days · Les jours

Vocabulary The days of the week · Les jours de la semaine
French	Pronunciation	English	Origin
lundi	/lœ̃di/ (luh(n)-dee)	Monday	(Moon)
mardi	/maʁdi/ (mahr-dee)	Tuesday	(Mars)
mercredi	/mɛʁkʁədi/ (mehr-kruh-dee)	Wednesday	(Mercury)
jeudi	/ʒødi/ (zhew-dee)	Thursday	(Jupiter)
vendredi	/vɑ̃dʁədi/ (vah(n)-druh-dee)	Friday	(Venus)
samedi	/samdi/ (sahm-dee)	Saturday	(Saturn)
dimanche	/dimɑ̃ʃ/ (dee-mah(n)sh)	Sunday	(Dies Domini)

• The days of the week are not capitalized in French.
• The calender starts on Monday, unlike the English Sunday.

Vocabulary Asking for the day · Demander le jour
Aujourd'hui on est quel jour ?	/oʒuʁdɥi ɔ̃‿nɛ kɛl ʒuʁ/ (oh-zhoor-dewee oh(n)nay kehl zhoor)	Today is what day?
Quel jour sommes-nous aujourd'hui? Quel jour est-on aujourd'hui? On est quel jour aujourd'hui?	/kɛl ʒuʁ sɔm nu oʒuʁdɥi/ (kehl zhoor sohm noo oh-zhoor-dewee) /kɛl ʒuʁ ɛ‿tɔ̃ oʒuʁdɥi/ (kehl zhoor ehtoh(n) oh-zhoor-dewee) /ɔ̃‿nɛ kɛl ʒuʁ oʒuʁdɥi/ (oh(n)eh kehl zhoor oh-zhoor-dewee)	What day is it today?
Aujourd'hui c'est [jour]. Aujourd'hui on est [jour].	/oʒuʁdɥi sɛ/ (oh-zhoor-dewee seh) /oʒuʁdɥi ɔ̃‿nɛ/ (oh-zhoor-dewee oh(n)neh)	Today is [day].
C'est [day]. Nous sommes [day]. On est [day].	/sɛ/ (seh) /nu sɔm/ (noo sohm) /ɔ̃‿nɛ/ (oh(n)neh)	It is [day].
Demain c'est quel jour ?	/dəmɛ̃ sɛ kɛl ʒuʁ/ (duhma(n) seh kehl zhoor)	Tomorrow is what day?
Demain c'est [jour].	/dəmɛ̃ sɛ/ (duhma(n) seh)	Tomorrow is [day].

• ^ On est quel jour aujourd'hui? is less formal but more common.

Vocabulary Relative days · Les jours relatifs
avant-hier	/avɑ̃‿tjɛʁ/ (ahvah(n)tyuhehr)	the day before yesterday
hier	/jɛʁ/ (yuhehr)	yesterday
aujourd'hui	/oʒuʁdɥi/ (oh-zhoor-dewee)	today
ce soir	/sə swaʁ/ (suh swahr)	tonight
demain	/dəmɛ̃/ (duhma(n))	tomorrow
après-demain	/apʁɛ dəmɛ̃/ (ahpreh duhma(n))	the day after tomorrow

• Nous sommes... is not used with hier, aujourd’hui, or demain. C'était (past) or C'est (present/future) must be used accordingly.

Vocabulary · Months · Les mois

Vocabulary The months of the year · Les mois de l'année
French	Pron.	English
janvier	/ʒɑ̃vje/ (zhah(n)-vyuhay)	January
février	/fevʁije/, /fevʁje/ (fay-vree-yuhay / fay-vryuhay)	February
mars	/maʁs/ (mahrs)	March
avril	/avʁil/ (ahv-reel)	April
mai	/mɛ/ (meh)	May
juin	/ʒɥɛ̃/ (zhoo-a(n))	June
juillet	/ʒɥijɛ/ (zhoo-ee-yuheh)	July
août	/ut/, /u/ (oot/oo)	August
septembre	/sɛptɑ̃bʁ/ (sehp-tah(n)-br)	September
octobre	/ɔktɔbʁ/ (ohk-toh-br)	October
novembre	/nɔvɑ̃bʁ/ (noh-vah(n)-br)	November
décembre	/desɑ̃bʁ/ (day-sah(n)-br)	December

• The months of the year are not capitalized in French.

Vocabulary Asking for the date · Demander la date
Quelle est la date (d'aujourd'hui) ?	/kɛl ɛ la dat/ (kehl eh lah daht)	What is the date (today)?
C'est le [#] [month].	/sɛ lə/ (seh lah)	It's [month] [#].

On May 5, one would say "C'est le cinq mai." However, the first of the month uses "le premier" (the first): C'est le premier août (August 1).

Dialogue · What day is it?

Vocabulary · Seasons · Les saisons

Vocabulary The Seasons · Les Saisons
la saison	/la sɛ.zɔ̃/ (lah seh-zoh(n))	season
le printemps	/lə pʁɛ̃.tɑ̃/ (luh pra(n)-tah(n))	Spring
l'été (m)	/le.te/ (lay-tay)	Summer
l'automne (m)	/lo.tɔn/ (loh-tohn)	Autumn
l'hiver (m)	/li.vɛʁ/ (lee-vehr)	Winter

Vocabulary · Age

Dialogue · How old are you?

Lesson 0.07 - Telling Time

Vocabulary · Time · Le temps

In French, il est is used to express the time; though it would literally translate as he is, it is actually, in this case, equivalent to it is (impersonal il). Unlike in English, it is always important to use heures (hours) when referring to the time. In English, it is okay to say It’s nine, but this wouldn’t make sense in French.

Quelle heure est-il ?		What time is it?
Il est une heure.		It is one o’clock.
Il est trois heures.		It is three o’clock.
Il est dix heures.		It is ten o’clock.
Il est midi.		It is noon.
Il est minuit.		It is midnight.
Il est quatre heures cinq.		It is five past four.
Il est quatre heures et quart.		It is a quarter past four.
Il est quatre heures moins le quart		It is a quarter till 4.
Il est quatre heures quinze.		It is four fifteen.
Il est quatre heures et demie.		It is half past four.
Il est quatre heures trente.		It is four thirty.
Il est cinq heures moins vingt.		It is twenty to five.
Il est quatre heures quarante.		It is four forty.

Time is often abbreviated using h for heure(s). For example, 9 o'clock AM would be 9h or 9h00. They also use 24-hour time in this format, so 10 o'clock PM would be 22h.

Supplementary vocabulary · More time expressions

Vocabulary · Times of day · L'heure relative

le lever du jour		daybreak	lit: the rise of the day
le lever du soleil		sunrise	lit: the rise of the sun
le soleil levant		rising sun
le matin		morning
...du matin		A.M.	lit: of the morning
hier matin		yesterday morning
le midi		noon, midday
le minuit		midnight
l'après-midi (m)		afternoon
le soir		evening, in the evening
...du soir		P.M.	lit: of the evening
la nuit		night
le coucher du soleil		sunset

Dialogue · What time is it?

Supplementary dialogue · The director · Le directeur

Daniel	(frappe à la porte : toc toc toc)
	(knocks on the door: knock knock knock)
Le directeur	Entrez !
	Enter!
Daniel	Bonjour, monsieur le directeur. Est-ce que vous allez bien ?
	Hello, Mr. Director. Are you well?
Le directeur	Je vais bien merci. Et vous, comment allez-vous ?
	I am well, thank you. And you, how are you?
Daniel	Je vais bien. Je veux vous demander s'il est possible d'organiser une fête pour mon anniversaire. Je l'organiserais le 3 mars vers 14 h.
	I'm well. I want to ask you if it is possible to organize a party for my birthday. I would organize it the third of March around 02:00 PM.
Le directeur	Et vous voulez l'organiser où ?
	And you want to organize it where?
Daniel	Dans la grande salle de réunion au deuxième étage. On en aurait besoin jusqu'à 16 h, le temps de tout nettoyer.
	In the large conference room on the second floor. We would need it until 04:00 PM, the time of cleaning everything.
Le directeur	Entendu ! J' espère que je serais invité ?
	Agreed! I hope that I would be invited?
Daniel	Bien sûr ! Merci Beaucoup !
	Of course! Thanks a lot!
Le directeur	Au revoir !
	Good-bye!
Daniel	Au revoir et encore merci !
	Good-bye and thanks again.

Lesson 0 - Review

G: The French alphabet

In addition, French uses several accents which are worth understanding. These are: à, è, ù, (grave accents) and é (acute accent). A circumflex applies to all vowels: â, ê, î, ô, û. A tréma (French for dieresis) is also applied: ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ. Two combined letters are used: æ and œ, and a cedilla is used on the c to make it sound like an English s: ç.

V: Basic phrases

V: Numbers

Things of note about numbers:

• For 70-79, it builds upon "soixante" but past that it builds upon a combination of terms for 80-99
• Only the first (21,31,41,51,61 and 71, but not 81 nor 91) have "et un" without a hyphen; but past this it is simply both words consecutively (vingt-six, trente-trois, etc.) with a hyphen in between.
• For 100-199, it looks much like this list already save that "cent" is added before the rest of the number; this continues up to 1000 and onward.

V: Asking for the day/date/time

V: Time

In French, “il est” is used to express the time; though it would literally translate as “he is”, it is actually, in this case, equivalent to “it is” (unpersonal "il"). Unlike in English, it is always important to use “heures” (“hours”) when referring to the time. In English, it is OK to say, “It’s nine,” but this wouldn’t make sense in French. The French time system traditionally uses a 24 hour scale. Shorthand for writing times in French follows the format "17h30", which would represent 5:30PM in English.

V: The days of the week.

Vocabulary The days of the week · Les jours de la semaine
French	Pronunciation	English	Origin
lundi	/lœ̃di/ (luh(n)-dee)	Monday	(Moon)
mardi	/maʁdi/ (mahr-dee)	Tuesday	(Mars)
mercredi	/mɛʁkʁədi/ (mehr-kruh-dee)	Wednesday	(Mercury)
jeudi	/ʒødi/ (zhur-dee)	Thursday	(Jupiter)
vendredi	/vɑ̃dʁədi/ (vah(n)-druh-dee)	Friday	(Venus)
samedi	/samdi/ (sahm-dee)	Saturday	(Saturn)
dimanche	/dimɑ̃ʃ/ (dee-mah(n)sh)	Sunday	(Dies Domini)

• The days of the week are not capitalized in French.
• For phrases relating to the day of the week, see the phrasebook.

Notes:

• What day is it today? is equivalent to Quel jour sommes-nous ?.
• Quel jour sommes-nous ? can be answered with Nous sommes..., C'est... or On est... (last two are less formal).
• Nous sommes... is not used with hier, aujourd’hui, or demain. C'était (past) or C'est (present/future) must be used accordingly.

V: The months of the year

Vocabulary The months of the year · Les mois de l'année
French	Pron.	English
janvier	/ʒɑ̃vje/ (zhah(n)-vyay)	January
février	/fevʁije/ (fay-vree-yay)	February
mars	/maʁs/ (mahrs)	March
avril	/avʁil/ (ahv-reel)	April
mai	/mɛ/ (meh)	May
juin	/ʒɥɛ̃/ (zhoo-a(n))	June
juillet	/ʒɥijɛ/ (zhoo-ee-yeh)	July
août	/ut/, /u/ (oot/oo)	August
septembre	/sɛptɑ̃bʁ/ (sehp-tah(n)-br)	September
octobre	/ɔktɔbʁ/ (ohk-toh-br)	October
novembre	/nɔvɑ̃bʁ/ (noh-vah(n)-br)	November
décembre	/desɑ̃bʁ/ (day-sah(n)-br)	December

V: Relative date and time

V: Seasons

Vocabulary The Seasons · Les Saisons
la saison	/la sɛ.zɔ̃/ (lah seh-zoh(n))	season
le printemps	/lə pʁɛ̃.tɑ̃/ (luh pra(n)-taw(n))	Spring
l'été (m)	/le.te/ (lay-tay)	Summer
l'automne (m)	/lo.tɔn/ (loh-tawn)	Autumn
l'hiver (m)	/li.vɛʁ/ (lee-vehr)	Winter

Dialogue · A conversation between friends · Une conversation entre amis

^1 Bien... is an adverb meaning well. Its adjective equivalent is bon(ne), which means good. Since je vais, meaning I go, uses an action verb,
the adverb bien is used. In English, I'm good, which uses the linking verb am, is followed by an adjective rather than an adverb.

^2 Est-ce que... doesn't mean anything (like the spanish upside down question mark) and is used to start a question.
This can be used in a similar manner to do in English. Instead of You want it?, one can say Do you want it?

^3 chez... is a preposition meaning at the house of.... Chez moi is used to say at my place. Chez [name] is used to say at [name's] place.

^4 on... can mean we or one.

Lesson 0 - Test

The following test will confirm your progress in the French introduction. Try to answer the questions to the best of your ability without turning to the previous chapters or consulting the test answers.

Grammar

Verb forms

Name the verb forms for the subject and infinitive specified. (1 point each)

Translating

English to French

Translate the following phrases and sentences into French. (2 points each)

1. What day is today?
2. How are you?
3. What is your name?

French to English

Translate this dialogue between Henri and Jacques into English. Each phrase is worth 1 points. (11 points total)

1. Bonjour! Quel est ton nom?
2. Je m'appelle Jacques. Comment vous-appelez vous?
3. Je m'appelle Henri. Comment ça va?
4. Pas mal. Et toi, comment ça va?
5. Trés bien, merci. À demain Jacques!
6. À demain Henri.

Reading comprehension

Fill in the blank

Fill in the blanks in these conversations. Note: Every blank is one word. (1 point each)

Vocabulary

Matching

Match the French words with their English definitions. (1 point each)

Level one

• Lesson 1.01 - Basic Grammar
• Lesson 1.02 - To Be
• Lesson 1.03 - Description
• Lesson 1.04 - Family
• Lesson 1.05 - Recreation
• Lesson 1.06 - The House
• Lesson 1.07 - Weather
• Lesson 1.08 - Travel
• Lesson 1.09 - Art
• Lesson 1.10 - Science

Lesson 1.01 - Basic Grammar

Grammar · Gender of nouns · Genre des noms

In French, all nouns have a grammatical gender; that is, they are either masculine (m) or feminine (f).

Most nouns that express people or animals have both a masculine and a feminine form. For example, the two words for the actor in French are l'acteur and l'actrice .

However, there are some nouns that talk about people or animals whose gender is fixed, regardless of the actual gender of the person or animal. For example, la personne^{the person} is always feminine, even when it's talking about your uncle; le professeur^{the professor} is always masculine, even when it's talking about your female professor or teacher.

The nouns that express things without an obvious gender (e.g., objects and abstract concepts) have only one form. This form can be masculine or feminine. For example, la voiture^{the car} can only be feminine; le stylo^{the pen} can only be masculine.

Supplementary grammar · Common endings

Exceptions

There are many exceptions to gender rules in French which can only be learned. There are even words that are spelled the same, but have a different meaning when masculine or feminine; for example, le livre means the book, but la livre means the pound. Some words that appear to be masculine (such as la photo, which should be masculine but is not because it is actually short for la photographie) are in fact feminine, and vice versa. Then there are some that just don't make sense; la foi is feminine and means faith or belief, whereas le foie is masculine and means liver.

Vocabulary · Example nouns

Vocabulary gallery

le cheval  ( /ʃəval/) le chien  ( /ʃjɛ̃/) le livre  ( /livʁ/) la colombe  ( /kɔlɔ̃b/) la chemise  ( /ʃə.miz/) la maison  ( /mɛ.zɔ̃/)

Masculine nouns
le cheval	/ʃəval/	the horse
le chien	/ʃjɛ̃/	the dog
le livre	/livʁ/	the book
le bruit	/bʁɥi/	the noise
Feminine nouns
la colombe	/kɔlɔ̃b/	the dove
la chemise	/ʃə.miz/	the shirt
la maison	/mɛ.zɔ̃/	the house
la liberté	/li.bɛʁ.te/	the liberty

Grammar · Articles

The definite article · L'article défini

In English, the definite article is always the.

In French, the definite article is changed depending on the noun's:

1. gender
2. plurality
3. first letter

There are three definite articles and an abbreviation. Le is used for masculine nouns, La is used for feminine nouns, Les is used for plural nouns (both masculine or feminine), and L' is used when the noun is singular and begins with a vowel or silent h (both masculine or feminine). It is similar to English, where a changes to an before a vowel.

singular	feminine	la	/la/ (lah)	la fille	(lah fee-yuh)	the daughter
	masculine	le	/lə/ (luh)	le fils	(luh fees)	the son
singular, starting with a vowel sound		l’	/l/	l’enfant	(lah(n)-fah(n))	the child
plural		les	/le/ (lay)	les filles	(lay fee-yuh)	the daughters
				les fils	(lay fees)	the sons
				les enfants	(lay-zah(n)-fah(n))	the children

Unlike English, the definite article is used to talk about something in a general sense, a general statement or feeling about an idea or thing.

Elision

Elision refers to the suppression of a final unstressed vowel immediately before another word beginning with a vowel. The definite articles le and la are shortened to l’ when they come before a noun that begins with a vowel or silent h. When pronounced, the vowel sound is dropped.

Elision does not occur on an aspired h:

(le) héros: le héros^{the hero}

In addition to the definite article, elision will also occur with other words, such as que, je, le, ce, ne, and de. The details on these words will be covered in later sections of the book.

The indefinite article · L'article indéfini

In English, the indefinite articles are a and an. Some is used as a plural article in English.

Again, indefinite articles in French take different forms depending on gender and plurality. The articles un and une literally mean one in French.

singular	feminine	une	/yn/ (ewn)	une fille	a daughter
	masculine	un	/œ̃/ (uh(n))	un fils	a son
plural		des	/dɛ/ (deh)	des filles	some daughters
				des fils	some sons

^ une is often (more often than not) pronounced (ewnuh) in poetry and lyric.
^ Des fils does mean some sons, but is a homograph: it can also mean some threads (when pronounced like /fil/ ).

Some

Note that des, like les, is used in French before plural nouns when no article is used in English. For example, you are looking at photographs in an album. The English statement I am looking at photographs. cannot be translated to French as Je regarde photographies. because an article is required to tell which photographs are being looked at. If it is a set of specific pictures, the French statement should be Je regarde les photographies.^{I am looking at the photographs.} On the other hand, if the person is just browsing the album, the French translation is Je regarde des photographies.^{I am looking at some photographs.}

Plurality, pronunciation, and exceptions

The plural of most nouns is formed by adding an -s. However, the -s ending is not pronounced. It is the article that tells the listener whether the noun is singular or plural.

Most singular nouns do not end in -s. The -s is added for the plural form of the noun. Fils is one exception. Whenever the singular form of a noun ends in -s, there is no change in the plural form.

The final consonant is almost always not pronounced unless followed by an -e (or another vowel). Fils /fis/ is also an exception to this rule.

Liaison

Remember that the last consonant of a word is typically not pronounced unless followed by a vowel. When a word ending in a consonant is followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound (or silent h), the consonant often becomes pronounced. This is a process called liaison. When a vowel goes directly after un, the normally unpronounced n sound becomes pronounced.

(un) ami	unnami	/ɶ̃‿na.mi/	a (male) friend
(un) élève	unnélève	/ɶ̃‿ne.lɛv/	a pupil

Compare the pronunciation to words without liaison:

un garçon /ɶ̃ gaʁsɔ̃/

Une is unaffected by liaison.

Liaison also occurs with les and des.

(les) amis	leszamis	/le‿za.mi/	(some) (male) friends
(des) amis	deszamis	/dɛ‿za.mi/	(some) (male) friends
(des) amies	deszamies	/dɛ‿za.mi/	(some) (female) friends

As with elision, an aspired h isn't liaised:

(les) hangars: les hangars le æŋgəʁ

Vocabulary · People · Les personnes

la personne	/la pɛʁ.sɔn/	person
Gender and age
l'homme (m)	/lɔm/	man
la femme	/la fam/	woman
le garçon	/lə gaʁ.sɔ̃/	boy
la fille	/la fi.j/	girl
la fillette	/la fi.jɛt/	little girl
Friends
l'ami (m) le copain	/la.mi/ /lə kɔ.pɛ̃/	male friend
l'amie (f) la copine	/la.mi/ /la kɔ.pin/	female friend

Vocabulary · Expressions

Qu’est-ce que c’est ?

To say What is it? or What is that? in French, Qu’est-ce que c’est ? /kɛs kə sɛ/ is used.

Qu'est-ce que…?^{What is it that ?} is used often to say What…? at the beginning of sentences.

To respond to this question, you say C’est un(e) [nom]., meaning It is a [noun]:

C'est un livre.^{It's a book.}

Remember that the indefinite article (un or une) must agree with the noun it modifies:

C'est une chemise.^{It's a shirt.}

Il y a

Il y a /il.ja/ is used to say there is or there are. Il y a expresses the existence of the noun it introduces.

Il y a une pomme.^{There is an apple.}

The phrase is used for both singular and plural nouns. Unlike in English (is → are), il y a does not change form.

Il y a des pommes.^{There are (some) apples.}

The -s at the end of the most pluralised nouns tells you that the phrase is there are instead of there is. In spoken French, when both the singular and plural forms almost always sound the same, the article (and perhaps other adjectives modifying the noun) is used to distinguish between singular and plural versions.

A is the present third person singular form of the verb to have, and y is a pronoun meaning there. The phrase il y a, then, literally translates to he has there. This phrase is used in all French tenses. It is important to remember that verb stays as a form of have and not be.

Voici and voilà

Like in English, il y a… is not often used to point out an object. To point out an object to the listener, use voici /vwa.si/, meaning over here is/are or right here is/are, and voilà /vwa.la/, meaning over there is/are, or there you have it.

Voici les deux garçons !^{Here are the two boys!}

Examples

Exercises

ExerciseRespond according to the pictures.

Qu’est-ce que c’est?

C'est ….

pomme

poire

chat

chien

Solution

C'est une pomme

C'est une poire

C'est un chat

C'est un chien

ExerciseMatching

Match each noun with its corresponding image.

une colombe

des livres

une chemise

des chevaux

une maison

Solution

une chemise

une maison

des livres

une colombe

des chevaux

Supplementary exercises

Lesson 1.02 - To Be

Vocabulary review · Greetings and goodbyes

Salut	/sa.ly/	Hi./Bye.	informal
Bonjour	/bɔ̃.ʒuʁ/	Hello	more formal than salut; all day
Bonsoir	/bɔ̃.swaʁ/	Good evening, good night, hello	after 19h00
Au revoir	/o ʁə.vwaʁ/	Good-bye	Shortened "Au Plaisir De Vous Revoir" (at the pleasure of seeing you again)
À demain	/a də.mɛ̃/	See you tomorrow	lit: to/until tomorrow

Dialogue · Where are you from? · Tu es d’où ?

Quentin	Bonjour, Léon. Dis donc, tu es d’où ?
	Hello, Léon. Say, where are you from?
Léon	Je suis de Paris, Quentin.
	I am from Paris, Quentin.
Quentin	Alors, tu es français ?
	Then, you are French?
Léon	Oui, exactement.
	Yes, exactly.
Quentin	Et Marie, elle est d’où?
	And Marie, where is she from?
Léon	Elle est de Marseille. Elle est française, aussi.
	She is from Marseille. She is French, too.
Quentin	Merci, Léon. Au revoir.
	Thanks, Léon. Goodbye.

Grammar · Subject pronouns · Les pronoms sujet