Tips and notes

Grammar notes like those below can be helpful if you're having trouble with the lessons,
so consider trying the lessons above before reading the notes. They'll be more helpful
once you have a context for understanding them.

Genders

French has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. All nouns have a
gender that you must memorize. Sometimes, the gender can be obvious: une femme ("a
woman") is feminine. Other times, it's not obvious: une pomme ("an apple") is also
feminine.

Personal Subject Pronouns

In every complete sentence, the subject is the person or thing that performs an action or
is being described. This is often a noun, but a personal subject pronoun (e.g. "I",
"you", or "he") can replace that noun. In both English and French, pronouns have
different forms based on what they replace.

English French Example

I je Je mange. I eat.

You (singular) tu/vous Tu manges. You eat.

He/It il Il mange. He eats.

She/It elle Elle mange. She eats.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Notice above that the verb manger (as well as its English equivalent, "to eat") changes
form to agree grammatically with the subject. These forms are called conjugations of
that verb. Whenever you want to learn a verb's conjugation, hover your mouse over that
word and press the "C" button.

Here are some conjugations for verbs you'll encounter in this unit:

Subject Manger (To Eat) tre (To Be) Avoir (To Have)

je je mange I eat je suis I am j'ai I have

tu tu manges you eat tu es you are tu as you have

 Subject Manger (To Eat) tre (To Be) Avoir (To Have)

il/elle/on il mange he eats il est he is il a he has

Articles

Articles (e.g. "the" or "a") provide context for a noun. In English, articles may be
omitted, but French nouns almost always have an article. French has three types of
articles:

Definite articles ("the") are used with specific nouns that are known to the
speakers, as in English, but also to indicate the general sense of a noun, unlike in
English.

Indefinite articles ("a"/"an"/"one") are used for countable nouns that are
unspecified or unknown to the speakers.

Partitive articles ("some"/"any") indicate a quantity of something uncountable.

Articles have multiple forms, as provided in this table:

Article Masculine Feminine Plural Example

Definite le/l' la/l' les le chat the cat

Indefinite un une des une femme a woman

Partitive du/de l' de la/de l' de l'eau (some) water

It is critical to understand that articles must agree with their nouns in both gender and
number. For instance, le femme is incorrect. It must be la femme because la is feminine
and singular, just like femme.

Elisions

Le and la become just l' if they're followed by a vowel sound. This is an example
ofelision, which is the removal of a vowel sound in order to prevent consecutive vowel
sounds and make pronunciation easier. Elisions are mandatoryfor instance, je aime is
incorrect. It must be j'aime.

These other one-syllable words can also elide: je, me, te, se, de, ne, and que. Tu can
also be elided in casual speech, but not in writing (including on Duolingo).

Contractions
In a contraction, two words combine to form one shortened word. For instance, the
partitive article du is a contraction of the preposition de with le.

du pain (some) bread

However, since du can create vowel conflicts, when it would appear in front of a vowel
sound, it takes the elided de l' form instead. This is also the case for de la.

de l'ananas [masc.] (some) pineapple

de l'eau [fem.] (some) water

Words Beginning with H

The letter H is always mute (silent) in French, but when H starts a word, it can act as a
consonant (aspirate) or vowel (non-aspirate). For example, the H in homme acts as a
vowel. This means that "the man" must be written as l'homme.

Conversely, an aspirate H doesn't participate in elisions or liaisons (which you'll learn

about soon). It's usually found at the beginning of loanwords from German or other
languages. For instance, "the hero" is le hros. Pay attention to this when learning new
vocabulary.

Tips and notes

Grammar notes like those below can be helpful if you're having trouble with the lessons,
so consider trying the lessons above before reading the notes. They'll be more helpful
once you have a context for understanding them.

Plurals

Many French words have plural forms. Plural nouns and adjectives often end in -s,
though the S is usually silent.

homme ("man") hommes ("men")

femme ("woman") femmes ("women")

chat noir ("black cat") chats noirs ("black cats")

There are also plural forms for pronouns and verb conjugations. Consider parler ("to
speak"):

Person French Example

I je Je parle. I speak.
 Person French Example

You (singular) tu Tu parles. You speak.

You (formal) vous Vous parlez. You speak.

He il Il parle. He speaks.

She elle Elle parle. She speaks.

We nous Nous parlons. We speak.

You (plural) vous Vous parlez. You speak.

They (any group including a male) ils Ils parlent. They speak.

They (all women) elles Elles parlent. They speak.

Tu or Vous?

French has two words for the subject pronoun "you": tu and vous. For a singular
"you", tushould only be used for friends, peers, relatives, children, or anyone else who's
very familiar to you. In all other cases and also for plurals, the more polite vous should
be used to show respect. When in doubt, use vous.

Agreement

Pronouns, adjectives, and articles must agree with their nouns in both gender and
number. Consider the examples below and note how the article and adjective change to
agree with each noun.

Masculine singular: Le chat noir The black cat

Masculine plural: Les chats noirs The black cats

Feminine singular: La robe noire The black dress

Feminine plural: Les robes noires The black dresses

Not all adjectives change forms. For instance, riche is the same for both masculine and
feminine singular nouns.

Continuous Tenses
English has two present tenses: simple ("I write") and continuous ("I am writing"), but
French has no specialized continuous verb tenses. This means that "I write", "I am
writing", and "I do write" can translate to j'cris (not je suis cris) and vice versa.

However, the idiomatic phrase tre en train de is often used to indicate that someone
is in the process of doing something.

Je suis en train de manger. I am [in the process of] eating.

When translating, remember that English stative verbs have no continuous forms. For
instance, j'aime un garon cannot be translated as "I am loving a boy".

Ah, L'Amour

Love is tricky in France. For people and pets, aimer means "to love", but if you add an
adverb, like in aimer bien, it means "to like". For everything else, aimer only means "to
like". Adorer can always mean "to love", though it tends to be more coy than aimer.

Tips and notes

Grammar notes like those below can be helpful if you're having trouble with the lessons,
so consider trying the lessons above before reading the notes. They'll be more helpful
once you have a context for understanding them.

Bonjour!

Bonjour is a universal greeting that can be spoken to anyone at any time. In France,
greeting people is very important, and some will even say bonjour aloud when entering a
public room or bus. Bon aprs-midi is often used as a farewell in the afternoon,
whilebonsoir is an evening greeting.

Greetings: bonjour, bonsoir (plus bon matin in Qubec only)

Farewells: bonne journe, bon aprs-midi, bonne soire, bonne nuit

Idioms

Many words or phrases cannot be translated literally between English and French
because their usages are idiomatic. For instance, consider a va ? , which means
"How are you?" The literal translation of the French is "That goes?", but this is
nonsensical in English. It is very important to identify idioms in both languages and learn
how to translate them properly.

Liaisons
In a liaison, an otherwise silent ending consonant is pushed to the next word, where it's
pronounced as part of the first syllable. Like elisions, this prevents consecutive vowel
sounds. Liaisons are possible whenever a silent ending consonant is followed by a word
beginning in a vowel sound, but some liaisons are mandatory and others are forbidden.

Here are some mandatory liaisons, along with approximate pronunciations:

Articles and adjectives with nouns. For example, un homme ("uh-nohm"), mon
orange ("mohn-norahnge"), or deux hommes ("duh-zohm").

Pronouns and verbs. For example, nous allons ("noo-zalohn") or est-il ("ay-teel").

Single-syllable adverbs and prepositions. For instance, trs utile ("tray-zuteel")

orchez elle ("shay-zell").
Liaisons are forbidden:

Before and after et ("and").

After singular nouns (including proper nouns and names).

After inversions (which you'll learn in "Questions").

Before an aspirated H (e.g. hros - "hero").

After a nasal sound, except that un, on, and en do liaise.

Note that some consonants take on a different sound in liaisons to reduce ambiguity.

Original Resulting Liaison

Consonant Sound Example

-s, -x, -z Z des hommes ("day-zohm")

-d T un grand arbre ("uhn-grahn-

tarbre")

-f V neuf ans ("nuh-vahn")

There are no ironclad liaison rules, especially across regions. Casual speech tends to
have fewer than formal speech. Also, when speaking slowly, liaisons are often omitted.
This is why liaisons disappear in the slow versions of listening exercises. Be careful of
this.

Enchanement
In enchanements, ending consonant sounds are pushed onto the next word if it begins
in a vowel. This is essentially the same as a liaison, except that the consonant sound
wasn't silent beforehand. For instance:

elle est is pronounced like "eh-lay".

mange une pomme is pronounced like "mahn-jun-pom".

The Impersonal Expression Il Y A

Impersonal expressions are phrases where there isn't a real subject. For instance, in
the phrase "It is snowing" (Il neige), "it" doesn't refer to anything. It's a dummy subject
that exists just to maintain the sentence structure.

One of the most common impersonal expressions is il y a, which is an idiom for "there is"
or "there are".

Il y a une fille ici. There is a girl here.

Il y a un serpent dans ma botte ! There's a snake in my boot!

You will learn more about impersonal expressions in "V. Pres 1".