Basics 1

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 (familiar singular) tu 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 "Conjugate"
button.

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Here are some conjugations for verbs you'll encounter in the first few units:

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

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

am

tu tu manges — you tu es — you tu as — you

eat are have

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

eats

Basics 2

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

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 Article Masculine Feminine Plural Example

Indefinite un une des unefemme —

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 of elision, which is the removal of a vowel sound in order to prevent
consecutive vowel sounds and make pronunciation easier. Elisions are
mandatory—for instance, je aime is incorrect. It must be j'aime.

These other one-syllable words can also elide: je, me, te, se, de, ce, 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

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 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 héros. Pay attention
to this when learning new vocabulary.

Common Phrases
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 après-midi is often
used as a farewell in the afternoon, while bonsoir is an evening greeting.

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

 Farewells: bonne journée, bon après-midi, bonne soirée, bonne nuit

Idioms
Many words or phrases cannot be translated literally between English and
French because their usages are idiomatic. For instance, consider « Ça 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.

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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, très utile ("tray-
zuteel") or chez 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. héros - "hero").
 After a nasal sound, except that un, on, and en do liaise.

Note that some consonants take on a different sound in liaisons, and it's
important to pronounce these correctly when speaking.

Original Resulting
Example
Consonant Liaison Sound

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

zohm")

-d T un grand arbre ("uhn-

grahn-tarbre")

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

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Liaison rules vary among speakers, particularly across dialects, and fewer
liaisons tend to appear in casual and slow speech. Note that the slow mode in
Duo listening exercises does not include liaisons.

Enchaînement
In enchaînements, 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".

Tips and notes

PRACTICE

Plurals 1

6
Many French words have plural forms. Plural nouns and adjectives can be
formed by appending an -s to the singular, but remember that this -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.

You (familiar singular) tu Tu parles. — You

speak.

You (formal singular) 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 ils Ils parlent. — They

a male) speak.

They (all women) elles Elles parlent. — They

speak.

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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.

Tu or Vous?
French has two words for the subject pronoun "you": tu and vous. For a
singular "you", tu should 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.

Idioms and Proverbs

Endings
French word endings tend to be particularly difficult for beginners, largely
because ending consonants are usually silent, but they do affect preceding
vowel sounds.

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 English
Ending Homophones Example IPA
Approximation

-er -é, -ée, -ées parler Cliché [e]

-et -ets, -è, -ê poulet pou-LAY [ε]

-it -its, -i, -ie, -ies, - lit LEE [i]

is, -iz

-at -ats, -as, -a chat SHAH [ɑ]

The consonants C, R, F, and L are usually pronounced (you can use the
mnemonic "CaReFuL"), with these main exceptions:

 An ending -r is silent in infinitives (e.g. parler - to speak).

 An ending -fs is silent (e.g. œufs - eggs).
 The L of an ending -il is usually silent (e.g. fusil - gun).

The Mute E
When a consonant is followed by a mute -e, then the consonant should be
pronounced. This is a way of distinguishing masculine and feminine forms
verbally. Any unaccented -e at the end of a word is always mute except in a
single-syllable word like le, which sounds somewhat like "luh".

The letter E often becomes mute in the middle of a word, especially if it would
add a syllable. For instance, most Francophones pronounce appeler ("to call")
as "app-LAY", not "app-pe-LAY".

Gallicism: il(s)/elle(s) OR c'/ce?

A gallicism is a phrase or grammatical construction peculiar to the French

language

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C'est or Il Est?
When describing people and things with a noun after être in French, you
usually can't use the personal subject pronoun like il, elle, ils, and elles.
Instead, you must use the impersonal pronoun ce, which can also mean "this"
or "that". Note that ceis invariable, so it can never be ces sont.

Impersonal Subject Personal Subject

Pronoun Pronoun

Singular c'est il/elle est

Plural ce sont ils/elles sont

These pronouns aren't interchangeable. The basic rule is that you must
use ce when être is followed by any determiner—for instance, an article or a
possessive adjective. Note that c'est should be used for singulars and ce
sont should be used for plurals.

 C'est un homme. — He's a man. / This is a man. / That is a man.

 Ce sont des chats. — They're cats. / These are cats. / Those are cats.
 C'est la fille. — She is the girl. / This is the girl. / That is the girl.
 Ce sont les femmes. — They are the women. / These are the women. /
Those are the women.

If an adjective, adverb, or both appear after être, then use the personal
pronoun.

 Elle est belle. — She is beautiful. (Or "It is beautiful.")

 Il est très fort. — He is very strong. (Or "It is very strong.")

As you know, nouns generally need determiners, but one important exception
is that professions can act as adjectives after être. This is optional; you can
also choose to treat them as nouns.

 He is a doctor. — Il est médecin. / C'est un médecin.

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However, c'est should be used when using an adjective to make a general
comment about (but not describe) a thing or situation. In this case, use the
masculine singular form of the adjective.

 C'est normal ? — Is this normal?

 Non, c'est étrange. — No, this is strange.

Idioms with Avoir

One of the most common idioms in French is the use of the verb avoir in
certain places where English would use the verb "to be". This is especially
common for states or conditions that a person may experience.

 Elle a chaud. — She is warm. (Or "She feels warm.")

 Il a froid. — He is cold.
 Elle a deux ans. — She is two years old.
 J'ai peur ! — I am afraid!

Basics 3
To Be and To Have
Être and avoir are the most common verbs in French. Like many common
verbs, they have irregular conjugations.

Subject Être ("to be") Avoir ("to have")

je/j' (je) suis (j')ai

tu es as

il/elle/on est A

nous sommes Avons

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 Subject Être ("to be") Avoir ("to have")

vous êtes Avez

ils/elles sont Ont

There should be a liaison between ils or elles and ont ("il-zon" or "elle-zon").
The "z" sound is essential here to differentiate between "they are" and "they
have", so be sure to emphasize it.

These two verbs are very important because they can act as auxiliary
verbs in French, but they differ from their English equivalents. "I write" and "I
am writing" both translate to j'écris, not je suis écris. This is
because être cannot be used as an auxiliary in a simple tense. It can only be
used in compound tenses, which you will learn in the "Passé Composé" unit.

Another important distinction is that avoir means "to have" in the sense of "to
possess", but not "to consume" or "to experience". Other verbs must be used
for these meanings.

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'écris (not je suis
écris) and vice versa.

However, the idiomatic phrase « être 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 garçon »cannot be translated as "I am loving
a boy".

Food 1
The Partitive Article

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The partitive article is used for unspecified amounts of uncountable nouns. In
English, it can translate to "some", but it's often just omitted. Remember
that du is a contraction of de + le and that partitives can elide.

Partitive
Gender Example
Article

Masculine du Je mange du poisson. — I am

eating fish.

Feminine de la Je mange de la viande. — I am

eating meat.

Elided de l' Je mange de l'ananas. — I am

Masc. eating pineapple.

Elided de l' Je bois de l'eau. — I am drinking

Fem. water.

Nouns almost never appear without articles in French, so articles must be

repeated in serial lists.

 Il cuisine du poisson et de la viande — He cooks fish and meat.

Count Noun, Mass Noun, or Both?

Count nouns are discrete and can be counted, like un livre ("a book"). They
can be modified by definite and indefinite articles, but not partitive articles.

 Je lis un livre. — I am reading a book.

 Nous avons les livres. — We have the books.
Mass nouns like lait ("milk") are uncountable, and they can be modified by
definite and partitive articles, but not indefinite articles.

 Je bois du lait. — I am drinking [some] milk.

 Je bois le lait. — I am drinking the milk.
However, many nouns can behave as both count nouns and mass nouns.
This is true for most edible things. For instance, consider poisson ("fish")
or vin ("wine"):

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 Count noun: Le poisson est rouge. — The fish is red.
 Mass noun: Je mange du poisson. — I eat [some] fish.
 Count noun: Le vin est blanc. — The wine is white.
 Mass noun: Je bois du vin rouge ou blanc. — I drink red or white wine.
Note that some mass nouns can be pluralized in English when they refer to
multiple types of the noun, but this usage isn't found in French. For instance,
"the fishes" refers to multiple species of fish, while les poissons just refers to
multiple fish.

Omitted Articles
When an article is missing in an English sentence, it must be added to the
French translation. The definite article can be used to fill this void in three
situations:

 1) Almost anywhere one would use "the" in English (i.e. when referring to
specific things).
 2) Before the subject of a sentence to state general truths about it.
 3) Before the direct object of a verb of appreciation (like aimer) to express
like/dislike.
If any of the above is true, then use the definite article. Otherwise, use the
indefinite or partitive, depending on whether or not the noun is countable.

 I like wine, but I am drinking milk. — J'aime le vin, mais je bois du lait.
Both articles are missing in the English version of this
example. Aimer expresses fondness for wine, so le vin should be used there.
However, boire is not a verb of appreciation, so the partitive du should be
used on the uncountable lait.

 Cats are animals. — Les chats sont des animaux.

This is a general truth about cats, but #2 above can only apply to subjects, so
only chats takes a definite article here. Animaux are countable, so use the
plural indefinite des.

 He likes to eat meat. — Il aime manger de la viande.

This is a tricky example because the meat is the direct object of manger,
not aimer. Thus, #3 does not apply and viandecannot take a definite article.

14
Also, the French definite article can be ambiguous when translating from
French to English. It can often refer to both a specific noun and the general
sense of a noun.

 Les chats sont des animaux. — Cats are animals. / The cats are animals.

De + Definite Article
De plus a definite article can also have other meanings. Demeans "of" or
"from", so this can also indicate possession or association with a definite
noun.

 La copie du livre. — The copy of the book.

 Les copies des livres. — The copies of the books.
 L'enfant de la femme. — The woman's child.

Animals 1
Noun Genders
As you learned in "Basics 1", French has two grammatical genders: masculine
and feminine. All nouns have a gender, and most nouns have a fixed gender.
For instance, la pommeis always feminine and un bébé ("a baby") is always
masculine, even for baby girls.

However, some nouns can have multiple genders depending on the situation,
and many masculine nouns can be changed to a feminine form simply by
adding an -e to the end. Your male friend is un ami and your female friend
is une amie. Some nouns, like l'élève ("the student"), have the same spelling
and meaning for both gender forms.

Other nouns may have the same spelling, but different genders and
meanings. For instance, un tour (masculine) is a tour, while une
tour (feminine) is a tower.

One of the most difficult aspects of learning French is memorizing noun

genders. However, by spending some time now memorizing the following
patterns, you may be able to guess most nouns' genders and save yourself a
lot of trouble in the future.

15
Some genders depend on a noun's classification. For instance, languages,
days of the week, months, seasons, metals, colors, and measurements are
mostly masculine.

Otherwise, memorizing word endings is the best way to guess genders. We'll
learn these ending patterns in four steps:

First: Nouns ending in -e tend to be feminine. All others, especially nouns

ending in consonants, tend to be masculine. This is true for over 70% of all
nouns.

Second: Nouns that have the endings -ion and -son tend to be feminine, even
though they end in consonants.

Third: Nouns with these endings are usually masculine, although they end in -
e:

 -tre, -ble, -cle (think "treble clef")

 -one, -ème, -ège (think "OMG")
 -age, -isme
Fourth: Watch out for these complications:

 -é is masculine, but -té is feminine.

 le résumé (masc) — the resumé
 la liberté (fem) — the liberty
 -de is masculine, but -ade, -nde, and -ude are feminine.
 le guide — the guide
 la parade — the parade
 -ste and -me tend to be masculine, but there are dozens of exceptions.
Words for people ending in -ste are often gender-neutral, e.g. le/la cycliste.
 -eur is masculine for most professions or technical terms, but it's feminine
for some emotions and abstract things.
 le chauffeur — the driver
 la peur — the fear
That's it! Memorize these, and you'll be able to guess most noun genders.

Feminine Animals

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In French, female animal nouns are generally formed as follows by taking the
last consonant, doubling it, and adding a mute -e to the end.

 un chat ⇒ une chatte

 un chien ⇒ une chienne

Of course, there are many exceptions. For example:

 un ours ⇒ une ourse (not une oursse)

 un cheval ⇒ une jument (not une chevalle)

Weather 1
Impersonal Expressions to Describe the Weather
In French, it is common to use verbs like faire ("to do") idiomatically for
general conditions such as weather.

To describe the weather (le temps), we can use the impersonal expression il
fait (literally, "it does" or "it makes"). In English, when we say "it is raining," we
do not use "it" as a real subject. The "it" doesn't refer to anything. This is the
same with the French "il" in impersonal expressions: it is not a real subject.
You have encountered something similar to this in the "Phrases" unit: il y
a ("there is/are").

However, il fait followed by various adjectives describes sensory impressions.

 Il fait chaud. — It is hot (outside).

 Il fait froid. — It is cold (outside).
 Il fait beau. — It is nice out.
Note that we can also explicitly describe the weather with the same
adjectives: Le temps est chaud. Le temps est froid. Le temps est beau., etc.

Some weather conditions are commonly expressed with a noun instead of an

adjective, and il y a is used, followed by a partitive article if the noun is
uncountable.

 Il y a du vent. — It is windy.
 Il y a de la brume. — It is misty.

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 Il y a de l'orage. — It is stormy.
There are other French verbs used impersonally with "il" to describe the
weather. You will encounter some of them in this unit.

 Il pleut. — It is raining.
 Il neige. — It is snowing.
 Il gèle. — It is freezing.
To ask someone about the weather, simply use the expression Quel temps
fait-il ? (What is the weather like?) You will learn later on how this question is
formed grammatically.

Adjectives 1
Agreement
Unlike English adjectives, French adjectives must agree in number and
gender with the nouns that they modify. A black dog is un chien noir, but a
black dress is une robe noire. Also, remember that some adjectives have the
same masculine and feminine form, especially those ending in a silent -
e (e.g. riche).

When used with pronouns, adjectives agree with the noun that has been
replaced. This is particularly tricky with the formal vous: to a singular man, you
would say vous êtes beau, but to plural women, you would say vous êtes
belles.

Adjective Placement
In French, most adjectives appear after the nouns they modify. For
instance, le chat noir. However, some adjectives precede the noun. You can
remember these types of nouns using the mnemonic BANGS.

 B is for beauty. Une belle femme — A beautiful woman

 A is for age. Une jeune fille — A young girl
 N is for number. Deux hommes — Two men
 This can also be for rank: Le premier mot — The first word

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 G is for good or bad. Un bon garçon — A good boy
 S is for size. Un gros chat — A fat cat
All determiner adjectives (e.g. possessives, interrogatives, and
demonstratives) appear before the noun, e.g. mon livre ("my book") and ce
cochon ("that pig"). You will learn these later.

Figurative Adjectives
A few adjectives can come both before and after the noun depending on their
meaning. The most common example is grand, which is a BANGS adjective
for everything but people. For people, it comes before a noun when it means
"important" and after the noun when it means "tall". For instance, Napoleon
was un grand homme ("a great man"), but not un homme grand ("a tall man").

Usually, figurative meanings will precede the noun, while literal meanings will
follow the noun.

 un pauvre homme — a pitiful man

 un homme pauvre — a poor man
 un certain nombre — a certain (particular) number
 une victoire certaine — a certain (guaranteed) victory
 ma propre voiture — my own car
 ma voiture propre — my clean car
 un cher ami — a dear friend
 une montre chère — an expensive watch

Euphony
As you have already learned, elisions, contractions, liaisons, and
enchaînements are all designed to prevent consecutive vowel sounds (which
is called hiatus). This quest for harmonious sounds is called euphony and is
an essential feature of French. It has, however, created some unexpected
rules.

19
For instance, the masculine beau ("beautiful") changes to belif its noun begins
with a vowel sound. A beautiful man is un bel homme. The other two common
changes are vieux to vieil ("old") and nouveau to nouvel ("new").

Note that this doesn't occur to feminine adjectives because they usually end in
silent vowels.

Plurals 2
Most plural forms of nouns and adjectives can be formed by appending an -
s to the singular, but remember that this -s is usually silent.

 Le chat noir — The black cat ⇒ Les chats noirs — The black cats

 Un chat noir — A black cat ⇒ Des chats noirs — (Some) black cats

Note: If the noun is preceded by an adjective, des becomes de.

 Un petit chat — A little cat ⇒ De petits chats

Articles must agree with the nouns they modify, so plural nouns require
either les or des. This is a great way to tell if a noun is plural. If you
hear les or des (which sound similar to "lay" and "day"), then the noun is
plural. If not, it's probably singular.

Remember that verbs change conjugation to agree with their subjects in both
grammatical person and number.

Subject Être ("to be") Parler ("to speak")

je suis Parle

tu es Parles

il/elle/on est Parle

nous sommes parlons

vous êtes Parlez

ils/elles sont parlent

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Punctuation
There are no quotation marks in French. Instead, the French use guillemets («
»). Exclamation marks (!), question marks (?), colons (:), semicolons (;) and
guillemets need to have a space on either side.

 Incorrect: "Ça va?"

 Correct: « Ça va ? »
When writing numbers in French, commas are decimal points, while spaces
mark thousands places.

 Incorrect: 1,235.8
 Correct: 1 235,8

Clothing
Idiomatic Plurals
English has a number of idiomatic plural-only nouns that have to be translated
carefully. These are not just nouns that are invariable with number (like
"deer"), but rather nouns that cannot refer to a singular thing at all.

For instance, "the pants" can only be plural in English, but the
corresponding le pantalon is singular in French. A single pair of pants is
not les pantalons, which refers to multiple pairs of pants. Similarly, when
translating le pantalon back to English, you can say "the pants" or "a pair of
pants", but "a pant" is not correct. This also applies to un jean ("a pair of
jeans").

Un vêtement refers to a single article of clothing, and it's incorrect to translate

it as "clothes", which is plural and refers to a collection of clothing. This would
have to be des vêtements.

Diacritics

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The acute accent (é) only appears on E and produces a pure [e] that isn't
found in English. To make this sound, say the word "cliché", but hold your
tongue perfectly still on the last vowel to avoid making a diphthong sound.

The grave accent (è) can appear on A/E/U, though it only changes the sound
for E (to [ɛ], which is the E in "lemon"). Otherwise, it distinguishes
homophones like a (a conjugated form of avoir) and à (a preposition).

The cedilla (ç) softens a normally hard C sound to the soft C in "cent".
Otherwise, a C followed by an A, O, or U has a hard sound like the C in "car".

The circumflex (ê) usually means that an S used to follow the vowel in Old
French or Latin. (The same is true of the acute accent.) For instance, île was
once "isle".

The trema (ë) indicates that two adjacent vowels must be pronounced
separately, like in Noël ("Christmas") and maïs("corn").

Nasal Vowels
There are four nasal vowels in French. Try to learn these sounds by listening
to native speakers.

IPA Letter Sequence Examples

/œ̃/ un/um un/parfum

/ɛ/̃ in/im/yn/ym vin/pain/syndicat/sympa

/ɑ̃/ an/am/en/em dans/chambre/en/emploi

/ɔ/̃ on/om mon/ombre

These aren't always nasalized. If there's a double M or N, or if they are

followed by any vowel, then the vowel should have an oral sound instead. For
instance, un is nasal, but une is not. Also, vin is nasal, but vinaigre is not.

Colors

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Colors can be both nouns and adjectives. As nouns, colors are usually
masculine.

 Le rose. — The pink.

As adjectives, they agree with the nouns they modify except in two cases.
First, colors derived from nouns (e.g. fruits, flowers, or gems) tend to be
invariable with gender and number. Orange ("orange") and marron ("brown")
are the most common examples.

 La jupe orange — The orange skirt

 Les jupes orange — The orange skirts
 Les chiens marron. — The brown dogs.
Second, in compound adjectives (les adjectifs composés) made up of two
adjectives, both adjectives remain in their masculine singular forms.

 Sa couleur est vert pomme. — Its color is apple-green.

 J'aime les robes rose clair. — I like light-pink dresses.
Most colors that end in -e in their masculine forms are invariable with gender.

 Un chien rouge — A red dog

 Une jupe rouge — A red skirt

Colors
Colors can be both nouns and adjectives. As nouns, colors are usually
masculine.

 Le rose. — The pink.

As adjectives, they agree with the nouns they modify except in two cases.
First, colors derived from nouns (e.g. fruits, flowers, or gems) tend to be
invariable with gender and number. Orange ("orange") and marron ("brown")
are the most common examples.

 La jupe orange — The orange skirt

 Les jupes orange — The orange skirts
 Les chiens marron. — The brown dogs.
Second, in compound adjectives (les adjectifs composés) made up of two
adjectives, both adjectives remain in their masculine singular forms.

 Sa couleur est vert pomme. — Its color is apple-green.

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 J'aime les robes rose clair. — I like light-pink dresses.
Most colors that end in -e in their masculine forms are invariable with gender.

 Un chien rouge — A red dog

 Une jupe rouge — A red skirt

Possessives 1
In English, possessive adjectives (e.g. "his") match the owner. However, in
French, they match the thing being owned.

Consider the example of "her lion". The French translation is son lion,
because lion is masculine and both the lion and the woman are singular. Note
that if we hear just son lion, we can't tell if the lion is owned by a man or
woman. It's ambiguous without more context. If two people own a lion, then it
is leur lion.

Possessives have different forms that agree with four things: the number of
owners, the number of things owned, the gender of the thing owned, and the
grammatical person of the owner (e.g. "his" versus "my").

For one owner, the possessive adjectives are:

Masculine Feminine
Person English Plural
Singular Singular

1st my mon ma mes

2nd your ton ta tes

(singular)

3rd his/her/its son sa ses

For multiple owners, genders don't matter:

Person English Singular Owned Plural Owned

1st our notre nos

2nd your (plural) votre vos

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 Person English Singular Owned Plural Owned

3rd their leur leurs

The plural second-person possessive adjectives, votre and vos, should be

used when addressing someone formally with vous.

Examples:

Owner Singular Owned Plural Owned

My Mon ami — My friend Mes tigres — My tigers

Your Ton abeille — Your bee Tes lions — Your lions

His/Her Son oiseau — His/her Ses chiens — His/her dogs

bird

Our Notre bière — Our beer Nos pommes — Our

apples

Your Votre sel — Your salt Vos citrons — Your

lemons

Their Leur fromage — Their Leurs fromages — Their

cheese cheeses

Euphony in Possessives
For the sake of euphony, all singular feminine possessives switch to their
masculine forms when followed by a vowel sound.

Person Masculine Feminine Feminine + Vowel Sound

1st mon chat ma robe mon eau

2nd ton chat ta robe ton eau

3rd son chat sa robe son eau

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Femme and Fille
Femme can mean "woman" or "wife" and fille can mean "girl" or "daughter"
depending on the context. For example, when femme and fille are preceded
by a possessive adjective, then they translate to "wife" and "daughter",
respectively.

 Une fille et une femme sont dans le restaurant — A girl and a woman are in
the restaurant. (Not: "A daughter and a wife are in the restaurant.")
 Ma fille — My daughter. (Not: "My girl".)
 Ta femme — Your wife. (Not: "Your woman".)

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