A1 French Study Guide

 January 25, 2022

 , A1, DELF A1, Prepare DELF/DALF

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Learning French as a beginner can be a little confusing. But even if you are not a beginner, you
might have missed on some crucial points to learn! That’s why I suggest you take a quick look
at this A1 French study guide and organize your learning.

A1 French study guide – Écouter

Why do I need an A1 French study guide?

There are many reasons for you to need a clear A1 French study guide, but the main one would
be: you are learning French by yourself and would like to know what exactly you should focus
on.
If you are planning on taking the DELF A1 exam, it’s always good to have an overview of the
most important things to learn.

A1 French Study Guide:

In this study guide, I will obviously not be writing down all of the lessons for you, for two main
reasons. First of all, doing so would take an incredible amount of time and you would most
probably be dropping out after a few minutes. Reading can get boring.
The second reason is that I want to encourage you to do things by yourself. Let me explain.

I have worked with all kinds of students, but there is one thing that we do, during or after our
classes, that is highly effective. If a student asks me a question, and if I think that they can find
the answer by themselves, I let them do it. If they don’t understand a word and are asking for
the translation, I tell them to check in the dictionary, instead of directly telling them what this
word means.

We can also work on tasks and homework. I always insist on doing things by themselves, using
the tools that they need. By doing so, the learner will be able to remember the steps that they
took to get to where they are, which makes memorization much easier.

So in order to give you a nice A1 French study guide, I would like to break the elements into
different categories: vocabulary, grammar, phonetic, conjugation. That way, you will be able to
classify them and be more organized.
In each section, you will find the elements to learn. All you need to do is do your own
research (Google is your friend!). Once you have taken a look at this information, you can create a
checklist titled “A1 French study Guide”. Organize your findings in a binder or a folder on your
computer. Make sure to work on exercises afterwards, there are PLENTY of them online.

Vocabulaire A1
Vocabulary includes the lexicon of a specific theme or topic in French.
Grammaire A1
Essential grammar points to master in order to be able to communicate and build sentences.
Phonétique A1
Things to know about phonetics of the French language. This will help you not only understand
French better, but also pronounce words.
Conjugaison A1
You have to make sure to include conjugation, as it is essential to communication!
Vocabulaire A1
Les nombres cardinaux – Cardinal numbers
La famille – Family
L’apparence physique – Physical appearance
La maison, le foyer – The home, the household
L’habillement – Dressing
Les fruits, légumes et ingrédients de base dans la cuisine – Fruits, vegetables and basic
ingredients in the kitchen
Les lieux publics et les commerces – Public places and stores
Les boissons – Drinks
Les nombres ordinaux – Ordinal numbers
Les émotions et sentiments – Emotions and feelings
La météo – The weather
Les vacances – Holidays
Les moyens de transport – Means of transportation
Les animaux domestiques – Pets
Les jours de la semaine et les mois de l’année – Days of the week and months

Grammaire A1
Se présenter – Introducing yourself
Articles définis et indéfinis – Definite and indefinite articles
Saluer, prendre congé – Greetings, saying goodbye
Vouvoiement, tutoiement – The use of VOUS vs TU
La négation – Negation
Le genre des noms – Gender of nouns
Les adjectifs qualificatifs – Adjectives
Les articles partitifs – Partitive articles
Le pluriel des noms – Plural form of nouns
Dire la date et l’heure – Drinks
Exprimer le lieu et la localisation – Express the place and localization
Les prépositions chez et à – Prepositions chez and à
Parler de ses activités et de ses loisirs – Talking about your activities and hobbies
COD et COI – Direct object and indirect object
Marqueurs temporels – Time markers (today, tomorrow…)
Les principaux adverbes – The main adverbs
Les adverbes de lieu – Adverbs of places
Les adverbes de quantité – Adverbs of quantity

Le passé récent – Recent past (VENIR de + verb)

Le futur proche – Near future (ALLER + verb)
Les pronoms toniques – Tonic pronouns
L’utilisation de C’est – The use of C’est
Parler de ses goûts – Talking about tastes
La comparaison – Comparison
L’utilisation du passé composé – The use of passé composé
Demander et donner des informations – Asking and giving information
Les pronoms COD – Direct object pronouns
Les pronoms COI – Indirect object pronouns
Le futur simple – The future tense
L’utilisation du futur simple et du futur proche – The use of futur simple vs futur proche
Décrire une personne – Describing a person
Les pronoms en et y – Pronouns en and y
Le pronom relatif qui – Relative pronoun qui
Le pronom relatif que – Relative pronoun que
L’imparfait de l’indicatif – The imperfect tense
La négation (partie 2) : ne … plus – ne … jamais – Negation (pt. 2)
Comprendre un ordre ou des instructions – Understanding a command or an instruction

Phonétique A1
L’alphabet français et les accents – The French alphabet and accents
Les syllabes en français – Syllables in French
La lettre et le son R – The letter and the sound R
La lettre J et le son [ʒ] – The letter J and the sound [ʒ]
La prononciation des lettres en fin de mot – Pronunciation of letters at the end of a word
Les voyelles nasales – Nasal vowels
La prononciation de gn – Pronunciation of gn
S et SS – S and SS
La prononciation de la lettre G – Pronunciation of the letter G
La prononciation de la lettre C – Pronunciation of the letter C

Conjugaison A1
Être, avoir, s’appeler, venir au présent de l’indicatif – The verbs être, avoir, s’appeler and
venir at the present tense
Les modes et les temps de conjugaison – Conjugation moods and tenses
Les 3 groupes de verbes – The 3 groups of verbs
La conjugaison des verbes du 1er groupe et du 2ème groupe au présent – The conjugation
of 1st and 2nd group verbs at the present tense
Les verbes irréguliers au présent – Irregular verbs at the present tense
Les verbes pronominaux au présent – Pronominal verbs at the present tense
Les verbes faire, aller au présent – The verbs faire and aller at the present tense
Passé composé et participe passé – Passé composé and past participle
Le futur proche – Near future
Le futur simple – Future tense
L’imparfait – Imperfect tense
L’impératif présent – The imperative present

Now, all this information in my A1 French study guide might seem overwhelming, but if you
learn everything by topic or by theme (for example, how to buy something in a store, how to
talk about this or that, basically “how to” stuff), you will be able to memorize all of this way
better.
 Vocabulaire A1
1. Les nombres cardinaux – Cardinal numbers

Learn how to count in French—you can click on the links to hear the pronunciation of each
number. Repeat the numbers to yourself a few times; you'll be surprised at how quick it is to
memorize them.

The Numbers from 0 to 19

0 zéro
1 un
2 deux
3 trois
4 quatre
5 cinq
6 six
7 sept
8 huit
9 neuf
10 dix

11 onze
12 douze
13 treize
14 quatorze
15 quinze
16 seize
17 dix-sept
18 dix-huit
19 dix-neuf

Learning the Numbers 20 to 59

For the French numbers 20 through 59, counting is just like in English: the tens word
(vingt, trente, quarante, etc.) followed by the ones word ( un, deux, trois). The only difference is
that for 21, 31, 41, etc., the word et (and) is introduced between the tens word and "one": vingt
et un, trente et un, quarante et un, etc.
20 vingt
21 vingt et un
22 vingt-deux
23 vingt-trois
24 vingt-quatre
25 vingt-cinq
26 vingt-six
27 vingt-sept
28 vingt-huit
29 vingt-neuf

30 trente
31 trente et un
32 trente-deux
33 trente-trois
34 trente-quatre
35 trente-cinq
36 trente-six
37 trente-sept
38 trente-huit
39 trente-neuf
40 quarante
41 quarante et un
42 quarante-deux
43 quarante-trois
44 quarante-quatre
45 quarante-cinq
46 quarante-six
47 quarante-sept
48 quarante-huit
49 quarante-neuf
50 cinquante
51 cinquante et un
52 cinquante-deux
53 cinquante-trois
55 cinquante-quatre
55 cinquante-cinq
56 cinquante-six
57 cinquante-sept
58 cinquante-huit
59 cinquante-neuf

Numbers 60 to 79
The French numbers 60 to 69 follow the same rules as 20 to 59.
60 soixante
61 soixante et un
62 soixante-deux
63 soixante-trois
64 soixante-quatre
65 soixante-cinq
66 soixante-six
67 soixante-sept
68 soixante-huit
69 soixante-neuf
But then when 70 rolls around, instead of a new "tens" word, soixante is kept and the "ones"
word continues counting from 10:
70 soixante-dix
71 soixante et onze
72 soixante-douze
73 soixante-treize
74 soixante-quatorze
75 soixante-quinze
76 soixante-seize
77 soixante-dix-sept
78 soixante-dix-huit
79 soixante-dix-neuf
So 70, soixante-dix in French, is literally "sixty-ten." 71 is soixante et onze (sixty and eleven), 72
is soixante-douze (sixty-twelve), and so on, up to 79.
In some French-speaking areas, such as Belgium and Switzerland, "seventy" is septante.

Learning 80 to 99
There is no word for "eighty" in standard French,* instead 80 is quatre-vingts, literally four-
twenties (think "four-score"). 81 is quatre-vingt-un (four-twenty-one), 82 is quatre-vingt-
deux (four-twenty-two), and so on, all the way up to 89.
80 quatre-vingts
81 quatre-vingt-un
82 quatre-vingt-deux
83 quatre-vingt-trois
84 quatre-vingt-quatre
85 quatre-vingt-cinq
86 quatre-vingt-six
87 quatre-vingt-sept
88 quatre-vingt-huit
89 quatre-vingt-neuf
There's no word for ninety either, so you continue using quatre-vingt and adding from ten. 90
is quatre-vingt-dix (four-twenty-ten), 91 is quatre-vingt-onze (four-twenty-eleven), etc.
90 quatre-vingt-dix
91 quatre-vingt-onze
92 quatre-vingt-douze
93 quatre-vingt-treize
94 quatre-vingt-quatorze
95 quatre-vingt-quinze
96 quatre-vingt-seize
97 quatre-vingt-dix-sept
98 quatre-vingt-dix-huit
99 quatre-vingt-dix-neuf
*Once again, Switzerland and Belgium are exceptions. In Switzerland, 80 is huitante, but it's
still quatre-vingts in Belgium. (You might also hear the archaic word octante in Switzerland or
the South of France.) In both Switzerland and Belgium, 90 is nonante.

100 and Above

In French, 100 to 999 work just like in English: just say how many hundreds and then add the
other numbers. Note that when cent is at the end of the number, it takes an s, but when it's
followed by another number, the s is dropped.
100 cent
101 cent un
125 cent vingt-cinq
200 deux cents
201 deux cent un
243 deux cent quarante-trois
1,000+ are also similar to English, but there are a few things to note:
  The separator is a period or space, rather than a comma (learn more)
 Mille never takes an s, but million and milliard do
 When reciting a long number, you can pause to take a breath at the separator
(after mille, million, or milliard)
 When million and milliard are followed by a noun, you need de in between: un million de
dollars - a million dollars

1,000 mille - 1 000 or 1.000

2,000 deux mille - 2 000 or 2.000
2,500 deux mille cinq cents - 2 500 or 2.500
10,498 dix mille quatre cent quatre-vingt-dix-huit - 10.498 or 10 498
1,000,000 un million
2,000,000 deux millions
3,800,107 trois millions huit cent mille cent sept - 3.800.107 or 3 800 107
a billion un milliard

Expressions With Numbers

à la une - on the front page

chercher midi à 14 heures - to make something more complicated

le cinq à sept - afternoon tryst

couper les cheveux en quatre - to split hairs, quibble; to tell (someone) a few home truths

dormir sur ses deux oreilles - to sleep like a baby

faire d'une pierre deux coups - to kill two birds with one stone

haut comme trois pommes - knee-high to a grasshopper

tourner sept fois sa langue dans sa bouche - to think long and hard before speaking; one of
these days

Un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l'auras - A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

se mettre sur son trente et un - to get dressed to the nines

Pronunciation Notes
The consonants at the end of the French numbers cinq, six, huit, and dix are pronounced when
at the end of a sentence or in front of a vowel. However, they drop the final sound when followed
by a word beginning with a consonant (such as cent, fois, mois, or livres). For example, dix is
normally pronounced [dees] and dix élèves is [dee zay lehv], but dix livres is pronounced [dee
leevr(eu)]. Also, huit is normally pronounced [weet] and huit enfants is [wee ta(n) fa(n)],
but huit cents is pronounced [wee sa(n)].

Note that the x at the end of six and dix, which is pronounced [s] at the end of a sentence,
changes to [z] in front of vowels due to liaison.

2. La famille – Family