French is a language which is widely spoken. It originates from France but is also spoken in Québec (Canada), parts of Switzerland, and many African countries. It's often taught in schools as a secondary language. It has always been an important language. French isn't very hard, although it's not as easy as English. The pronunciation is also very nice, but may be a bit tricky at first. Unfortunately there's a slight decline in French nowadays because of the influence of English. The French are also familiar with the concept of noun gender, so there are masculine and feminine words, unlike in English.
Part one of this course is only intended for absolute beginners.
Welcome to the French course here at UniLang. We want to help you learn foreign languages and we hope this little course can help. Of course we also have a big grammar reference and a list of vocabulary available for you to study. These courses in part one are intended for absolute beginners who need a little assistance with starting to learn some basics, so this is not a complete course. When we've shown you the most important basics we'll let you go and then you can explore our grammar reference all by yourself.
Before you continue you must do something, you should learn how to pronounce things in French. Unfortunately we don't have lessons in this yet, but if you go to UniLang's Sonidos del Mundo project you can listen to some spoken French.
And just click on the 
icon to listen to the French words and sentences in the course.
We'll start by teaching you how to introduce yourself in French, take a look at the following French sentence and it's English translation. All French text will be written in blue and the English translation in green.
| "Je suis Robert" | "I am Robert" |
Here we see your very first French sentence where you introduce yourself as Robert, a fictional person, you should of course replace the name with your own name. Although the sentence consists of only three words we are going to carefully examine each word. The first word "Je" is the French equivalent of the English word "I", also referred to as 1st person singular, it's a personal pronoun. The second word "suis" is a verb, it's a conjugation of the irregular French verb "être", which is the French equivalent of "to be". Now we've seen how to introduce yourself using "je suis" but we can also introduce other people, take a look at the following examples:
| "Je suis Robert." | "I am Robert." |
| "Tu es Robert." | "You are Robert." |
| "Il est Robert." | "He is Robert." |
| "C'est Robert." | "It is Robert." |
| "Elle est Roberta." | "She is Roberta." |
| "Nous sommes Robert et Paul." | "We are Robert and Paul." |
| "Vous êtes Robert et Paul." | "You are Robert and Paul." |
| "Ils sont Robert et Paul." | "They are Robert and Paul." |
That's a lot of new words! But it's all very easy. Now you've seen all personal pronouns in French, you know how to refer to people. And besides that you've also learned your first French verb, an irregular verb: "être", in English "To be". There is also a small new word that appeared in this lesson, the French words "et", which means "and".
We'll ask you to study a number of words in each lesson , this time we'll give you a couple of very easy words to study, learn them in both directions! English-French and French-English.
Each lesson will come with some exercises so you can practice the grammar and vocabulary of this lesson.
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Il est Robert
2) C`est père
3) Ils sont Robert et Pîerre
4) Elle est mère
5) Tu es grandmère
6) Tu es grandpère
7) Nous sommes George et William
Exercise B: Translate to French:
1) We are James and Jane.
2) You are father
3) I am mother
4) She is grandmother
5) They are Robert and Paul.
6) You are George and William
7) You are grandfather
After you've done the exercises you can check whether your answer is correct using the following solutions:
Solution of Exercise A:
1) He is Robert
2) It is father
3) They are Robert and Pierre
4) She is mother
5) You are grandmother
6) You are grandfather
7) We are George and William
Solution of Exercise B:
1) Nous sommes James et Jane.
2) Tu es père
3) Je suis mère
4) Elle est grandmère
5) Ils sont Robert et Paul
6) Vous êtes George et William
7) Tu es grandpère
Apparently you've successfully finished lesson one, so now we can continue with the second lesson. In this lesson you'll learn how to describe certain objects. First of all we are going to teach you articles. In the previous lesson you learned how to say "He is father" but that sounds a little bit tarzan-like, wouldn't it sound better if you could say "He is a father" or "He is the father" ? That's what you'll learn now. Take a look at these French sentences:
| "Il est un père." | "He is a father." |
| "Elle est la mère." | "She is the mother." |
| "C'est la chaise." | "It is the chair." |
| "C'est une chaise." | "It is a chair." |
| "C'est la maison." | "It (or: this) is the house." |
| "C'est le père." | "It is the father." |
Here we see a whole mix of words. We see "le" and "la" as a translation of "the" and "un" and "une" as a translation of "a" and "an". But how come there are two translations? Of course they are both right, otherwise we wouldn't show them to you. But how can it be possible that the word "the" and "a and an" have two translations in French? This has to do with the difficult concept of noun gender, a concept not known in English but is in almost every other language. In most other languages a noun has a certain gender. So you're telling me a noun can be a boy or a girl? Indeed...that's what we're saying. A noun has a certain gender. In French (and many other Latin languages) there are two genders: masculine and feminine. Every noun (note that this gender concept only applies to nouns) has one of these two genders. How to determine what gender it has isn't very hard, and can be explained using a number of guidelines:
Most grammar rules are dependent of the gender of the noun, so you'll have to learn the gender of each noun. One grammar rule that is gender-dependent is the translation of the articles "the, a and an". When the noun to which the article applies is a masculine noun then "the" is translated as "le". If the article applies to a feminine noun then the article that has to be used is "la". This also applies to the indefinite article ("a and an"). In French you use "un" when the noun is masculine and "une" when it's feminine. When the noun is plural you use "les", irregardless of the gender of the noun.
Well, this noun gender concept might have confused you a bit. For English speaking people it can be a weird concept. But if English is not your native language then it's most likely that you are already familiar with noun gender. From now on we will also mention the article of a noun in our vocabulary lists.
In this lesson we'll also introduce another irregular French verb, the verb "avoir", which means "to have". Take a look at the full conjugation and translation of this verb:
| "J'ai" | "I have" |
| "Tu as" | "You have" |
| "Il/Elle a" | "He/she has" |
| "Nous avons" | "We have" |
| "Vous avez" | "You have" |
| "Ils ont" | "They have" |
Now you've learned a new verb, memorize it. Note that you see that some forms contract when the next word start with a vowel or an H. You can see "J'ai" instead of "Je ai", and earlier you already saw "C'est" instead of "Ce est".
Learn the following words, the words of the previous lesson are mentioned again, but this time we also show what definite article to use.
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Un chat est un animal
2) Une maison est un bâtiment
3) Le chien a un os
4) J'ai un chat
5) Le père a une maison
6) Le père et la mère ont un chien
7) Vous avez une maison
Exercise B: Translate to French:
1) The grandmother has a cat
2) A cat is an animal
3) The table has a chair
4) The grandmother and the grandfather have a dog
5) The mother has a dog and the father has a cat.
6) We have a table
7) They have the house
Solution of Exercise A:
1) A cat is an animal
2) A house is a building
3) The dog has a bone
4) I have a cat
5) The father has a house
6) The father and the mother have a dog
7) You have a house
Solution of Exercise B:
1) La grandmère a un chat
2) Un chat est un animal
3) La table a une chaise
4) La grandmère et le grandpère ont un chien
5) La mère a un chien et le père a un chat
6) Nous avons une table
7) Ils ont la maison
Before we teach you how to tell that something belongs to a certain person we first have to teach you how to be polite in French. In French and most other languages, but not in English, there exists a certain polite form of "you". In French they use "vous" instead of "tu" in formal speech. "tu" is only used among friends and for children. Take a look at the following sample sentences:
| "Tu es grandmère" | "You are grandmother" |
| "Vous êtes grandmère" | "You are grandmother" |
| "Tu as un chien" | "You have a dog" |
| "Vous avez un chien" | "You have a dog" |
Now you know how to be polite we'll continue with indicating possession. We're gonna teach you the so-called "possessive pronouns" or "possessive adjectives". At the same time you'll learn how translate "this" and "that" (demonstrative pronouns). Here are a couple of new sentences:
| "C'est ma chaise" | "This/That is my chair" |
| "C'est mon père" | "This/That is my father" |
| "C'est ta chaise" | "This/That is your chair" |
| "C'est ton père" | "This/That is your father" |
| "C'est sa chaise" | "This/That is his/her chair" |
| "C'est son père" | "This/That is his/her father" |
| "C'est notre chaise" | "This/That is our chair" |
| "C'est notre père" | "This/That is our father" |
| "C'est votre chaise" | "This/That is your chair" (This is the plural "you" form as well as the polite/formal singular form) |
| "C'est votre père" | "This/That is your father" (This is the plural "you" form as well as the polite/formal singular form) |
| "C'est leur chaise" | "This/That is their chair" |
| "C'est leur père" | "This/That is their father" |
| "Cette chaise" | "This/That chair" |
| "Cette maison" | "This/That house" |
| "Ce père" | "This/That father" |
| "Ce chien" | "This/That dog" |
| "Cette chaise-ci" | "This chair" (strongly referring to THIS) |
| "Cette maison-là" | "That house" (strongly referring to THAT) |
| "Ce père-ci" | "This father"(strongly referring to THIS) |
| "Ce chien-là" | "That dog" (strongly referring to THAT) |
This is all might be quite difficult for you, as you've learned a lot of new things. First of all, the French don't always indicate the difference between "this" and "that", as you've probably seen. When you want to say "this is" or "that is" you just use "C'est". When you use such a demonstrative pronoun adjectively then the word you have to use depends on the gender of the noun. If it's a masculine noun you use "ce" (and if the masculine noun begins in a vowel or H then "cet"), and if it's a feminine noun then you use "cette", again: this still doesn't indicate whether it's close or far away, it doesn't indicate "this" or "that". When you really do want to indicate whether it's close or far away then you can add "-ci" to the noun if it's close ("this") and "-là" if its far away ("that").
Now we can continue with the possessive pronouns/adjectives. Just like most pronouns they have to agree with the noun in gender (and in number, but more about that later). With masculine nouns you use "mon" ("my"), "ton" ("your") and "son" ("his/her"), with feminine nouns you use "ma", "ta" and "sa". "Notre" ("our") and "votre" ("your (plural and/or formal)") and "leur" remain the same, irregardless of the gender of the noun.
Now it's time to learn plural nouns. Until now you've only seen singular nouns such as "house" and "chair", but now we'll teach you how to form a plural noun ("houses", "chairs") in French.
Take a look at these guidelines for forming plural nouns, they also show some examples:
When a word ends in -AU, -EU or -OU then an X should be added to form the plural noun: Le cadeau - Les cadeaux, Le jeu - Les jeux, Le bureau - Les bureaux
When a word ends in -S, -Z or -X you don't need to change it: Le croix - Les croix, Le fils - Les fils, Les nez - Les nez
When a words ends on -AL or -AIL replace it with -AUX:Le général - Les généraux, Le travail - Les travaux
Add an S to the noun to form plural when none of the exceptions apply: L'école - Les écoles, Le jardin - Les jardins, La fille - Les filles, La voiture - Les Voitures, Le Chien - Les Chiens
Note that when pointing at plural nouns, you use different demonstrative pronouns/adjectives, just like in English. When dealing with plural nouns you get "ces" instead of "ce" and "cet" (masculine), and instead of "cette" (feminine)
And instead of "C'est" you say "Ce sont" when dealing with plural nouns, this still doesn't indicate closeness or distance.
Some samples:
| "Ces souris" | "Those/These mice" |
| "Ces maisons-lá" | "Those houses" |
| "Ces chiens-ci" | "These dogs" |
BUT WHEN SEPERATED BY "ETRE":
| "Ce sont des livres" | "These/Those are books" |
| "Ce sont les clés" | "These/Those are the keys" |
Note that also the possessive adjectives/pronouns have a different plural form:
"mon" or "ma" becomes "mes"
"ton" or "ta" becomes "tes"
"son" or "sa" becomes "ses"
"notre" becomes "nos"
"votre" becomes "vos"
"leur" becomes "leurs"
Now, we have to explain something that's a typical French grammar construction. It's a bit hard to understand but if you pay attention you'll get it. Let's take an English sentence, for example: "I eat bread" and let's translate that to French "I eat = Je mange" and "bread = pain" so you'd think the sentence would be "Je mange pain" but THAT'S WRONG! Because literally you don't eat bread, you eat some bread or you eat FROM THE bread. In French you always have to use a small word in between "DE LE" (masculine) , "DE LA" (feminine) or "DE LES" (plural). So then you'd translate the sentence as "Je mange de le pain"....but again: WRONG! We haven't told you yet that "DE LE" contracts to "DU" and "DE LES" contracts to "DES". So the correct translation would be: "Je mange du pain". You could see the word "DU" as a substitute for a quantity.
Another sample sentence because this might need some further explanation, let's look at the sentence: "I have horses" and let's translate that, the word for "horse" in French is "cheval", now think about it. You might think "J'ai chevaux" but you of course immediately realize that's wrong, because you have to add the little word that's substitutes the quantity. So you continue to think... "J'ai de les chevaux", that's closer to it...but now the contraction and the sentence is perfect: "J'ai des chevaux". Exactly! That's it!
For those who require a more technical and grammatical approach: remember that a direct object always has to be preceded by a small word that indicates quantity, this can of course be a cardinal or ordinal number, a normal definite or indefinite article..or de construction: "DU, DE LA, DES".
Also note that "DU, DE LA, DES" are also still used after some words of quantity, such as "beaucoup" ("much/many"). And "DU" contracts to "D'" when followed by a vowel or an H. When there is a negation in a sentence (ne..pas) then we use DE (or D' before a vowel) after it. Never DES, DU or DE LA.
I think that's enough material for this lesson. We've covered a lot this lesson so make sure you all get it, and don't hesitate to reread sections you don't fully understand yet!
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Ce sont mes photos.
2) Un singe a des doigts.
3) Ce sont nos chaises.
4) Ses livres sont ici.
5) Elles sont ici.
6) J'ai beaucoup de chevaux.
7) Vous avez notre caméra.
8) Elle a votre clè.
9) Ce sont vos photos.
10) Tu as ces livres-ci.
11) Nous avons ces caméras-là.
12) Tu as du pain.
13) Nous avons des clés.
14) Elle a une souris.
15) Ils ont beaucoup d'yeux.
Exercise B: Translate to French:
1) We have many fingers.
2) These are my eyes.
3) That is his key.
4) This is your book and these are your dogs. (spoken to a stranger)
5) I have those photos.
6) Her books are there.
7) They have the house.
8) This house is your house.(spoken to a dear friend)
9) You are their grandmother.(use formal speech)
10) Here is our camera.
11) The houses have many keys.
12) They have horses.
13) I have keys.
Solution of Exercise A:
1) These/those are my photos.
2) A monkey has fingers.
3) These/those are our chairs.
4) His/her books are here.
5) They are here.
6) I have many horses.
7) You have our camera.
8) She has your key.
9) These/those our your photos.
10) You have these books.
11) We have those cameras.
12) You have bread.
13) We have keys.
14) She has a mouse.
15) They have many eyes.
Solution of Exercise B:
1) Nous avons beaucoup de doigts.
2) Ce sont mes yeux.
3) C'est sa clè.
4) C'est votre livre et ce sont vos chiens.
5) J'ai ces photos(-là).
6) Ses livres sont là.
7) Ils ont la maison.
8) Cette maison est ta maison.
9) Vous êtes leur grandmère.
10) Ici est notre caméra.
11) Les maisons ont beaucoup de clés.
12) Ils ont des chevaux.
13) J'ai des clés.
You've already worked your way through three chapters. Make sure you understood everything that appeared in those chapters. Make sure you understand the grammar and vocabulary and do the exercises to practice. Also make sure you try to pronounce every French sentence so you can practice your pronunciation.
Let's start now by learning a regular French verb: "parler" ("to speak" in English). In French, a regular verb in the present tense always has the same ending. That ending is underlined in the following example. There are three groups of regular verbs in French, "parler", and all other infinitive verbs that end in ER, belong to the first group.
The part of the verb that's not underlined is called the stem, the part of the verb that always remains the same.The stem can be obtained by removing the last two characters of the infinitive verb (ER, RE or IR)
| "Je parle" | "I speak" |
| "Tu parles" | "You speak" |
| "Il/elle parle" | "He/She speaks" |
| "Nous parlons" | "We speak" |
| "Vous parlez" | "You speak" |
| "Ils parlent" | "They speak" |
It's pretty easy to understand. Each person has it's own ending. The endings you just saw are valid for all regular verbs that end in ER.
There are two other groups, the RE group (for all regular verbs that end in RE) and the IR group (for all regular verbs that end in IR). An example of the RE group using the verb "rendre", meaning "to give back"
| "Je rends" | "I give back" |
| "Tu rends" | "You give back" |
| "Il/elle rend" | "He/She gives back" |
| "Nous rendons" | "We give back" |
| "Vous rendez" | "You give back" |
| "Ils rendent" | "They give back" |
An example of the IR group, using the verb "finir", meaning "to end".
| "Je finis" | "I end" |
| "Tu finis" | "You end" |
| "Il/elle finit" | "He/She/It end" |
| "Nous finissons" | "We end" |
| "Vous finissez" | "You end" |
| "Ils finissent" | "They end" |
This was pretty clear I think. You should memorize the ending of each person for each of the three groups. Note that when a stem ends in the same vowel as the ending begins with, then merge the two vowel into one, because two equal vowels never appear next to each other.
Now we're going to talk about negation, because you might want to say: "That is NOT a house", "and that is NO dog". In French "no" is translated a little different then in English, because the word "ne" is pasted before the main verb and the word "pas" is added behind it. So in French you use a little construction. Note that "ne" contracts to "n'" when followed by a vowel or an H. There's no auxiliary verb like DO in English!! When translating "I don't eat an apple" you should first remove "don't" in the English sentence, so you should translate "I not eat an apple", although that's incorrect in English it is the way negations work in French and most other languages.
| "That is NOT a house" | "Ce n'est pas une maison" |
| "I DON'T have a dog" | "Je n'ai pas un chien" |
Like we used "DU, DE LA, DES" etc.. to describe quantity, we have to do the same
after a negation, but in a slightly different form. After a negation one always puts "DE" (or D'), never "DU,
DE LA or DES". So the sentence "I
have no money" wouldn't translate as "Je
n'ai pas argent" but "Je
n'ai pas d'argent". (DE contracts to D' before a
vowel or an H.)
I think that's enough material for now, make sure you understand it. It's quite hard, so don't hesitate to reread this lesson a couple of times.
Learn the following words, from now on there will also be regular verbs (or at least verbs that are regular in the present tense) in the list.
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Je perds les photos.
2) L'homme choisit une femme.
3) L'enfant mange du pain.
4) Les femmes n'aiment pas l'homme.
5) Je n'ai pas d'enfants.
6) Ils n'ont pas de chevaux.
7) L'enfant perd sa pomme.
8) Nous parlons beaucoup.
9) Ce ne sont pas des animaux.
10) La femme n'attend pas.
11) Vous parlez français.
12) Ils parlent anglais.
Exercise B: Translate to French:
1) I lose my wife.
2) You do not have children.
3) We speak French.
4) I have no apples.
5) She loves this man.
6) This isn't her grandfather.
7) You don't speak French.
8) They eat an apple.
9) We eat apples.
10) I am not French. (in this case you do not use a DU, DE LA, DES construction)
11) We do not have those keys.
Solution of Exercise A:
1) I lose the photos.
2) The man choses a wife/woman.
3) The child eats bread.
4) The women don't like/love the man.
5) I don't have children.
6) They don't have horses.
7) The child loses his/her/it's apple.
8) We talk a lot.
9) These/those are no animals.
10) The woman/wife doesn't wait.
11) You speak French.
12) They speak English.
Solution of Exercise B:
1) Je perds ma femme.
2) Vous n'avez pas d'enfants. OR Tu n'as pas d'enfants.
3) Nous parlons français.
4) Je n'ai pas de pommes.
5) Elle aime cet homme(-ci).
6) Ce n'est pas son grandpère.
7) Vous ne parlez pas français. OR Tu ne parles pas français.
8) Ils mangent une pomme.
9) Nous mangeons des pommes.
10) Je ne suis pas français.
11) Nous n'avons pas ces clés.
After the difficult lesson you've just done we'll make things a little easier. In this lesson we'll teach you how to use adjectives in French. I suppose you already know what an adjective is. An adjective is a word that describes a property of a noun. "the house is BIG, the BIG house, the OLD man, the LITTLE child, the GREEN tree", those are adjectives.
An adjective tells something about a noun, it describes a property of a noun. It usually appears next to the noun, although it can also be separated from the noun using the verb "être" (in English: "to be"), note that in such a construction the "independent" adjective is never a direct object!
| "La maison est grande" | "The house is big" |
| "L'enfant est jeune" | "The child is young" |
| "Les pommes sont rouges" | "The apples are red" |
This is an easy construction, the French adjective always agrees in gender and number with the noun. Meaning that when the noun is applies to is feminine the adjective has to adopt a feminine form, and when it's plural it also has to adopt a plural form.
A specific set of rules is valid:
- When the noun is masculine there won't be a change
- When the noun is feminine an E is added after the adjective
- When the nouns is plural it also gets an extra S
There are some exceptions but we won't go through those now.
Of course an adjective usually appears next to the noun instead of being separated by "être". In most cases the adjective appears AFTER the noun (unlike in English) but some exceptional adjectives appear BEFORE the noun (such as the adjective "grand" ("big") and "jeune" ("young").
| "La grande maison" | "The big house" |
| "La pomme rouge" | "The red apple" |
| "La femme gentille" | "The nice woman" |
| "L'enfant rapide" | "The fast child" |
Now we can move on to the matter of adverbs. An adverb can be compared to an adjective but instead it says something about a verb instead of a noun. It's easy to form an adverb in French, just use the feminine form of the adjective and add MENT.
| "Il parle rapidement" | "He speaks fast" |
| "Je parle lentement" | "I speak slowly" |
Now you also know how to form adverbs, it's really easy. Of course
there are also irregular adverbs, a good example would be "well"
in French: "bien".
We can continue with asking question in French, to tell things is nice, but once in a while you might need to ask something to someone. We'll teach you.
The word order in a French question is almost the same as in English, although in English we use the helper verb "do", in French there's no such helper verb. Where in English we'd use "do" the French use the real main verb, in the correct conjugation that matches with the subject. Some questions:
| "Quelle est votre maison?" | "What is your house?" |
| "Où sommes nous?" | "Where are we?" |
| "Quand mangeons nous?" | "When do we eat?" |
| "Qui est le grand homme?" | "Who is the big man?" |
| "Qu'est-ce que vous mangez?" | "What do you eat?" |
| "Qu'est-ce qu'il perd?" | "What does he lose?" |
Also remember that the French don't use a helper verb such as "do" . Instead of it they use their main verb in the correct conjugation. You've also seen some interrogative pronouns now (the words used to ask question: such as: "what?" etc...). One strange thing is that you see two words for "what", there are two variant, you can say either " Qu'est-ce que?" or "quel/quelle?". The first one when asking about facts and such, the second one lies closer to our word "which", it describes an option, a choice, one of more possibilities.
This concludes the fifth lesson.
Learn the following words, from now on there will also appear adjectives and adverbs in the list (as well as interrogative pronouns in this lesson).
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) C'est un homme gentil
2) Qui est ce grand enfant?
3) Pourquoi vous volez haut?
4) Qu'est-ce que c'est?
5) Cette grande maison est leur maison
6) Il vole rapidement
7) Ce sont des animaux gentils
8) Qui joue là?
9) Quand nous nageons?
Exercise B: Translate to French:
1) I don't swim
2) I eat an apple
3) The kind man asks: "Who are you?"
4) She doesn't eat a red apple
5) They fly fast
6) Why do you like our grandmother?
7) These children play
8) The big child has a horse
9) The dog eats slowly
Solution of Exercise A:
1) This/that/it is a nice/kind man
2) Who is this/that big child?
3) Why do you fly high?
4) What's that/this/it?
5) This big house is their house
6) He flies fast
7) These/those are nice/kind animals
8) Who plays there?
9) When do we swim?
Solution of Exercise B:
1) Je ne nage pas
2) Je mange une pomme
3) L'homme gentil demande: "Qui êtes-vous?"
4) Elle ne mange pas une pomme rouge
5) Ils volent rapidement
6) Pourquoi vous aimez notre grandmère?
7) Ces enfants jouent
8) Le grand enfant a un cheval
9) Le chien mange lentement
This is the end of part one. Now you've learned some of the basics of the French language. In the future we might create a part two of this course but for now this is all. However, we do have a lot more information about the French language on the UniLang site! So do continue looking! And now you know some basics you will probably manage to learn more with other aids from our site (or another).
Thanks for your interest in this course! If you discovered any mistakes or you just want to say something then please let us know 
. We do need feedback! 
Made by Maarten van Gompel (Proycon)
Sound files recorded by Rolf Schmidt (Saaropean)