French Masculine Noun Endings
Making a list for the endings showing the French noun genders is not an easy thing. There are so many exceptions that I’m pretty sure you can always find words that don’t fit. So take this list with a...
View ArticleFrench Nouns Gender – Feminine Endings
Quick summary: most French words ending in E, a vowel + a double consonant, or ssion or tion are feminine. Michèle, la France, la fillette, la passion, la nation…. Now making a list of French endings...
View ArticleUnderstanding French Pronouns
First, let’s see how to pick the right French pronoun. What is A Pronoun ? A pronoun is a small word which replaces a noun. For example, if I am talking about my friend Tina, I can say: “Tina picks...
View ArticleFrench Indefinite and Partitive Articles + Audio
When building your sentence, it’s better if you don’t translate from English but rather understand whether you are talking about a precise quantity or a vague one, and use the corresponding French...
View ArticleThe French Definite Articles
1 – Forms of the French Definite Articles The French definite article has four forms: Le (masculine singular), La (feminine singular), L’ (followed by a vowel), Les (plural). Unlike the French...
View ArticleFrench Prepositions of Place – Countries, Cities, Regions
1 – Recap of the French Prepositions of Place Rules Since this is quite a long article, I’ll start with a short recap of the French prepositions of place rules. Here are the general rules to say your...
View ArticleHypothesis in French – the Uses of Si + Audio
The Key to understanding “si clauses” / hypothesis in French (as in English actually) is to understand the time frame of the event you are wishing to change: Hypothesis on the future (what you will do...
View ArticleHow to Understand French Possessive Adjectives
This is particularly hard for English speakers since in English, you choose the possessive according to the gender and number of the subject: for a man, his dog(s), for for a woman, her dog(s). or for...
View ArticleChaud and Froid – All About Hot and Cold in French
I hear many mistakes from my Skype students with these two adjectives, and these mistakes sound bad in French, can lead to an embarrassing situation with a sexual meaning… However they can easily be...
View ArticleFrench Adjectives of Description
Use the floating blue icon in the bottom right to hide/reveal the English translations on this page. Toggle translation Hide/reveal translations To better understand this blog post, I suggest you read...
View ArticleHow to Use the Pronoun Y in French
1 – The French Pronoun Y Replaces a PLACE. A place is introduced by a preposition of place which can be “à” but also “sur, sous, en, au, aux…”: Je vais à Paris = j’y vais Je vais en France = j’y vais...
View ArticleHow to Use the Pronoun EN in French
1 – En Is Linked to a Notion of QUANTITY The pronoun “en” replaces a noun. Unfortunately in French, there are many French pronouns to chose from according to the grammatical value of the noun, or the...
View ArticleFrench Pronouns Modern Pronunciation + Audio
French people very much glide over the French direct and indirect object pronouns, which creates a lot of confusion for foreigners who only learned French with books and don’t know the common spoken...
View ArticleDescribing Clothes and Using Color Adjectives in French
We were reviewing the adjectives of colors with my Australian Skype student Robyn. Now we are working with Essential French dialogues, and are studying the conversation at a clothing store of chapter...
View ArticleTalking About Age in French – Vocabulary and Grammar
1 – General Expression of Age = Avoir + Age in French = To Be + Age in English First of all, there is a big grammatical trap. In English, to talk about how old someone or something is, you use the...
View ArticleUnderstanding The French Subject Pronoun On
The key to understanding “on” is to rely on the context. Most of the time, you won’t hear the “on” – since it’s a short nasal sound. So you need to guess the presence of “on” more than rely on your...
View ArticleModern Spoken French Pronunciation of “Il y a”
First of all, “il y a” (meaning there is, there are, or ago) naturally glides. In other words, no French native would ever pronounce “il y a ” “eel-ee-a”. “Il y a” Very Enunciated French Pronunciation...
View ArticleWhat do Gender and Number Mean in French Grammar
Language methods use grammatical terms as if they were obvious. However, my experience is that many students don’t really understand these words. So in some cases it’s not so much the French grammar...
View ArticleParis est Beau or Paris est Belle?
In a nutshell, the answer is: both are possible. Except in some very precise cases, cities in French can be feminine (more literary) or masculine (common spoken French) So, “Paris est beau” or “Paris...
View ArticleEverything About the French Tout & Pronunciation of Tous
The reason why “tous” is pronounced differently is grammatical. The word “tout” has different grammatical values in French : it can be an indefinite adjective, an adverb, a noun, an indefinite pronoun...
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