Veronique Mazet

French grammar is all about using French words in the correct way so people can understand your meaning. You can learn a lot of French words by browsing an English-French dictionary, but to make sense, you need to know the rules of French grammar.Some of the basics include making nouns plural, adding description by pairing adjectives correctly to nouns, and using pronominal verbs to talk about actions done to you or someone else.

Just like in English, the French verb provides the action in a sentence. Verbs (les verbes) are the core element of a sentence because they provide essential information. They take many different forms to do so. They indicate: What action is being performed, through the choice of the infinitive Who performs it, through the choice of the subject When it is performed, through the choice of the tense French infinitive verb forms The infinitive is like the name of the verb.

Sometimes you need to know how to say more than a simple yes or no in French; you may want to know when or where something happened and who came and what they did. In this case, you need to use an information question, and like in English, French information questions start with a question word (technically known as interrogative adverbs and adjectives).

In French and in English, the verbs être (to be), avoir (to have), aller (to go), and faire (to do) are probably the most used verbs of our repertoire, which is also why they have become so twisted. Like your favorite sneakers, the more you use them, the more worn out and deformed they become! But you can’t do without them.

To grasp the fundamentals of any language, your native language as well as French, you need to recognize the parts of speech, the various types of words that compose a language and how they work. French nouns You should know three essential things about a French nom (noun): It refers to people, places, things, or concepts.

The French indefinite article is the equivalent to a/an and some (but English often skips it). Do you ask about one thing, describe a couple of things that happened, and make plans for an outing that hasn’t yet been defined? If so, you’re an indefinite article kind of person, like the French! And as such, you should treat the article indéfini as the default article in French grammar.

Some French adjectives have irregular feminine singular endings. To form the feminine singular form, some masculine singular adjectives require a little more than just adding -e. Here, the irregular feminine adjectives are in nine categories based on verb ending so they’re easier for you to spot. Ending in vowel + consonant: For adjectives that end in a vowel + consonant, you form the FS adjective by doubling that consonant before adding the -e of the feminine singular.

The French verbs pouvoir (can/to be able to), vouloir (to want), and devoir (must/to have to) are important because they function as helper verbs in combination with another verb. In that case, the helper verb is conjugated but the other verb is in the infinitive. Here are some examples: La police veut parler avec le suspect.

Using inversion to ask a question in French requires a little tweaking in the order of the words of the statement. The subject pronoun and the verb get swapped around (inverted) and separated by a hyphen. Here is a list of the subject pronouns you can use in inversion. Note how je (I) is not among them! You pretty much never invert je and the verb (unless you’re a writer of melodramas in the 19th century).