French Grammar
Welcome to the first part of our free French grammar lessons.
- Definite & Indefinite Articles
- Subject Prounouns
- Asking Questions & Question Words
- Conjugating Verbs in French
- Irregular Verbs in the Present Tense
French Articles
Definite Articles
Here are the French definite articles. Notice that there are different forms based on number and gender. Remember that articles are used to specify the application of a noun.
| The forms of the definite article in French |
|---|
| Masculine le (l') is the masculine singular definite article. les is the masculine plural definite article. Feminine la (l') is the femnine singular definite article. les is the feminine plural definite article. |
Indefinite Articles
Here are the French indefinite articles. Notice that there are different forms based on number and gender.
| The forms of the indefinite article in French |
|---|
| Masculine un is the masculine singular indefinite article. des is the masculine plural indefinite article. Feminine une is the feminine singular indefinite article. des is the feminine plural indefinite article. |
Additional Notes:
1. After any negative verb except for être, the indefinite
article [un/une/des] will become "de".
Asking Questions
There are 3 ways to ask a question in French.
1. To ask a simple yes or no question, simple use
this formation:
est-ce que + _____________________?
2. To ask an information question, you can use this
formation:
"question word" + est-ce que +
__________________?
Question Words in French
| who? to whom? what? when? where? why? how? |
qui? à qui? qu'est-ce que? quand? où? pourquoi? comment? |
3. You can also ask a question when speaking by making your voice rise at the end of a sentence.
Subject Pronouns
Here are the French subject pronouns. The second chart shows the English equivalents.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-person | je | nous |
| 2nd-person | tu | vous |
| 3rd-person | il/elle/on | ils/elles |
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-person | I | we |
| 2nd-person | you (informal) | you (plural, as well as formal singular) |
| 3rd-person | he, she, one/we/they | they (masculine)/they (feminine) |
Conjugating Verbs in French
To conjugate the simple present tense in French, you simply take the stem of the verb and add the appropriate ending. Verbs are divded into separate groups based on their ending. For example, the "-er" verbs all end in "-er". Therefore, they are conjugated by removing the "-er" from the end of the verb and adding one of the following endings:
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-person | e | ons |
| 2nd-person | es | ez |
| 3rd-person | e | ent |
Examples:
For the verb "parler" the stem would be "parl".
Je parle français. I speak French.
Tu parles français. You speak
French.
Elle parle français. She speaks
French.
Nous parlons français. We speak
French.
Irregular Verbs in the Present Tense
Here is a listing of irregular verbs in the simple present tense that are very commonly used.
être ("to be")
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-person | suis | sommes |
| 2nd-person | es | êtes |
| 3rd-person | est | sont |
avoir ("to have")
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-person | ai | avons |
| 2nd-person | as | avez |
| 3rd-person | a | ont |
aller ("to go")
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-person | vais | allons |
| 2nd-person | vais | allez |
| 3rd-person | va | vont |
faire ("to do"/"to make")
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-person | fais | faisons |
| 2nd-person | fais | faites |
| 3rd-person | fait | font |