Preface

This overview serves as a very condensed, very brief overview of basic French grammar. You don’t need to memorize it, but if you are brand new to French, we recommend you going through it before starting with Vocaber. It will allow you to get more familiar with the language features that you will encounter.

Remember that Vocaber is not a grammar drilling app - you will aquire the grammar naturally as you progress, via immersion. Don’t worry if you don’t understand some of it, just be aware that it exists.

Nouns and Gender

Every French noun is either:

• Masculine (often ends in a consonant, -eau, -age): le livre
• Feminine (often ends in -e, -ion): la table

Notes:

• Adjectives and nouns agree in gender, adjectives change endings according to the noun’s gender (see Adjective).
• There are patterns, but there is no strict logic to genders. You just have to accept it.
• Grammar genders are not the same as human genders. Table being feminine does not mean that tables are girls.
• If the word gender confuses you, think of it as type (which is also what it used to mean in English, and what it meant in Latin).

Plural Forms

The plural forms of nouns depend on the ending of the original word:

• Add -s: le livre → les livres
• -eau, -eu → -x: le château → les châteaux
• -al → -aux: un journal → des journaux

Articles change: le/la/l’ → les, un/une → des (see Articles).

Pronouns

on is a common substitute for nous in informal speech.

Tu/vous can both refer to a single individual, but they indicate different levels of formality (see Formality).

• ils is used to denote a group of mixed gender or male-only people.
• elles is used for a female-only group of people.

This rule is sometimes ignored, but this is the standard usage.

Articles

English has definite (the) and indefinite articles (a/an). French also has articles, and they change depending on the number and gender:

Definite Article

Used when talking about something specific or already known.

Before a vowel sound, le/la contract to l’: l’arbre, l’idée.

Definite article is also used for something abstract. Because of this, it is usually used even when it’d be omitted in English:

J’aime le chocolat.
I like chocolate.

Le français est difficile au début.
French is hard at first.

Indefinite Article

Used when talking about something general or not previously mentioned.

Partitive Article

Used with uncountable or mass nouns. Could be generally translated as “some”.

Noun Stand-in

Articles often act as placeholders for a noun that has already been mentioned or is understood from context. This happens in English too, but it’s more visible in French.

Tu as vu mon téléphone ? - Oui, je l’ai mis sur la table.
Did you see my phone? - Yes, I put it on the table. (l’ stands for le téléphone)

J’ai fini le livre. Tu veux le lire ?
I finished the book. Do you want to read it? (le stands in for le livre)

Elle adore cette chanson. Elle écoute toujours la.
She loves that song. She always listens to it. (la replaces la chanson)

Particle en functions in a similar way:

Je me souviens de cette chanson. - Je m’en souviens.
I remember that song. - I remember it.

Nous avons trois chiens. - Nous en avons trois.
We have three dogs. - We have three of them.

It is more complicated than in English, but you’ll quickly get used to it if you consume enough material.

Verbs

Tenses

The tenses in French affect how the verbs conjugate, and they are much more complicated than in English, but in real life you’ll find that it is not as scary as it looks in these grammar tables.

There are two key differences between English and French tense usage worth noting.

Use of the Simple Past. English commonly uses the simple past in everyday speech. Counter-intuitively, in French the compound past (passé composé) is used in conversation:

J’ai parlé.
I spoke.

Lack of Progressive Forms in French. English uses continuous tenses:

Je parle.
I speak, I am speaking.

Regular Verbs

Regular verbs follow consistent conjugation patterns, and are separated into two groups:

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs in French are the third group, they do not follow the regular conjugation patterns of -er or -ir verbs. Here are some common examples:

In reality you won’t have too much trouble with them, because many irregular verbs are very common and you’ll see them a lot.

Auxiliary Verbs

You’ll see avoir and être more than other irregular verbs, because they often function as auxiliary verbs in some tenses, similarly to how auxiliary verbs to have/to be are used in English.

Subjonctif

Subjonctif (or Subjunctive) is a topic that often scares English-speaking learners. But it is simply a mood that modifies the verb to give additional nuance, specifically to express:

• uncertainty
• emotion
• desire
• doubt
• necessity

It usually appears in sentences with “que” and another subject.

Je veux que tu viennes.
I want that you come. (literal)
I want you to come. (natural)

Je suis content qu’elle soit là.
I’m happy that she be here. (literal)
I’m happy that she is here. (natural)

Je ne pense pas qu’il ait compris.
I don’t think that he have understood. (literal)
I don’t think he understood. (natural)

Il faut que nous partions.
It is necessary that we leave. (literal)
We must leave. (natural)

This “that + subjunctive verb” structure used to exist in older English (e.g. I demand that he be silent), but in modern English it’s mostly replaced by infinitives or standard present tense. French still uses this structure often and naturally.

Subjonctif is formed by taking third-person plural (e.g. [ils] parlent) form of the verb, dropping -ent, and adding an ending specific to the subject (parl- + ending).

You’ll mostly see the present subjonctif. Other forms (past, imperfect) are rare or literary.

Don’t be concerned if you don’t understand it immediately - it is a topic that will click once you know the language better, and once you saw enough of it in the real life.

Adjectives

Adjectives usually follow the noun and match gender/number:

• masc. sg.: base form → un livre intéressant
• fem. sg.: -e → une fille intelligente
• masc. pl.: -s → des enfants curieux
• fem. pl.: -es

Une voiture rouge.
A red car.

Some common adjectives come before the noun (see the BANGS rule: Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size):

Un petit garçon.
A little boy.

Sentence Structure

Word Order

Just like in English, the usual word order in French is:

Subject + Verb + Object

Je mange une pomme.
I’m eating an apple.

Negative sentences

Ne … pas around the verb:

Je ne mange pas de viande.
I do not eat meat.

In speech, ne is often dropped:

Je mange pas de viande. (informal)

Questions

There are three main ways to ask yes/no questions:

1. Raising your voice (informal)

   Tu viens ?
   Are you coming?

2. Using “est-ce que”

   Est-ce que tu viens ?
   Are you coming?

3. Inversion (formal or written)

   Viens-tu ?
   Are you coming?

Formality

In modern English, “you” is used for every interaction, no matter who are you talking to. In French, and most other European languages, there is so-called t-v distinction. It also used to exist in English:

• tu is used in informal situations: with family, peers, children, or when a sense of familiarity is implied.
• vous is used in formal situations: with strangers, older people, in general situations where you are not close socially. It is conjugated the same way as plural vous.

Tu vas bien ?
Are you doing well? (informal)
Vous allez bien ?
Are you doing well? (formal or plural)

Tu aimes ce livre ?
Do you like this book? (informal)
Vous aimez ce livre ?
Do you like this book? (formal or plural)

Sometimes it is not obvious which form to use. The rule of thumb is to err on the side of caution and go with vous. You can switch to tu after rapport has been established.