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Basic Questions in French
Knowing how to ask a few basic questions in French can come in very handy when you travel to a French-speaking country and need to know the time or where something is located or just want to get some basic [more…]
Useful French Expressions and Greetings
These French greetings and expressions will come in very handy when you travel to a French-speaking country. With these expressions, you can communicate politely when speaking to French natives. [more…]
French Phrases for Emergencies
If you’re traveling in a French-speaking country and find yourself in an urgent situation, you can get the assistance you need by memorizing these important French phrases. [more…]
The French Calendar
Getting to know the days and months of the French calendar helps you keep track of your travel plans, French holidays, and engagements. The following tables list the days of the week and months of the [more…]
Ordering in a French Restaurant
If you go to a French restaurant, these expressions can come in very handy. Practice them first, so that you can relax and enjoy the dining experience. [more…]
French Numbers
When traveling in a French-speaking country, you need to know numbers for shopping, dining, transportation, and exchanging money. With this list, you can start practicing numbers in French. [more…]
French For Dummies Cheat Sheet
Whether you’re planning a trip to France or to a French-speaking country or you just want to learn a little French, knowing a few helpful expressions can make you feel more comfortable with the language [more…]
Categorizing French Articles
In French, there are three kinds of articles (small words you can only use with nouns): definite, indefinite, and partitive. The purpose of an article is to present a noun and indicate its gender and number [more…]
French Contractions with À and De
The most common French prepositions are à (to, at, in) and de (of, from, about). When these two prepositions are followed by the definite articles le and [more…]
French Personal Pronouns
Simply put, pronouns replace nouns. Pronouns refer to people, places, things, and ideas, without having to use the same nouns over and over. The French language uses five types of personal pronouns. These [more…]
Object Pronoun Word Order in French
To effectively use French object pronouns, you need to understand what they mean and where they go in the sentence. In the affirmative imperative, direct-object pronouns [more…]
Recognizing Être Verbs in French
In French, the passé compose is a compound verb tense, meaning it has two parts: an auxiliary verb and a past participle. French has two auxiliary verbs, [more…]
Intermediate French For Dummies Cheat Sheet
If you’re ready to move beyond the basics in French and want to improve your skills at reading, writing, or speaking in French, start by reviewing the three types of French articles, the French contractions [more…]
Conjugating the Simple Tenses of Regular French Verbs
If the infinitive of a regular French verb ends in -er, -ir, or -re, you can follow a fixed pattern in conjugating the verb. If you learn to conjugate one verb in each of the groups, you will know how [more…]
Conjugating Compound Tenses with Regular French Verbs
To conjugate French compound tenses, you need an auxiliary verb, usually avoir (to have) or être (to be), plus the past participle of the desired verb. The following example shows French compound tenses [more…]
Imperative Forms of French Verbs
In French, the imperative mood expresses an order, request, or directive and is created with regular verbs by using the verb directly and eliminating the subject pronoun. The imperative uses the present [more…]
French Verbs For Dummies Cheat Sheet
If you’re studying French, you need to get a handle on French verbs. Luckily, there’s a pattern to conjugating regular French verbs into the simple and compound tenses, so once you know how to conjugate [more…]
Speaking French Like a Native
The page you are looking for was recently moved. Don't worry, it's still here; it just has a new address: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-speak-french-common-french-expressions.html [more…]
Choosing French Verb Tenses
To use the correct form of a French verb, you have to use the right tense. The indicative mood, which deals with objectivity — things really happening — includes many time aspects called [more…]
Spelling and Letter Combinations: Understanding Spoken French
Interpreting French speech can be hard for English speakers — and not only because the sounds are unfamiliar. French has a lot of letter combinations that produce the same sounds. [more…]
Articles and Adjectives: Short Words before French Nouns
In French, you almost always use an article or short adjective before a noun or noun phrase. These words translate as the, a/an, some, this, that, these, those, which, what, my, your, his, her, [more…]
Common Idiomatic Avoir Expressions
Many common French expressions use the verb avoir (to have), whereas their English translation is the verb to be. Here are some avoir expressions you should know: [more…]
Common Idiomatic Faire Expressions
Many common French expressions use the verb faire(to make/do), whereas their English translation is another verb, often to be or to go. Here are some faire [more…]
French All-in-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet
Like any new language, learning French can be a challenge. You have to interpret unfamiliar sounds, decipher idioms, conjugate verbs in multiple tenses, dot your [more…]
Building Negative Sentences in French
In French, you need two negative words, ne (no) and pas (not), to make a sentence negative. Pas can be replaced by other negative words, such as jamais [more…]
