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.

When a French noun describes a live being, its gender (masculine or feminine) often reflects the gender of the being in question. For example: The word cheval (horse) is masculine, whereas jument (mare) is feminine, because they both reflect the gender of the animal. Makes sense? Good. But determining gender isn’t always that logical, especially with inanimate objects, like things and ideas.

Quel is an interrogative French adjective that means which or what. Like most adjectives, it has four forms: masculine singular (quel) and plural (quels), and feminine singular (quelle) and plural (quelles). The following examples show all four forms in action: Quel jour sommes-nous? (What day is it?) Quelle heure est-il?

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.

In French grammar, les prépositions (prepositions) are little words that can answer questions like where, when, and with whom. They are used in combination with other words in a sentence to form a prepositional phrase. For example: dans la cuisine (in the kitchen) and avec mes amis (with my friends) are prepositional phrases that add information to a sentence.

This list assumes that you’re going to make French grammar mistakes. You know it’s true. In fact, the best way to learn a language is to try it out and get corrected when necessary! And the more chances you get to try out a language, the faster you’ll learn. Here are ten common mistakes made in French grammar and how to avoid them.

A sure way to know the gender of a noun is to look at its article — when it’s available, of course! Like English, French has definite articles, indefinite articles, and partitive articles. The French definite article is the equivalent of the. But French has four forms of article défini. French Definite Articles French Article Usage in French Example le Before masculine singular nouns le matin (the morning) la Before feminine singular nouns la vie (life) l’ Before masculine or feminine singular nouns beginning with a vowel or a mute -h l’amour (love) les Before masculine or feminine plural nouns les bonbons (candies) Le and les disappear completely when they are preceded by the prepositions à (at) and de (of/from).

As you discuss days, months, and specific dates in French, you’re going to need tell time (l’heure) and probably with both the 12-hour and 24-hour clocks. How to express French time via the 12-hour clock Time is typically expressed based on a 12-hour clock. In French, you say the hour then the minutes, and it’s a little different from the way it’s done in English.

Two common French verbs: écrire (to write) and mettre (to put) misbehave very much like the irregular verbs lire, dire, and conduire, but for one small difference that sets them in a different group. Proceed like this to conjugate écrire in present tense: Drop the -re of the infinitive to find the stem. Add the ending for the correct subject: -s, -s, and -t for the singular and -vons, -vez, and -vent for the plural.