BASICS

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French (Grade 08)
Definite Article
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 Definite Article
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 In English, the definite article is always “the”.

 In French, the definite article is changed depending on

the noun’s gender, number and first letter.

 There are three articles and an abbreviation. Le is used

for masculine nouns, La is used for feminine nouns, Les
is used for plural nouns (both masculine and feminine),
and L’ is used when the noun is singular and begins
with a vowel or silent h (both masculine and feminine).
 Definite Article
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 La fille – the daughter (s and f)
 Le fils – the son (s and m)
 Le livre – the book (s and m)
 La chemise – the shirt (s and f)
 Les filles – the daughters (p)
 Les fils – the sons (p)
 Les enfants – the children (p)
 L’enfant – the child (v)
 L’ami – the male friend (v)
 L’amie – the female friend (v)
 L’élève – the pupil (v)
 L’heure – the hour (h)
Indefinite Article
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 Indefinite Article
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 In English, the indefinite articles are a and an. Some is used as a plural
article in English.

 In French, you choose from un, une and des, depending on whether the
noun is masculine or feminine, and singular or plural. Again, indefinite
articles in French take different forms depending on gender and number.

 The articles un and une literally mean one in French. Un is used in front
of masculine singular nouns. Une is used in front of feminine singular
nouns.

 Des is used in front of plural nouns, whether they are masculine or

feminine, and whatever letter they start with.
 Indefinite Article
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 Une fille – a daughter
 Un fils – a son
 Des filles – some daughters
 Des fils – some sons
 Un roi – a king
 Un chien – a dog
 Un jardin – a gardin
 Une reine – a queen
 Une souris – a mouse
 Une porte – a door
 Des chiens – some/any dogs
 Des souris – some/any mice
 Des amis – some/any friends
Accent & Vowels
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 Accent & Vowels
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Accents
 Five different kinds of accent marks are used in written French.
 In many cases, an accent changes the sound of the letter to
which it is added. In others, the accent has no effect on
pronunciation.
1. Acute accent – é
2. Grave accent – è, à, ù
3. Circumflex accent – â, ê, î, ô, û
4. Diaeresis accent – ë, ï, ü, ÿ
5. Cedilla accent - ç
 Accent & Vowels
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Vowels
 Interestingly, there are six vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y.

 The most challenging vowel to pronounce is

probably u as this sound doesn’t exist in English.

 It’s also very common for French vowels to be

combined to create specific sounds.
 Accent & Vowels
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 Éléphant – elephant
 Fièvre – fever
 Là – there
 Où – where
 Gâteau – cake
 Être – to be
 Île – isle
 Chômage – unemployment
 Dû – due
 Noël – christmas
 Maïs – maize/corn
 Aigüe – treble
 Français – french
 Accent & Vowels
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 La table – table (Vowel A pronunciation : ah)
 La tarte – pie (Vowel A pronunciation : ah)
 Debout – standing (Vowel E pronunciation : uh)
 Se demander – to wonder (Vowel E pronunciation : uh)
 Le gaspi – waste (Vowel I pronunciation : eee)
 Gentil – kind (Vowel I pronunciation : eee)
 Occuper – to occupy
 Octobre – october (Vowel O pronunciation : oh)
 Taquiner – to tease (Vowel U pronunciation : ooh)
 Le tissu – fabric (Vowel U pronunciation : ooh)
 Tutoyer – familiar (Vowel Y pronunciation : ee)
 Letuyau – pipe (Vowel Y pronunciation : ee)
Noun
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 Noun
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 Nouns in French are either masculine or feminine.
Remember in french, grammatical gender has
nothing to do with biological gender.

 Indefinite articles are un (m) and une (f).

eg: un livre, une idee

 Definite articles are le (m) and la (f)

eg: le livre, la voiture
Pronoun
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 Pronoun
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 Pronouns are used to replace nouns. Pronouns are usually
shorter and quicker ways of referring to a noun to help make
sentences less repetitive.
 Je – I
 Tu – You
 Il – He/it
 Elle – She/it
 Nous – We
 Vous – You (p)
 Ils – They (m)
 Elles – They (f)
Verb
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 Verb
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 A verb is a word (part of speech) that in syntax
conveys an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), an
occurrence (happen, become), or a state of being (be,
exist, stand).
 Verb
 Parler – to speak / to talk
  Mettre – to put
 Porter – to carry / to wear  Faire – to do / to make
 Rester – to stay / to remain  Pouvoir – to be able to
 Comprendre – to understand  Avoir – to have
 Venir – to come  Etre – to be
 Trouver – to find/discover  Repondre – to answer
 Demander – to ask/request  Decider – to decide
 Voir – to see  Appeler – to call
 Savoir – to know  Connaitre – to know
 Vouloir – to want/wish  Penser – to think
 Aller – to go  Essayer – to try
 Donner – to give  Lire – to read
 Prendre – to take  Ouvrir – to open
 Devoir – to have to / must  Aimer – to like / to love
 Dire – to say/tell  Choisir – to choose
Adjective
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 Adjective
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 In English, adjectives are pretty easy to use. You put
them before the noun they describe and you’re done.
 In French however, the placement of adjectives varies.
And if that wasn’t enough to confuse you, adjectives
also change depending on whether the noun they
describe is masculine, feminine, singular or plural.
 Most French adjectives are placed after the noun they
describe. There are a few exceptions for example,
adjectives expressing beauty, age, number, goodness
and size are placed before the noun they describe.
Preposition
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 Preposition
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 A preposition is a word used to establish relationships
between nouns, between nouns and verbs, and between
different parts of a sentence.
 Prepositions are used to indicate a relationship between
two words or phrases. In French, there are simple
prepositions (à, chez, etc.) as well as longer prepositional
phrases (d’après, près de etc.).
 Unfortunately, prepositions often can’t be translated
literally. Many French prepositions have more than one
English equivalent, depending on how they are used – and
vice versa.
Tu - Vous
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 Tu - Vous
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 In French it is important to know when to use tu (you -
singular informal) and when to use vous (you – singular
formal or plural formal or plural informal).
 Vous is the plural form of you. This is somewhat equivalent to
‘you all’, ‘you guys’ and ‘all of you’ except that it does not
carry any familiarity when used with plural. You would use it
to address your friends as well as when talking to the whole
government at a press conference. Vous is also used to refer to
single individuals to show respect, to be polite or to be neutral.
It is used when talking to someone who is important, someone
who is older than you are or someone with whom you are
unfamiliar.
Ce-Ces…
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 Ce – Ces…
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 The adjectives ce, cet, and cette means this or that
and the adjective ces means these or those.
1. Ce – Masculine singular
2. Cet – Masculine singular (beginning with a vowel or
silent h)
3. Cette – Feminine singular
4. Ces – Plural
 The adjective used must agree in gender and number
with the noun it modifies.
 Ce – Ces…
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Examples
 Ce garçon est patient – this boy is patient (we use ce
because garçon is masculine.
 Cette personne est très sympathetique – this person
is very nice (we use cette because personne is
feminine.
Thank You!
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