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French Vocabulary and Grammar Basics for Beginners

Name: French Vocabulary and Grammar Basics for Beginners
Author: Tanmay Kalbande

French Vocabulary and Grammar Basics for Beginners — a free beginner-level guide covering learn french vocabulary and grammar basics. Learn with clear...

109 min read12 chaptersbeginner

1. Foundations and Pronunciation

The French Writing System and the IPA Imagine you are handed a menu in a Parisian café. You see the word eau. It is only three letters long, yet it is pronounced simply as "o." A few lines down, you see œufs—five letters crammed together that collapse into a single, clipped sound. French spelling can feel like a secret code, but there is a method to the madness. French uses the same 26 letters as the English alphabet. However, the way those letters combine to create sounds is vastly different. English pronunciation is notoriously unpredictable; the letter combination "ough" can sound completely different in though, through, tough, and cough. French, on the other hand, is highly regulated. Once you learn the rules, you can accurately pronounce almost any word you read, even if you don't know its meaning. To master these rules, language learners and linguists use a tool called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA is a standardized system where every single sound in human speech has its own unique symbol. For example, the sound of the letter "o" in eau is represented in the IPA as [o]. Throughout this chapter, IPA symbols will appear in square brackets to help you understand exactly how a word should sound, removing the guesswork from French pronunciation. The French Alphabet The French alphabet contains the exact same 26 letters as the English alphabet. The primary difference lies in the names of the letters. When spelling out a word—such as giving your name over the phone—you will need to know the French letter names. Here are the French names of the alphabet, with their approximate English sounds: A - ah B - bay C - say D - day E - uh F - eff G - zhay H - ash I - ee J - zhee K - ka L - ell M - emm N - enn O - oh P - pay Q - kew R - air S - ess T - tay U - ew (said with lips tightly pursed) V - vay W - dooblvay X - eeks Y - ee-grek Z - zed The Curious Case of 'H' In French, the letter H is completely silent. It makes no sound whatsoever. The word hiver (winter) is pronounced exactly like iver [i-vair]. The word homme (man) is pronounced exactly like omme [om]. You simply skip over the H when reading a word. Vowels vs. Consonants Before diving into specific sounds, it helps to define these two terms. Vowels are sounds made with an open vocal tract; the air flows freely out of the mouth without being blocked by the tongue or lips (A, E, I, O, …

2. Greetings and Subject Pronouns

Bonjour! Navigating French Greetings Imagine you are walking into a small boulangerie (bakery) in Paris on a Tuesday morning. The shop is warm, the air smells like fresh croissants, and the baker looks up as you enter. In French culture, entering a shop without greeting the shopkeeper is considered rude. You cannot simply point at a baguette and hand over your money. You must acknowledge them first. But which word do you use? The answer depends entirely on two things: the time of day, and your relationship with the person you are speaking to. French has distinct greetings for the morning, the afternoon, and the evening, and an entirely separate system for speaking to friends versus strangers. Greetings by Time of Day The most common French greeting is Bonjour. Literally translated, it means "good day." Bonjour (Good morning / Good day): Used from the morning until the early evening. It is the safest, most universal greeting in the French language. If you are unsure what to say, say bonjour. Bonsoir (Good evening): Used once the sun goes down or the workday ends, typically from around 6:00 PM onward. Salut (Hi / Bye): An informal greeting used among friends, family, or peers of a similar age. It can be used at any time of day, but never with a stranger or someone in a position of authority. Let's look at the pronunciation. You learned in Chapter 1 that the French 'R' is a guttural sound produced in the back of the throat. In bonjour, that 'R' comes right at the end. Also, recall the concept of the E caduc (the dropped E). If a word ending in a silent 'e' is followed by a word starting with a consonant, that 'e' is often dropped in spoken French. This happens frequently when we add a person's name to a greeting: Bonjour Étienne becomes Bonjour Étienne (no change, because bonjour ends in an 'R'). Bonjour Marie often becomes Bonj' Marie in rapid, spoken French. The Formal and Informal "You" When you greet someone in English, you use the word "you." It doesn't matter if you are speaking to your best friend, your boss, or a group of five people. "You" does it all. In French, "you" is split into two completely different words based on formality and number. This distinction is the cornerstone of French social interaction. Tu: This is the informal "you." It is singular, used for one person. You use tu when speaking to a friend, a family member, a classmate, a child, or a pet. Using tu implies closeness and familiarity. Vous: This is the formal "you" and the plural "you." You use vous when speaking to a stranger, an …

3. Nouns, Gender, and Articles

The Nature of French Nouns Imagine you are looking at an apple. In English, you refer to it as "an apple." If you look at a piece of cheese, you say "a piece of cheese." The words "a" and "an" function perfectly well on their own, and the objects themselves have no inherent gender. In French, however, every single object, concept, and person is classified as either masculine or feminine. An apple (une pomme) is feminine. A piece of cheese (un fromage) is masculine. This is known as grammatical gender. A noun is a word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. When learning French nouns, you cannot simply learn the word itself; you must learn its gender at the exact same time. Treating a noun as masculine when it is feminine (or vice versa) is considered a grammatical error in French. While native speakers will still understand you, matching the gender correctly is essential for speaking accurate French. Why Does French Have Gender? French evolved from Latin, which categorized all nouns into three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. As the language evolved into Old French and eventually modern French, the neuter gender was absorbed into the masculine. Today, French retains only masculine and feminine classifications. It is crucial to understand that grammatical gender usually has nothing to do with biology. A table (une table) is not biologically female, and a wall (un mur) is not biologically male. The gender is simply an inherent grammatical feature of the word, much like a vehicle might be classified as a car or a truck. Determining Masculine and Feminine Gender Because there are no biological clues for inanimate objects, how do you know if a noun is masculine or feminine? The most reliable method is to memorize the noun with its article (which we will cover in the next section) from the very beginning. However, French does have spelling patterns that can help you guess the gender of a noun with a fair degree of accuracy. Spelling Patterns for Masculine Nouns Nouns ending in the following letters or suffixes tend to be masculine: -on: un garçon (a boy), un mouton (a sheep) -eau / -eaux: un bateau (a boat), un chapeau (a hat) -ment: un appartement (an apartment), un monument (a monument) -ier: un dossier (a file), un cahier (a notebook) -age: un fromage (cheese), un village (a village) Note: There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as une image (an image) and une plage (a beach). Spelling Patterns for Feminine Nouns Nouns ending in the following letters or suffixes tend to be feminine: -e: une table (a table), une chaise (a chair) Note: While most nouns ending in -e …

4. Numbers, Dates, and Time

Counting from Zero to Twenty Imagine you are standing at a bustling Parisian bakery. The baker gestures to the golden, flaky croissants behind the glass and asks how many you would like. To survive this very first transaction—and to handle dates, times, and prices in the French-speaking world—you need to master numbers. In Chapter 1, we established the pronunciation rules that make French sound distinctively French. Now, we put those sounds to work. Let’s start at the very beginning. Here are the numbers from zero to twenty. We will use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to guide your pronunciation, relying on the vowel and consonant sounds introduced in Chapter 1. 0 - zéro [zeʁo] 1 - un [œ̃] (Note: This uses a nasal vowel sound, but because it ends in 'n', the 'n' is not pronounced as a separate consonant.) 2 - deux [dø] (Uses the 'EU' combination [ø] sound). 3 - trois [tʁwa] 4 - quatre [katʁ] 5 - cinq [sɛ̃k] 6 - six [sis] 7 - sept [sɛt] 8 - huit [ɥit] 9 - neuf [nœf] 10 - dix [dis] 11 - onze [ɔ̃z] 12 - douze [duz] 13 - treize [tʁɛz] 14 - quatorze [katɔʁz] 15 - quinze [kɛ̃z] 16 - seize [sɛz] 17 - dix-sept [dis.sɛt] 18 - dix-huit [di.zɥit] 19 - dix-neuf [diz.nœf] 20 - vingt [vɛ̃] Notice the pattern starting at 17. French doesn't have unique, standalone words for seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen like English does. Instead, it uses a "ten-plus" math system: dix-sept (ten-seven), dix-huit (ten-eight), and dix-neuf (ten-nine). Keep this mathematical approach in mind; it will become very helpful as the numbers get larger. The Vigesimal System: Counting to 100 English operates on a strict base-ten system. Once you hit twenty, you simply add "one" to get twenty-one. French, however, uses a hybrid system. For the numbers 20 to 60, French behaves exactly like English. But from 70 to 99, French shifts into a vigesimal system—a base-twenty mathematical structure. 20 to 69: The Familiar Pattern From 20 to 60, you have unique words for the tens: 20 - vingt [vɛ̃] 30 - trente [tʁɑ̃t] 40 - quarante [kaʁɑ̃t] 50 - cinquante [sɛ̃kɑ̃t] 60 - soixante [swasɑ̃t] To say 21, 31, 41, and so on, you combine the ten with the unit using the word et (and). 21 - vingt et un (twenty and one) 31 - trente et un (thirty and one) 42 - quarante-deux (forty-two) — Note: You only use "et" when the number ends in 1. For all other numbers, just use a hyphen. 70 to 99: The Math Puzzle This is where beginners often pause. Instead of creating a new word for seventy, French does math based on sixty. …

5. Regular Verbs in the Present Tense

The Engine of the Language Imagine you are sitting at a sunny Parisian café. The waiter approaches, and you want to say, "I speak a little French," or perhaps ask, "Do you sell croissants?" To do this, you need verbs. In French, verbs are the engine of a sentence. They communicate the action or the state of being. But unlike in English, where we mostly rely on words like "I," "you," or "we" to tell us who is doing the action (e.g., "I speak" vs. "you speak"), French changes the spelling—and often the pronunciation—of the verb itself depending on who is acting. In Chapter 2, you met the subject pronouns (je, tu, il, elle, nous, vous, ils, elles). Now, it is time to attach verbs to them. What is an Infinitive? Before we can change a verb to match a subject, we have to look at its base form. The base form of a verb is called the infinitive. Think of the infinitive as the verb's natural state, before it has been put to work in a sentence. In English, infinitives usually include the word "to": to speak to finish to sell In French, there is no separate word for "to." Instead, the infinitive is a single word that always ends in one of three combinations of letters: -er, -ir, or -re. Here are the three verbs we will use as our models for this chapter: Parler (to speak) — ends in -er Finir (to finish) — ends in -ir Vendre (to sell) — ends in -re These three endings divide all French verbs into three main families or groups. The Concept of Conjugation When we take an infinitive and change its ending to match a specific subject pronoun, we are conjugating the verb. Think of a verb as a train. The infinitive ending (like -er) is the coupling that connects the train cars together. When we conjugate the verb, we remove that coupling—this is called finding the stem or root. Then, we attach a new set of letters—the ending—that matches the subject. Let's break that down: 1. Drop the infinitive ending (-er, -ir, or -re). 2. What remains is the stem. 3. Add the specific ending for the subject pronoun you want to use. While French has hundreds of verbs, the vast majority of them are regular. This means they follow predictable, mathematical rules. Once you learn the pattern for one group, you can conjugate almost any verb in that family. (We will tackle the rebellious "irregular" verbs in Chapter 6). Let’s look at each group individually. Group 1: Regular -er Verbs The -er verbs are the largest family in French, making up roughly 90% of all verbs in …

6. Essential Irregular Verbs

Meet the Heavyweights Imagine you are sitting in a Parisian café, listening to the conversations around you. Within minutes, you will hear the verbs avoir (to have), aller (to go), and faire (to do/make). These three verbs are the absolute heavyweights of the French language. In the previous chapter, you learned how regular verbs work. You saw that verbs ending in -er follow a predictable pattern: you drop the -er and add specific endings depending on the subject pronoun (je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles). Unfortunately, the most frequently used verbs in French refuse to follow these rules. They are irregular verbs, meaning their stems change and their endings do not conform to the standard patterns you just learned. Because they are so common, you cannot avoid them—you simply have to memorize them. The good news is that once you master these three, you unlock the ability to express age, talk about your plans, and describe your hobbies and daily activities. Let’s start with the most essential verb in the French language. The Verb "Avoir" (To Have) The verb avoir means "to have." In English, we use the verb "to be" to describe states of being, such as age or physical sensations. French does things differently. In French, avoir is a multipurpose verb that handles not only possession but also age and many physical states. Here is its conjugation in the present tense, along with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation to help you. j'ai [ʒe] — I have tu as [ty ɑ] — you have il/elle a [il/ɛl ɑ] — he/she has nous avons [nu za vɔ̃] — we have vous avez [vu za ve] — you have (formal/plural) ils/elles ont [il/ɛl zɔ̃] — they have Pronunciation Notes for Avoir The silent "h" and liaisons: The pronoun je becomes j' before avoir because avoir begins with a vowel. This prevents the awkward clash of two vowel sounds. Liaison with nous, vous, and ils/elles: Notice the [z] in the IPA for nous avons, vous avez, and ils/elles ont. When a pronoun ending in a silent "s" is followed by a verb starting with a vowel, you pronounce the "s" as a [z] to create a smooth transition. This is a liaison. Nasal vowels: The "on" in nous avons and ils/elles ont uses the nasal vowel [ɔ̃] that you practiced in the Foundations chapter. Remember the Golden Rule of Nasal Vowels: the "n" is not pronounced as a separate consonant; it simply signals that the preceding vowel is nasalized. Expressing Age with Avoir The most important difference between French and English regarding avoir is how we express age. In English, we say "I am twenty years old." In French, you say …

7. Negative Sentences and Basic Questions

Saying "No": The Mechanics of Negation You are at a Parisian bakery, and the baker asks if you would like a bag with your pastry. You want to say, "No, I do not need a bag." In English, making a sentence negative is relatively straightforward: you drop in "do not" or "don't," and the job is done. French takes a different mathematical approach to negation. Instead of inserting a single word, French wraps the verb between two negative bookends. You place one negative word before the verb and another after it. The Basic Negative: Ne... Pas The most common way to make a sentence negative in French is to use ne... pas, which translates to "not." The formula is: Subject + ne + conjugated verb + pas Let's look at this using the verb parler (to speak), which we covered in our chapter on regular verbs: Affirmative: Je parle français. (I speak French.) Negative: Je ne parle pas français. (I do not speak French.) Notice how the verb parle is hugged by ne on the left and pas on the right. Let's look at a few more examples using verbs from our Essential Irregular Verbs chapter: Affirmative: J'ai un chien. (I have a dog.) Negative: Je n'ai pas de chien. (I do not have a dog.) Affirmative: Elle est étudiante. (She is a student.) Negative: Elle n'est pas étudiante. (She is not a student.) The Elision Rule: N' Before Vowels You might have noticed something different in the last two examples. Instead of ne, the word became n'. This is an application of elision. As we learned in the foundations of French pronunciation, French speakers avoid a clunky stop between words when one word ends in a consonant and the next begins with a vowel or a mute H. Because ai (have) and est (is) begin with vowel sounds, the "e" in ne is dropped, replaced by an apostrophe, and the remaining "n" attaches smoothly to the verb. The Rule: Whenever the conjugated verb begins with a vowel or a mute H, ne becomes n'. Nous n'habitons pas à Paris. (We do not live in Paris.) Tu n'écoutes pas la radio. (You do not listen to the radio.) A Quick Note on Spoken French In rapid, conversational French, native speakers very frequently drop the "ne" entirely. A French person might simply say, "Je parle pas français." While it is important to recognize this so you can understand spoken French, you should always use the full ne... pas construction when you are writing or speaking in formal settings. For a beginner, building the muscle memory of wrapping the verb with both words is the priority. Expanding Your Negation Toolkit While ne... …

8. Adjectives and Descriptive Agreement

Painting With Words Imagine you are standing in a busy Parisian café, trying to describe someone you are meeting for the first time to a friend. You know the person is tall, dark-haired, and intelligent. You know the French words for "man" (homme) and "friend" (ami). But if you want to say "a tall man" or "an intelligent friend," you cannot simply string the words together as you would in English. In English, adjectives are wonderfully lazy. They never change. A cat is small, a dog is small, and a hundred horses are small. In French, adjectives are hard workers. They must adapt to the noun they are describing. If the noun is feminine, the adjective becomes feminine. If the noun is plural, the adjective becomes plural. This concept is called agreement (l'accord). An adjective must agree with the noun it modifies in both gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). What is an Adjective? An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun. It gives you more information about a person, place, or thing. In the phrase "the blue car," blue is the adjective modifying the noun car. To use French adjectives correctly, you need to remember the foundational rules of French nouns covered in Chapter 3: every noun has a gender (masculine or feminine) and a number (singular or plural). When you choose an adjective, you must look at the noun and ask yourself two questions: 1. Is the noun masculine or feminine? 2. Is the noun singular or plural? Let’s look at the vocabulary you will need to start describing the world around you. 20 Essential Adjectives Here are 20 common adjectives to describe physical traits and personality. They are listed in their base form—the masculine singular form. This is the form you will find in a dictionary. Physical Traits: 1. Grand - tall / big 2. Petit - short / small 3. Long - long 4. Beau - beautiful / handsome 5. Joli - pretty 6. Jeune - young 7. Vieux - old 8. Fort - strong 9. Blond - blond 10. Brun - brown-haired / dark-haired Personality Traits: 11. Intelligent - intelligent 12. Sympathique - nice / friendly 13. Gentil - kind 14. Heureux - happy 15. Triste - sad 16. Timide - shy 17. Drôle - funny 18. Sérieux - serious 19. Paresseux - lazy 20. Travailleur - hard-working The Golden Rule of Feminine Adjectives To make a regular adjective feminine, the basic rule is simple: add an e to the end of the masculine form. Let’s look at how this works using the noun ami (friend) and amie (female friend). Masculine: Il est un ami sympathique. (He is a …

9. Question Words and Information Gathering

The Power of Asking Questions Imagine you are traveling through a French-speaking city. You know how to say hello, how to introduce yourself, and how to conjugate verbs. You even know how to ask a simple yes/no question: Habitez-vous à Paris ? (Do you live in Paris?) But what if the answer is "no"? How do you find out where they live? How do you ask when the train leaves, why a store is closed, or what dish the chef recommends? Yes/no questions are essential, but they give you very little information. To navigate the world, you need to gather specifics. In Chapter 7, you learned the basic mechanics of asking questions using intonation and est-ce que. Now, we will expand your toolkit by adding interrogative words—the question words that unlock detailed, specific answers. Core Interrogative Words An interrogative word is a word used to ask a question. French uses specific words to ask about people, things, places, times, reasons, and methods. Let’s look at the core vocabulary you need to gather information. Qui (Who?) Qui is used to ask questions about people. It translates to "who" or "whom" in English. Because it always refers to a person, it functions as the subject or object of the sentence. Qui est-ce ? (Who is that?) Qui parle ? (Who is speaking?) Que and Quoi (What?) French has two words for "what": que and quoi. The difference between them comes down to their grammatical position in the sentence. Que is used at the beginning of a question. When "que" is followed by a word starting with a vowel or a mute 'h', it contracts to qu'. Qu'est-ce que c'est ? (What is it?) Que fais-tu ? (What are you doing?) Quoi is used after a preposition (words like à, de, avec) or at the very end of an informal question. You can think of quoi as the "floating" version of "what." C'est quoi ? (What is it? — Informal, used in everyday speech) Tu fais quoi ? (What are you doing? — Informal) À quoi penses-tu ? (What are you thinking about?) Où (Where?) You actually met this word briefly in Chapter 4 when learning about places. Où means "where." Note the grave accent (è) over the 'u'. This accent does not change the pronunciation of the 'u' sound, but it is required for spelling. Où est la gare ? (Where is the train station?) Où vas-tu ? (Where are you going?) Quand (When?) Quand is used to ask about time. It translates directly to "when." Quand est-ce que tu arrives ? (When are you arriving?) Quand part le train ? (When does the train leave?) Pourquoi (Why?) Pourquoi asks for a …

10. Possessive and Demonstrative Adjectives

Whose Is It? Expressing Ownership Imagine you are sitting in a busy Parisian café with a friend. The waiter brings a basket of croissants to the table, but there are also some sunglasses sitting on the edge of the tray. You want to tell the waiter, "Those are my sunglasses," and ask your friend, "Is that your coat?" To navigate this everyday situation, you need two specific grammatical tools: the ability to say who an item belongs to (my, your, his/her), and the ability to point at a specific item (this, that, these). In Nouns, Gender, and Articles, you learned that French nouns are either masculine or feminine, and they are almost always accompanied by an article like le, la, or les. Now, we are going to replace those articles with words that show ownership or point things out. These are called adjectives. Possessive Adjectives: The Rule of the Possessed A possessive adjective is a word like "my," "your," "his," "her," "our," or "their." In English, possessive adjectives change based on the owner. If I own a book, I say "my book." If you own it, I say "your book." If a woman owns it, we say "her book." The word "book" stays exactly the same. French possessive adjectives work differently. They agree with the possessed object—the thing being owned—not the person who owns it. This means you do not look at the owner to choose the French word; you look at the noun that comes immediately after the possessive adjective. Is that noun masculine, feminine, or plural? Here is the complete list of French possessive adjectives, categorized by the owner (the subject pronouns you learned in Greetings and Subject Pronouns): For a Single Owner (Je, Tu, Il/Elle/On) My (mon, ma, mes) mon + masculine singular noun: mon livre (my book) ma + feminine singular noun: ma voiture (my car) mes + plural noun (any gender): mes livres (my books), mes voitures (my cars) Your (ton, ta, tes) ton + masculine singular noun: ton chien (your dog) ta + feminine singular noun: ta maison (your house) tes + plural noun (any gender): tes chiens (your dogs), tes maisons (your houses) His / Her (son, sa, ses) son + masculine singular noun: son frère (his/her brother) sa + feminine singular noun: sa sœur (his/her sister) ses + plural noun (any gender): ses frères (his/her brothers), ses sœurs (his/her sisters) Notice that son, sa, and ses can mean either "his" or "her." Because French possessive adjectives look at the object, not the owner, the gender of the object is the only thing that dictates the spelling. If a book belongs to Marie, the book is still masculine, so it is son livre. …

11. Prepositions of Location and Movement

Navigating the French City Imagine you are spending a morning in a bustling French town. You step out of your hotel, walk to the bakery for a fresh croissant, head to the post office to mail a postcard, and then meet a friend at a sidewalk café. To describe this simple routine in French, you need two things: the names of the places you are visiting, and the words that describe your movement to, from, and around those places. In French, words that show the relationship between a noun (like a place) and another word in the sentence are called prepositions. They are the linguistic bridges that tell your listener where something is happening. This chapter will equip you with the vocabulary for 15 common city locations and teach you how to use prepositions to express being at a place, going to a place, coming from a place, and describing exactly where an object is located. 15 Essential Places in the City Before we can move around a city, we need to know what is in it. As we learned in Nouns, Gender, and Articles, every French noun has a gender (masculine or feminine) and requires an article (like le, la, l', or les). When memorizing these places, always learn them with their definite article so their gender sticks in your mind. Here are 15 common places you will find in a French city: Masculine Places (le / l') 1. le restaurant (the restaurant) - [ʁɛs.tɔ.ʁɑ̃] (Listen for the nasal vowels [ɑ̃] and [ɔ̃]) 2. le café (the café) - [ka.fe] (Features the closed [e] sound we practiced with 'É') 3. le cinéma (the movie theater) - [si.ne.ma] 4. le musée (the museum) - [my.ze] 5. l'hôtel (the hotel) - [o.tɛl] (Begins with a vowel, so 'le' becomes 'l'') 6. l'hôpital (the hospital) - [o.pi.tal] 7. le parc (the park) - [paʁk] (Features the guttural 'R' at the end) 8. le supermarché (the supermarket) - [sy.pɛʁ.maʁ.ʃe] Feminine Places (la / l') 9. la boulangerie (the bakery) - [bu.lɑ̃ʒ.ʁi] (The 'ER' combination here makes the [ʒ] sound, and the 'IE' makes the [i] sound) 10. l'école (the school) - [e.kɔl] (Begins with a vowel, so 'la' becomes 'l'') 11. la pharmacie (the pharmacy) - [faʁ.ma.si] 12. la banque (the bank) - [bɑ̃k] (Features the nasal vowel [ɑ̃]) 13. la poste (the post office) - [pɔst] 14. la gare (the train station) - [gaʁ] 15. la bibliothèque (the library) - [bi.bli.jɔ.tɛk] (Note the 'EU' combination, which produces the [ɔ] sound here) Movement and Location: The Preposition "à" Now that we know where we are going, we need to tell people about it. In English, we use "to" for movement toward a place …

12. The Near Future and Immediate Past

Looking Forward, Looking Back Imagine you are sitting in a Parisian café with a friend. The waiter has just brought your coffee, and you are mapping out the rest of the afternoon. You want to say, "I am going to drink my coffee," and then a moment later, "I just ate a croissant." In English, we use the helper verb "going to" to point to the near future, and the helper phrase "just" to point to the immediate past. French has exact equivalents for these concepts. Even better, they allow you to talk about the past and the future without having to learn complex past or future tenses yet. You only need the present tense. To do this, we are going to use two verbs you already know from our chapter on Essential Irregular Verbs: aller (to go) and venir (to come). By combining these verbs in the present tense with a second verb in its base form, you can create powerful, compound structures. The Building Block: The Infinitive Before we build our new sentences, we need to define a crucial piece of grammar jargon: the infinitive. An infinitive is the most basic, unconjugated form of a verb. In English, infinitives are usually preceded by the word "to" (to eat, to sleep, to read). In French, the infinitive is a single word that typically ends in -er, -ir, or -re. Think of the infinitive as the name of the verb. It is the form you look up in a dictionary. Manger (To eat) — an -er verb Finir (To finish) — an -ir verb Vendre (To sell) — an -re verb When you learned your Regular Verbs in the Present Tense, you learned how to change these infinitives to match the subject (e.g., changing manger to je mange). For the near future and immediate past, we are going to leave the second verb in its original infinitive form. We will only conjugate the first helper verb. The Near Future: Aller + Infinitive To say you are going to do something, French uses a compound structure called the futur proche (near future). The formula is simple: Subject + conjugated aller + infinitive Let's briefly review the present tense conjugation of aller (to go). As we saw in Essential Irregular Verbs, aller is highly irregular, so it doesn't follow a predictable pattern: Je vais (I am going) Tu vas (You are going) Il / Elle / On va (He / She / One is going) Nous allons (We are going) Vous allez (You all are going) Ils / Elles vont (They are going) To construct a sentence in the near future, you simply take one of these forms and slap an infinitive …