French 1: French Has Two Genders


French has two grammatical genders - masculine and feminine. Also there are personal subject pronouns and articles and subject-verb agreement is important. The concept of elisions is phonetic in nature - for example, le and la become l' when followed by a vowel. Contractions are also a phonetic phenomenon in French - for example, du is a combination of de + le. While the letter H is always silent, it can act as a vowel or a consonant when it begins a word - i.e. with regards to elisions and contractions.

Plural forms of French words usually end in '-s'. Plural forms exist not just for nouns and adjectives, but also for pronouns and verb conjugations.

Tu - Informal you
Vous - plural/ formal singular you

Pronouns, adjectives and articles must agree with their nouns in both gender and number.
French has no specialized continuous tense.

Okay,  enough nonsense. Let's get to the good stuff. (Vocabulary!!)

1JeIPronoun
2TuYouPronoun
3Il HePronoun
4ElleShePronoun
5NousWePronoun
6VousYouPronoun
7IlsThey (m)Pronoun
8Elles They (f)Pronoun
9MangerTo eat Verb
10Le/L'/La/LesTheDefinite article 
11Un, une, desA, someIndefinite article 
12du, de la, de l', dessome, anyPartitive articles 
13Une fillea girlnoun
14Un garçona boynoun
15une femmea womannoun
16un hommea mannoun
17Riche(s)richadjective
18une pommeapplenoun
19un enfantchildnoun
20OrangeOrangeadjective
21un chat, une chattecatnoun
22noir(e)(s)blackadjective
23calme(s)calmadjective
24Êtreto beVerb
25Avoirto haveVerb
26Pain (m)breadnoun
27Boireto drinkVerb
28Eau (m)waternoun
29Aimerto love, to likeVerb
30Adorerto loveVerb
31Parlerto speakVerb
32La robedressnoun
33Lireto read Verb
34Ecrireto writeVerb
35Le livrebooknoun
36la lettreletternoun
37rouge(s)redadjective
38le journalnewspapernoun
39le menumenunoun
The verbs Être and Avoir are irregular verbs, that is to say, they do not follow the usual rules when it comes to conjugation. 

Être is conjugated as follows:

Je suis - I am 
Tu es - You are 
Il/ Elle est - He/ She is 
Nous sommes - We are 
Vous Ãªtes - You are (You in either the plural sense, or the formal sense)
Ils/ Elles sont - They are 

Avoir is conjugated as follows:

J'ai - I have
Tu as - You have 
Il/ Elle a - He/ She has 
Nous avons - We have
Vous avez - You have 
Ils/ Elles ont - They have 

Manger is a regular ER verb, which means that all regular ER ending verbs are conjugated in the same format:

Je mange - I eat 
Tu manges - You eat 
Il/ Elle mange - He/ She eats
Nous mangeons - We eat (Note: Manger is among the exceptions in ER verbs that retain the E here)
Vous mangez - You eat 
Ils/ Elles mangent - They eat 

Jouer is another ER verb conjugated similarly:

Je joue - I play 
Tu joues - You play 
Il/Elle joue - He/ She plays 
Nous jouons - We play 
Vous jouez - You play 
Ils/ Elles jouent - They play 

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