Chapter 1: The Essentials of Basic Communication – La Grammaire
GRAMMAR
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
French sentence structure is very similar to English. There are exceptions to this rule, but the general sentence formula is this:
NOUN or PRONOUN + VERB + ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
When taking on the task of creating your own sentences, try to label them to ensure you are following the proper structure.
[N] [V] [ADJ]
[Le chien] [est] [adorable]. = The dog is adorable.
[P] [V] [ADV]
[Je] [chante] [doucement]. = I sing softly.
In order to find success with this formula, it is necessary to understand how nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs work in French.
Les noms: Nouns
When learning French nouns, there are a few things to remember:
- 1Every noun has a gender. This is the biggest distinction from English. Each noun can be feminine or masculine.
- 2Every noun has an article preceding it. For our current purposes, this will be the French form of the, or le (masculine), la (feminine), and les (plural) (with the exceptions of a few, such as: Internet).
- 3Every noun can be either singular or plural. When learning French, we refer to this as the number.
- 4There is no rhyme or reason to assigning gender. There is no trick to assigning gender to nouns. It is very important to memorize the article with each noun, just as though it is part of the word itself.
Les articles: French Articles
In English, articles are typically the or a. In French, the articles le, la, and les (the) are called definite articles, or les articles définis. The articles un, une, and des are known as les articles indéfinis, or indefinite articles.
Singular masculine articles:
le (the) and un (a).
Singular feminine articles:
la (the) and une (a).
Plural masculine and feminine articles:
les (the) and des (some).
Example:
Listen to Track 7
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Note: The plural form means that you must add an extra "s" to the end of the noun. It is this, paired with the plural article, that denotes the number of the noun.
Les pronoms: Pronouns
Pronouns replace nouns. There are two different types of pronouns in French:
- 1Pronoms personnels (personal pronouns). These pronouns specifically address a person or subject.
- 2Pronoms impersonnels (impersonal pronouns). These pronouns do not refer to a person or specific subject.
Example:
Il pleut. It is raining.
In this case, il is an impersonal pronoun, as it does not refer to a person or specific subject. Personal pronouns are often used with impersonal nouns, such as pleuvoir (to rain).
Note: French pronouns have direct translations with English pronouns.
Les pronoms: Pronouns
Listen Track 8
Je Tu Il/Elle Nous Vous Ils/Elles | I You He/She We You (formal) | Mon/Ma Ton/Ta Son/Sa Notre Votre Leurs | My Your His/Her Our Their | Moi Toi Lui/Elle Nous Vous | Me You Us You (formal) Them |
Examples:
Listen to Track 9
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Les verbes: Verbs
A verb is used to describe an action or the state of the subject noun. The subject can be a noun, as in le chat (cat) or a pronoun, as in il (it/he).
Some notes about French verbs:
You must conjugate the verb according to the corresponding noun or pronoun. This is the same in English.
Example:
Le chat est noir. The cat is black.
Le chat is a singular masculine noun. Est is the verb être (to be) conjugated in the singular form.
Example:
Les chats sont noirs. The cats are black.
Les chats is a plural masculine noun. Sont is the verb être (to be) conjugated in the plural form.
Now, let's learn some verbs! Note that these are infinitive verbs, which means that we add to to the verb, as in manger (to eat) and danser (to dance).
Popular French Verbs:
Listen to Track 10
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Les adjectifs: Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns. Here are some rules for them in French:
1. The adjective must match the gender and number of the noun it describes.
Example:
La fille intelligente. The smart girl.
Fille is a singular feminine noun, and its pronoun is the singular feminine la. This means that the adjective intelligent must agree in the feminine, so we add -e to the end.
Example:
Le pantalon bleu. The blue pants.
Pantalon is a singular masculine noun, and its pronoun is the singular masculine le. In this case, the adjective bleu must remain in its masculine form.
Example:
Des beaux oiseaux. The beautiful birds.
Oiseaux is a plural masculine noun, and its pronoun is the plural des. This means that we must use the adjective beau in the masculine plural form, so it becomes beaux.
2. Adjectives can be placed before or after nouns. A nifty trick for this is that adjectives placed before a noun usually relate to beauty, age, goodness, badness, and size (B.A.G.S).
Examples:
Listen to Track 11
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Les adverbes: adverbs
An adverb modifies or qualifies a verb, which is a fancy way of saying that they describe the verb it refers to. In English, we do this by taking an adjective and adding -ly, as in slowly, beautifully, cautiously, etc. In French, adverbs generally operate in the same way by adding -ment.
Examples:
Heureusement - happily
Brusquement - abruptly
Lentement - slowly
In a sentence, these verbs come after the verb it describes, as in the N + V + ADV formula.
Examples:
Listen to Track 12