To Be Or not to Be

Yet another complicated subject for English speakers, the french verbs. English has this simple thing that verbs are the same for all pronouns but he/she/it where you add an -s or -es at the end it (e.g. I do, you do, she does, we do, ...). In French, same as in almost all european languages, it is not the case. The verb changes its form all the time.

The King of All Verbs, to Be

Let us start by the only case that is the same in English and French, to be. It changes its forms at present depending on the pronoun.

I am
You are
He/she/it is
We are
You are
They are

This list in French translates to :

Je suis
Tu es
Il/elle est (remember everything is or male or female in French, so no 'it' case for us, read this recent post)
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils/elles sont

You can notice that there are 6 different forms of the verb 'to be' at the present tense. And it is going to be the same for every single verb in French, 6 forms at each tense, past, present and future !

The good thing is there is a kind of logic behind it. Another good thing is that there are so many exceptions to the logic that we have some sort of dictionaries to help us conjugating our verbs !

Figures and Numbers

This is one of the easiest lessons to start with. The logic behind french numbers is pretty close to what it is in English. And the way we say the figures is close to what they are called in English too, probably the same old indo-european root.

The Figures

0 : Zéro (like Zayroh)
1 : Un (that sound does not exists in English, we will have an article on pronunciation pretty soon)
2 : Deux (like D-ah)
3 : Trois (like Tr-wah)
4 : Quatre (like k-a-tr)
5 : Cinq (the sound 'in' does not exist in English)
6 : Six (pronunce as siss not six)
7 : Sept (forget the p, just say 'set')
8 : Huit (say the 't', though final consonant is very scarcely said, here we say it !)
9 : Neuf (like N-ah-f)

The Numbers

Here comes a little difference in the logic of 'making' the names between the two languages. In English, ten, eleven and twelve are not 'made' from another root but then after the logic is 'figure + teen' and that leads to thirteen, fourteen, ... up to nineteen.
In French, it is not exactly the same thing. Ten is also a 'lonely' word. But after we 'make' the name of the number by adding '-ze' to the figure up to 16, and then completely change the logic to build 17,18 and 19. Don't know why ... So here they are :
10 : Dix (same as Six, pronounce Diss and not Diks)
11 : Onze (Un+ze becomes Onze)
12 :  Douze (Deux+ze becomes Douze)
13 : Treize
14 : Quatorze
15 : Quinze
16 : Seize
17 : Dix-sept (here starts the new scheme. As you notice, dix-sept is just 10+7 so dix and sept)
18 : Dix-huit (same logic)
19 : Dix-neuf

On a further lesson, we carry on with the other tens, hundreds, thousands, millions and so on ... But these are really easy to learn as they follow exactly the same logic as English.

Greetings

Here is the actual first lesson. Most of the times, it is the first words that people learn as they are the first words that you say when you meet someone. And once again, we don't act exactly the same way in French than in English.

What Do You Say When You meet Someone ?

In English, there are 'Good morning', 'Good Afternoon' and 'Good Evening' to greet someone when we first meet depending on the moment of the day. In French, no. We just use 'Bonjour' (which would translate to good day) at any time of the day. Easier. Something like 'hello' which you can use whenever you meet someone. Hello is a bit more informal than the other three, we use 'Bonjour' in all cases.

Then comes the tricky 'Bonsoir' (which actually is the exact translation of good evening). We use it to say hello in France in the evening, let's say after 6 PM, but mainly in the countryside. But in french speaking part of Belgium and most of the French speaking countries in Africa, it is used just after noon. So to say, same as good afternoon and good evening all together. And ... We also use it to say bye when we leave sometimes.

'Hi' as an exact equivalent in French which is 'Salut', that you keep for close friends. But 'salut' can also be used when you leave !

If you just want to be sure and memorize one word, bonjour is the right one !

The Worst to Know

Let us just start by the bad news ... There is no one-to-one equivalence. You can not take an english sentence, translate each word one by one and make it a french sentence. Even the worst automatic translator does better and still does bad.

Think of the very simple sentence 'I am 37'. We say in french "j'ai 37 ans" which would translate to I have 37 years and not I am. There are thousands of examples of this kind.

We do not pronounce the letters same as in English. There is just a very short list of consonants that we say the same way in English and French (b,c,d,f,k,l,m,n,p,q,s,t,v,x,z). All the rest of them are pronounced in another way. Sometimes really different. French r's and u's are utterly impossible to say for an english speaker.

In French, every name is or male or female, we do not have neutral gender for things. In English, we use the pronoun 'she' for boats but most of the things which are not people are designed by a neutral 'it' even if we know they are male or female (for pets for instance). In French, no 'it'. Absolutely every word is male or female and there is no logic behind it. A table is female, a chair too, but an armchair is male. And of course, there are words in French that are both and have a completely different meaning depending on their gender. The french word 'livre' is 'book' when it is male but 'pound' (measure or currency) when it is female.

Still reading ? Don't worry, there a good counterpart to all this.

Same as french people speak English with an awful and strong accent, French know that English speak French in a curious and delightful way. A large majority of french people perfectly understands the english accent when talking French. Those who don't are not really interesting people, don't bother.

About the gender, the good thing is you are not trying to learn German or Russian or you would to face three genders instead of two. And same we like the english accent, French are fond of all these little mistakes that English make about the gender.

And there are very difficult quizz games on the french TV, about the gender of rare words. So don't worry, even French don't know !

What Is This Blog About ?

Who Should Read This Blog ?

This blog is dedicated to English speakers who want to learn French. Because they like it, need it for any reason, or because they came to live here, in France, and want to be able to communicate with french people, in a more sophisticated way than just saying 'Bonjour' when they come to meet one of us.

Who Am I ?

I am just a Frenchman who knows how to speak English rather good. My neighbors, here in a charming french village, are american citizens and I got the idea of this blog after a few tries of teaching them my language.

What Are You Going to Read Here ?

Short posts, one idea at a time. I am not a professional teacher, I just want to provide things that can be used immediately in everyday's conversation. There will be posts for absolute beginners and for a bit more experienced people. I will categorize my posts by three levels : Beginners, intermediate and advanced. From my personal experience, I think the best way to learn a language is reading and listening (I will provide audio files, how else can you learn how to talk ?) short lessons but practicing everyday or almost.

Take care and enjoy this blog !