Clothing (Idiomatic Plurals, Diacritics, Nasal Vowels)

Idiomatic Plurals

English has a number of idiomatic nouns that appear the same whether singular or plural and care must be taken when translating them into French.

For instance, "the pants" can mean one or more pairs of pants in English, but le pantalon is singular and means one pair of pants in French. Les pantalons is plural and refers to multiple pairs of pants, never a single pair. Similarly, when translating le pantalon back to English, you can say "the pants" or "the pair of pants", but "the pant" is not correct. This also applies to un jean, un pyjama, un short ("a pair of jeans/pajamas/shorts").

Please note that un vêtement refers to “a single article of clothing”, and it's incorrect to translate it as "clothes" Clothes is invariably plural in English and refers to a collection of clothing. “Clothes” would be des vêtements.

Diacritics

The acute accent (é) only appears on E and produces a pure [e] that isn't found in English. To make this sound, say the word "cliché", but hold your tongue perfectly still on the last vowel to avoid making a diphthong sound.

The grave accent (è) can appear on A/E/U, though it only changes the sound for E (to [ɛ], which is the E in "lemon"). Otherwise, it distinguishes homophones like a (a conjugated form of avoir) and à (a preposition), or ou (“or”) and où (“where”).

The cedilla (ç) softens a normally hard C sound to the soft C in "cent". Otherwise, a C followed by an A, O, or U has a hard sound like the C in "car".

The circumflex (ê) usually means that an S used to follow the vowel in Old French or Latin. (The same is true of the acute accent.) For instance, île was once "isle".

The trema (ë) indicates that two adjacent vowels must be pronounced separately, like in Noël ("Christmas") and maïs ("corn").

Nasal Vowels

There are four nasal vowels in French. Try to learn these sounds by listening to native speakers.



These aren't always nasalized. If there's a double M or N, or if they are followed by any vowel, then the vowel should have an oral sound instead. For instance, un is nasal, but une is not. Also, vin is nasal, but vinaigre is not.

Plurals 2 (Nouns & Adjectives, Articles, Conjugations, Punctuation)

Nouns and Adjectives

Most plural forms of nouns and adjectives can be formed by appending an -s to the singular, but remember that this -s is usually silent.

• Le chat noir — The black cat ⇒ Les chats noirs — The black cats
• Un chat noir — A black cat ⇒ Des chats noirs — (Some) black cats

Note: If the noun is preceded by an adjective, des becomes de.

• Un petit chat — A little cat ⇒ De petits chats

Articles

Articles must agree with the nouns they modify, so plural nouns require either les or des. This is a great way to tell if a noun is plural. If you hear les or des (which sound like [le] and [de]), then the noun is plural. If not, it's probably singular.

Conjugations

Remember that verbs change conjugation to agree with their subjects in both grammatical person and number.



Punctuation

There are no quotation marks in French. Instead, the French use guillemets (« »). Exclamation marks (!), question marks (?), colons (:), semicolons (;) and guillemets need to have a space on either side.

• Incorrect: "Ça va?"
• Correct: « Ça va ? »

When writing numbers in French, commas are decimal points, while spaces mark thousands places.

• Incorrect: 1,235.8
• Correct: 1 235,8

Adjectives 1 (Agreement, Placement, Figurative, Euphony)

Agreement

Unlike English adjectives, French adjectives must agree in number and gender with the nouns that they modify. A black dog is un chien noir, but a black dress is une robe noire. Also, remember that some adjectives have the same masculine and feminine form, especially those ending in a silent -e (e.g. riche).

When used with pronouns, adjectives agree with the noun that has been replaced. This is particularly tricky with the formal vous: to a singular man, you would say vous êtes beau, but to plural women, you would say vous êtes belles.

Adjective Placement

In French, most adjectives appear after the nouns they modify. For instance, le chat noir. However, some adjectives precede the noun. You can remember these types of adjectives using the mnemonic BANGS.

• B is for beauty: beau, joli. Une belle femme — A beautiful woman
• A is for age: nouveau, jeune, vieux. Une jeune fille — A young girl
• N is for number. Deux hommes — Two men; This can also be for rank: Le premier/dernier mot — The first/last word
• G is for good or bad: bon, mauvais. Un bon garçon — A good boy
• S is for size: petit, grand, gros, court, long, large, haut, vaste. Un gros chat — A fat cat

All determiner adjectives (e.g. possessives, interrogatives, and demonstratives) appear before the noun, e.g. mon livre "my book" and ce cochon "that pig". You will learn these later.

Figurative Adjectives

A few adjectives can come both before and after the noun depending on their meaning. The most common example is grand, which is a BANGS adjective for everything but people. For people, it comes before a noun when it means "important" and after the noun when it means "tall". For instance, Napoleon was un grand homme ("a great man"), but not un homme grand ("a tall man").

Usually, figurative meanings will precede the noun, while literal meanings will follow the noun.

• un pauvre homme — a pitiful/unfortunate man
• un homme pauvre — a poor man
• un certain nombre — a certain (particular) number
• une victoire certaine — a certain (guaranteed) victory
• ma propre voiture — my own car
• ma voiture propre — my clean car
• un cher ami — a dear friend
• une montre chère — an expensive watch

Euphony

As you have already learned, elisions, contractions, liaisons, and enchaînements are all designed to prevent consecutive vowel sounds (which is called hiatus). This quest for harmonious sounds is called euphony and is an essential feature of French. It has, however, created some unexpected rules.

For instance, the masculine beau ("beautiful") changes to bel if its noun begins with a vowel sound. A beautiful man is un bel homme. The other two common changes are vieux to vieil ("old") and nouveau to nouvel ("new"). You may also encounter fou which becomes fol ("crazy" or "mad") in front of a vowel sound. "A mad hope" is un fol espoir.

Note that this doesn't occur to feminine adjectives because they usually end in silent vowels.

Weather 1 (Impersonal Expressions, Il fait, Il y a)

Impersonal Expressions to Describe the Weather

In French, it is common to use verbs like faire ("to do") idiomatically for general conditions such as weather, especially with ordinary adjectives like beau, mauvais, chaud, froid, etc.

To describe the weather (le temps), we can use the impersonal expression il fait (literally, "it does" or "it makes"). In English, when we say "it is raining", we do not use "it" as a real subject. The "it" doesn't refer to anything. This is the same with the French il in impersonal expressions: it is not a real subject. You have encountered something similar to this in the "Phrases" unit: il y a ("there is/are").

However, il fait followed by various ordinary adjectives describes sensory impressions.

• Il fait chaud. — It is hot (outside).
• Il fait froid. — It is cold (outside).
• Il fait beau. — It is nice out.

Note that we can also explicitly describe the weather with the same adjectives: Le temps est chaud. Le temps est froid. Le temps est beau., etc.

Some weather conditions are commonly expressed with a noun instead of an adjective, and il y a is used, followed by a partitive article if the noun is uncountable or the indefinite article with a count noun.

• Il y a du vent. — It is windy.
• Il y a de la brume. — It is misty.
• Il y a de l'orage. — It is stormy.
• Il y a des nuages. — It is cloudy.

There are other French verbs used impersonally with il to describe the weather. You will encounter some of them in this unit.

• Il pleut. — It is raining.
• Il neige. — It is snowing.
• Il gèle. — It is freezing.

To ask someone about the weather, simply use the expression Quel temps fait-il ? (What is the weather like?). You will learn later on how this question is formed grammatically.

Animals 1 (Noun Genders, Feminine Animals)

Noun Genders

As you learned in "Basics 1", French has two grammatical genders: masculine and feminine. All nouns have a gender, and most nouns have a fixed gender. For instance, la pomme is always feminine and un bébé ("a baby") is always masculine, even for baby girls.

However, some nouns can have multiple genders depending on the situation, and many masculine nouns can be changed to a feminine form simply by adding an -e to the end. Your male friend is un ami and your female friend is une amie. Some nouns, like un élève and une élève ("a student"), have the same spelling and meaning for both gender forms.

Other nouns may have the same spelling, but different genders and meanings. For instance, un tour (masculine) is a tour, while une tour (feminine) is a tower.

One of the most difficult aspects of learning French is memorizing noun genders. However, by spending some time now memorizing the following patterns, you may be able to guess most nouns' genders and save yourself a lot of trouble in the future.

Some genders depend on a noun's classification. For instance, languages, days of the week, months, seasons, metals, colors, and measurements are mostly masculine.

Otherwise, memorizing word endings is the best way to guess genders. We'll learn these ending patterns in four steps:

First: Nouns ending in -e tend to be feminine. All others, especially nouns ending in consonants, tend to be masculine. This is true for over 70% of all nouns.

Second: Nouns that have the endings -ion and -son tend to be feminine, even though they end in consonants.

Third: Nouns with these endings are usually masculine, although they end in -e:

• -tre, -ble, -cle (think "treble clef")
• -one, -ème, -ège (think "OMG")
• -age, -isme

Fourth: Watch out for these complications:

-é is masculine, but -té is feminine.

• le résumé (masc) — the resumé
• la liberté (fem) — the liberty

-de is masculine, but -ade, -nde, and -ude are feminine.

• le guide — the guide
• la parade — the parade

-ste and -me tend to be masculine, but there are dozens of exceptions. Words for people ending in -ste are often gender-neutral, e.g. le/la cycliste.

-eur is masculine for most professions or technical terms, but it's feminine for some emotions and abstract things.

• le chauffeur — the driver
• la peur — the fear

That's it! Memorize these, and you'll be able to guess most noun genders.

Feminine Animals

In French, female animal nouns are generally formed as follows by taking the last consonant, doubling it, and adding a mute -e to the end.

• un chat ⇒ une chatte
• un chien ⇒ une chienne

Of course, there are many exceptions. For example:

• un ours ⇒ une ourse (not une oursse)
• un cheval ⇒ une jument (not une chevalle)

Other animal nouns do not vary in masculine or feminine and the opposite gender will be specified with mâle or femelle.

• une girafe ⇒ une girafe mâle
• un serpent ⇒ un serpent femelle

Food 1 (Partitive Article, Count Noun or Mass Noun, Omitted Articles, De + Definite Art.)

The Partitive Article

The partitive article is used for unspecified amounts of uncountable nouns. In English, it can translate to "some", but it's often just omitted. Remember that du is a contraction of de + le and that partitives can elide: du and de la become de l’ before a vowel sound.



Nouns almost never appear without articles in French, so articles must be repeated in serial lists.

• Il cuisine du poisson et de la viande — He cooks fish and meat.

Count Noun, Mass Noun, or Both?

Count nouns are discrete and can be counted, like une pomme ("an apple"). They can be modified by definite and indefinite articles, but usually not partitive articles.

• Je mange une pomme. — I eat an apple.
• Nous mangeons les pommes. — We are eating the apples.

Mass nouns like lait ("milk") are uncountable, and they can be modified by definite and partitive articles, but not indefinite articles.

• Je bois du lait. — I am drinking [some] milk.
• Je bois le lait. — I am drinking the milk.

However, many nouns can behave as both count nouns and mass nouns. This is true for most edible things. For instance, consider poisson ("fish") or vin ("wine"):

• Count noun: Le poisson est rouge. — The fish is red.
• Mass noun: Je mange du poisson. — I eat [some] fish.
• Count noun: Le vin est blanc. — The wine is white.
• Mass noun: Je bois du vin rouge ou blanc. — I drink red or white wine.

Note that some mass nouns can be pluralized in English when they refer to multiple types of the noun, but this usage isn't found in French. For instance, "the fishes" refers to multiple species of fish, while les poissons just refers to multiple fish.

Omitted Articles

When an article is missing in an English sentence, it must be added to the French translation. The definite article can be used to fill this void in four situations:

1. Almost anywhere one would use "the" in English (i.e. when referring to specific things).
2. Before the subject of a sentence to state general truths about it.
3. Before the direct object of a verb of appreciation (like aimer) to express like/dislike.
4. Before categories (singular or plural), concepts and immaterial things.
5. If any of the above is true, then use the definite article. Otherwise, use the indefinite or partitive article. When in doubt, add “some” before the English bare noun; if the sentence keeps its meaning, use the indefinite or partitive article.

• I like wine, but I am drinking milk. — J'aime le vin, mais je bois du lait.

Both articles are missing in the English version of this example. Aimer expresses fondness for wine, so le vin should be used there. However, boire is not a verb of appreciation, so the partitive du should be used on the uncountable lait.

• I study art and I draw cats. — *J’étudie l’art et je dessine des chats.

“Art” is a concept, so l’art should be used there. Dessiner is not an appreciation verb and the plural object “cats” only means “some cats”, so the plural indefinite des should be used on the count noun chats.

• Horses are animals. — Les chevaux sont des animaux.

This is a general truth about horses, but #2 above can only apply to subjects, so only chevaux takes a definite article here. Animaux are countable, so use the plural indefinite des.

• He likes to eat meat. — Il aime manger de la viande.

This is a tricky example because the meat is the direct object of manger, not aimer. Thus, #3 does not apply and viande cannot take a definite article.

Also, the French definite article can be ambiguous when translating from French to English. Depending on the context, it can refer to either a specific noun or the general sense of a noun.

• Les chiens sont nos amis. — Dogs are our friends. / The dogs are our friends.

De + Definite Article

De plus a definite article can also have other meanings. De means "of" or "from", so this can also indicate possession or association with a definite noun.

• La copie du livre. — The copy of the book.
• Les copies des livres. — The copies of the books.
• L'enfant de la femme. — The woman's child.

Basics 3 (Être & Avoir, Continuous Tenses)

Être and Avoir

Être and avoir (“to be” and “to have”) are the most common verbs in French. Like many common verbs, they have irregular conjugations.



There should be a “z” liaison between ils or elles and ont [il-zɔ̃] or [ɛl-zɔ̃]. The "z" sound is essential here to differentiate between "they are" and "they have", so be sure to emphasize it.

These two verbs are very important because they can act as auxiliary verbs in French, but they differ from their English equivalents. "I write" and "I am writing" both translate to j'écris, not je suis écrivant (the present participle of écrire). This is because être cannot be used as an auxiliary in a simple tense. It can only be used in compound tenses, which you will learn in the "Passé Composé" unit.

Another important distinction is that avoir means "to have" in the sense of "to possess", but not "to consume" or "to experience". Other verbs must be used for these meanings.

Continuous Tenses

English has two present tenses: simple ("I write") and continuous ("I am writing"), but French has no specialized continuous verb tenses. This means that "I write", "I am writing", and "I do write" can translate to j'écris (not je suis écrivant) and vice versa.

However, the idiomatic phrase être en train de is often used to indicate that someone is in the process of doing something.

• Je suis en train de manger. — I am [in the process of] eating.

Most of the time present tense sentences in French can be interpreted in either the present or the present continuous tense in English. Stative verbs in English are an exception to this and have no continuous form. For instance, J'aime un garçon cannot be translated as "I am loving a boy".

You can learn more about stative verbs here: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/intermediate-grammar/stative-verbs