French grammar
The main rules of French, each on one short page with tables and examples you can listen to. Use it to look something up, or read it alongside the course: every chapter links to the pages it uses.
Start here: sounds and spelling
Beginner (A1)
- Adjectives: agreement and positionFrench adjectives change to match their noun and usually come after it. Learn the endings and the short adjectives that go before.
- Articles: le, la, les, un, une, des, duThe French words for “the”, “a” and “some”: definite, indefinite and partitive articles, and when to use each one.
- Asking questionsThree ways to ask a yes/no question in French, from casual to formal, and the question words où, quand, comment, combien and pourquoi.
- Être and avoir: to be and to haveThe two most important French verbs: their present tense forms and the everyday phrases where French uses avoir but English uses “to be”.
- French numbers: from 0 to a millionCount in French from 0 to a million: the numbers to 20, counting in twenties from 70, hundreds, years, ordinals, prices and phone numbers.
- Negation: ne… pas and friendsHow to say “not” in French with ne… pas, plus ne… jamais, ne… plus, ne… rien and ne… personne.
- Nouns: masculine, feminine and pluralEvery French noun is masculine or feminine. Learn some helpful endings and how to make nouns plural.
- Possessives: mon, ma, mes and moreHow to say my, your, his, her, our and their in French, and why the word agrees with the thing owned, not the owner.
- Subject pronouns: je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, ellesThe French words for I, you, he, she, we and they, when to say tu or vous, and how French uses on.
- The near future: aller + infinitiveTalk about plans and what's going to happen with aller + infinitive, the easiest way to express the future in French.
- The present tense of -er verbsHow to conjugate regular -er verbs like parler in the present tense, plus the small spelling changes in manger and appeler.
Elementary (A2)
- Comparing: plus, moins, aussi, meilleurHow to say bigger, cheaper and as good as in French, the special word meilleur, and how to say the best or the biggest.
- Object pronouns: le, la, les, lui, leurHow to say it, him, her, them, to him and to her in French, and where these little words go in the sentence.
- Reflexive verbs: se lever, s'appelerVerbs with an extra pronoun like me, te or se: how to use them for daily routines, in the negative and in the passé composé.
- The futur simple: willHow to form the futur simple, the irregular stems of common verbs, and when to use it instead of aller + infinitive.
- The imparfait: describing the pastHow to form the imparfait, and when to use it instead of the passé composé: descriptions, habits and background.
- The imperative: giving instructionsHow to tell someone to do or not to do something with the tu, vous and nous forms, and where pronouns go.
- The passé composé: talking about the pastHow to form the passé composé with avoir or être and a past participle, and when the participle agrees.
- The pronouns y and enY replaces a place (there), and en replaces some, any or a quantity: how to use them and where they go.
Intermediate (B1)
- Relative pronouns: qui, que, où, dontHow to join two sentences with qui, que, où and dont, and how to say “what” with ce qui and ce que.
- Reported speech: il a dit que…How to report what someone said or asked, and how tenses, pronouns and time words change after il a dit que.
- The conditional: je voudrais, si j'avais…How to form the conditionnel présent, what it is used for, and how si clauses work, including the conditionnel passé.
- The passive: être + past participleHow to say what is done to something (la ligne a été inaugurée), in all tenses, and the everyday alternatives with on and se.
- The plus-que-parfait: had doneHow to form the plus-que-parfait and use it with the passé composé and the imparfait, in reported speech and after si.
- The subjunctive: que je sois, que tu fassesHow to form the present subjunctive, the main irregular verbs, and the phrases that need it: il faut que, feelings, wishes, doubt and purpose.
Upper intermediate (B2)
- Bien que, à condition que, à moins que: conjunctions and the subjunctiveWhich linking words take the subjunctive, which take the indicative, when to use an infinitive instead, and the ne of formal writing.
- Lequel, auquel, duquel: relative pronouns after a prepositionHow to say “which” after a preposition with lequel, laquelle, auquel and duquel, when to use qui or dont instead, and la raison pour laquelle.
- The futur antérieur: will have doneHow to form the futur antérieur, when French needs it after quand and dès que, and how it becomes the conditionnel passé in reported speech.
- The passé simple: the past tense of novelsHow to recognise the passé simple, the past tense of written stories: regular endings, the most common irregular verbs, and how it works with the imparfait.
- The past subjunctive: que j'aie fait, qu'il soit partiHow to form the subjonctif passé, when to use it instead of the present subjunctive, and the subjunctive in relative clauses.
- The present participle and the gérondif: ayant, en faisantHow to form verbs in -ant, the difference between the gérondif (en faisant) and the present participle of formal writing (ayant constaté).
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