Learning French is hard, and it’s even harder if you don’t understand the basics of grammar in your own language. If your mind boggles when people start talking about nouns, adjectives, and other parts of speech, this lesson is for you.

Your main objective when learning French grammar should be to summarize a range of essential grammatical aspects. These aspects play a central role in the early stages when you learn to speak french.

Learn French Grammar

Beginning French grammar should begin with basic French vocabulary and simple sentence construction. There are eight parts of speech: adjectives, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs. Once you have a handle on the parts of speech, you need to introduce French sentences. A sentence (une phrase) is a group of words including at minimum a subject and a verb, and may also include any or all of the parts of speech.

Sentence Parts

Sentences can be separated into a subject (un sujet), which may be stated or implied, and a predicate (un prédicat). The subject is the person or thing performing the action, and the predicate is the rest of the sentence, which usually begins with the verb:

Je suis professeur – I am a teacher

Subject: je – I

Predicate: suis professeur – am a teacher

Sentence Types

There are four types of sentences: statements, exclamatives, interrogatives, and commands.
Statement – Phrase assertive or Phrase déclarative
Statements, the most common type of sentence, state something:

I am tired (Je suis fatigué)
I will help you (Je vous aiderai)

There are two subcategories of statements: affirmative statements – les phrases (déclaratives) affirmatives, as above, and negative statements – les phrases (déclaratives) négatives:
I’m not tired (Je ne suis pas fatigué)
I don’t want to help you (Je ne veux pas vous aider)

Exclamative – Phrase exclamative
Exclamatives express a strong reaction such as surprise or indignation. They look just like statements except for the exclamation point, and for this reason may be considered a subcategory of statements, rather than a different type of sentence:

I want to go! (Je veux y aller !)
I hope so! (J’espère que oui !)
Interrogative – Phrase interrogative
Interrogatives, more commonly known as questions, ask for or about something:
Do you have my book? (As-tu mon livre ?)
Are they ready? (Sont-ils prêts ?)

Command – Phrase impérative

Commands are the only kind of sentence without an explicit subject; instead, the subject is implied by the conjugation of the verb, which is in the imperative:
Go away! (Va t’en !)
Help us find it (Aidez-nous à le trouver)*
*à and le do not contract to au here because le is an object, not an article.

When you are just starting out, trying to learn French grammar, you should start like many school teachers do and start with basic greetings and introductions by modeling Bonjour, je m’appelle. If you apply the right tools and dedication it is not hard to learn French grammar.

If you want to create one of the most romantic evenings of your life, get out the candles for dinner, set the lights down low and learn how to say i love you in French. You’ll find that it’s worth the effort and makes the person you say it to feel special.

French is the language of love so it only seems right that it’s the best one to convey your words of love. However, it also is a difficult language to master if you simply see it written and don’t hear it. The letters are not pronounced as they are in English.

In English, we have voiced letters and unvoiced letters. For instance, if you say a “p” sound, “puh”, and put your hands on your neck next to your vocal chords, you don’t feel any movement. It is an unvoiced letter. If you say the letter “b,” its voiced partner, you can feel the vibration in your throat. The same is true for French letters such as the letter “r” in French.  An unvoiced “r” makes a drum roll type of noise than the spoken r we’re used to saying.

When written in French, the words I love you are “Je t’aime.” The letter j in French is not pronounced the same way it is in English. Instead of the familiar sound you hear in the work Jack or jump, you hear a zh sound. This is similar to the sound that g makes in the word “mirage”. An interesting fact is that in the French language, the letter “g” also makes the zh sound if it has an “e, i or y” after it.

The “e” in the first part of the phrase has the sound of the oo in hood.  The second part “t’aime” is the easiest. Forget what the word looks like it should sound like. You pronounce it “tem”. When you put the phrase together, you have zhoo tem as the phonetic pronunciation.

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There is one blog out there that I am reading a lot when it comes to learning the french language. Jennifer Wagner is doing something really good on her blog ielanguages.com where she gives free french tutorials and lessons.

I really recommend that you visit her blog if you are interested to learn the french language.

I visit Jennifer’s blog almost everyday and as I went there I saw a new post from her. Jennifer has actually released her new book; “French Language Tutorial E-Book and Paperback Book”. Here is What Jennifer is saying about her new book:

Introducing: French Language Tutorial E-Book and Paperback Book
As of today, the French Language Tutorial is available for purchase as an e-book (PDF format) or as a coil-bound paperback book (8.5″ x 11″). It contains all of the original French tutorials (French 1-7) and French Phonetics, plus I included IPA transcriptions for most of the vocabulary lists and for all of the verb conjugations (that are not provided online).  It is arranged in the same way as the online tutorials, so you can still use the free mp3s, flashcards, & exercises along with the book.

Everything that is currently available on the website will remain free. I am not going to restrict access to those materials. I simply wanted to give people the chance to have hard copies of the tutorials that are ready to be printed or delivered as a traditional book, especially for those who are not at their computers and online for 12 hours a day.

I think she has done a very good thing to publish her work. I appreciate her work… and will buy a copy for my self.

The French language is spoken officially in more than 33 countries as an official or native language. French is the second most used language after the English language, which is officially spoken in about 45 countries. French and English are the languages spoken natively in 5 continents and also the languages that are taught in each country all over the world. Learning French is harder as compared to the other languages which many people learn today such as Italian, German and Spanish. The French language is intricate because of the unique pronunciation.

The French language is so sensitive to a few letters, which function differently depending on where the character is positioned in a phrase or word. The learner ought to be an observer to be able to notice this. Moreover, French language has a unique conversation style, which sounds more like a slurring sound. This style of conversation is known as pairing. When learning French, there are several conditions to be monitored in connection of words alone and a few more for pronunciation. Unlike the English language, the leaner has to watch intonation. Normally, the yes or no questions are marked by a tone increase while on mere talk; intonation is applied when one is ending the sentence. Though the French language is different, it has a similarity with the English language. The similarity is the total number of the alphabet letters. Both the languages have the same number of alphabet; A to Z.

The French language has conjugated verbs, which are isolated from the verb stem and has an ending. The first and even second conjunction has an identifiable stem from an infinitive, and does not change throughout the pattern. For instance, the word ‘parler’ which means to (speak), the stem is ‘parl-‘and in the word ‘finir’ which means to (finish) the stem is ‘fin.’ The third conjunction has an inconsistent stem and infinitive form. Additionally, to produce all forms of conjunctions in the pattern, numerous different stems are required. For instance, in the verb ‘boire’ (drink), it has distinct stems (boiv-boi, bu-and buv.)

In the French language, the endings normally depend on the tense, voice and mood of the verbs and sometimes depends on the subject, number and person. Each conjunction shows some form of syncretism, where similar forms are used to determine the different combinations in grammatical features, which is more noticeable in –er verbs. For example, a conjugated form of the word ‘parle’ can be realized as the 1st person or 3rd person subjunctive or indicative form of ‘parler’, or even a singular imperative. In addition, the 2nd and 3rd person subjunctive and indicative forms of ‘parler’ are also pronounce similarly as ‘parle’, except only in connection contexts.

There are many resources that can be used to learn French grammar and language. But many resources are mostly books. There are few audio courses and programs that are developing and being offered online making it easy to learn French. Most of these are decent resources that assist learners to learn French but in different ways. The most important thing is ensuring that the learning is effective. The major difficulties being faced by many learners is motivation and lack of progress while learning to speak French. Effective learning is more important as it saves money, effort and time.

Getting to learn another language may take several years before one becomes fluent. However, if you do not want to sound too much like a foreigner when in another country, you will need to devote your time to comprehending the basic phrases. It is possible to learn a couple of phrases that will ensure that you are able to confidently find your way around. This method of learning a new language is known as immersion.

A good place to start would be with an every day situation that begins with greetings and pleasantries which is usually the initial stages of any interaction.  In French, greetings are known as ‘La recontre’ and are considered an important part of the French hospitality. For the sake of learning, two fictitious names will be used for the illustration and they are; Monsieur (Mr.) Dupont (the‘t’ at the end is silent) and Mademoiselle (ms) Claire. This is an illustration in which Mademoiselle Claire meets with Monsieur Dupont inside a grocery store.

Monsieur Dupont: Bonjour Claire, qu’est ce que tu fais la? (Hello Claire what is it that you are doing here?)
Claire: ah monsieur Dupont comment allez vous?  (Ah, Mr Dupont  how do you do?)
Monsieur Dupont: je vais tres bien Clair et tois? (I am okay how about you?)
Claire: ca va bien merci. Very fine thank you
Note that Je refers to ‘I’ while Tu refers to ‘you’ (singular).

Other phrases that are popularly used include;
Salut-hello
Parlez vous Francais – do you talk French?
Un petit peu – Just a little
S’il vous plait – please
Non -No
Oui-yes
Je ne comprends pas – I do not understand
Je ne sais pas – I do not know
Au revoir – goodbye
Thank you – Merci
Excusez-moi- Excuse me
Aidez moi, s’il vous plait- Can you help me please?
Enchanté-my pleasure to meet you

To properly grasp these phrases, it is important for the learner to practice the pronunciations over and over again until they are confident enough to use them. The person learning these expressions needs to memorize them daily until they almost become part of their existing vocabulary. To learn these phrases, one does not necessarily need a teacher.  However, spending time around someone who is a native speaker of French could greatly improve ones capacity to grasp the new terms. There are numerous other resources that could help a person learn basic French phrases including books, CD’s, and internet sources. Resources with audio functions are more appropriate because they allow the learner to hear the right pronunciation and repeat after.

One may not be able to know exactly how helpful a couple of random phrases could be until they are alone in a foreign land with nobody who speaks the same language. It could also help one to get out of sticky situations that could turn ugly. Some of the phrases may seem daunting at first but with time, they become like a second natural spoken language. Learning simple phrases could make it easier to fully understand the French language until the attainment of fluency.

People around the world learn the French language because it is a romantic language that assists one to express their feelings effectively. The language is very popular and it is spoken as a mother tongue (first language) by about 130 million people and 190 people across the globe as a second language. The language is also studied as a foreign language by over 200 million individuals across the globe. France inhabitants speak it as a mother tongue while the French colonized countries speak it as a second language. The language has succeeded Latin language and its development was influenced by Romanic and Germanic language, which was used by the invaders.

Many French schools have been established to cater to the rising need of individuals who want to learn the language. The schools offer lessons in different sessions that suit the learner’s time and flexibilities. The sessions include day, evening, night or weekend sessions. The French lessons are offered by highly trained individuals that have high communication and technical skills in the language, some are natives of France as well, which is an added advantage to the French student. However, the classes are not very flexible and people who need to learn at their own pace of time can sign in to the online classes.

Online classes have no geographical or time boundaries and one can access classes regardless of there physical location. Thus, one can learn and at the same time cater to their day to day activities. The lessons come in form of audio, video and text material that one is given once they purchase the online course. The online lessons gives one a chance to interact with a profession on a personal basis and this is advantageous to a slow learner compared to the off line classes because one is able to ask questions without an opposition from classmates. The lessons are divided into three categories according to levels of understanding; beginner, transitional and advanced.

The online lessons contain the basics in French that includes; greetings, names and alphabets that are involved in introduction and calling. The lessons also teach on family’s vocabularies, numbers, colors, parts of the body, types of animals, dates and tenses. The videos that are contained in the lesson help the learner in pronunciation and improves on the grammatical and vocabulary of the individual. The aim of the online French lesson is to improve the listening, writing and speaking skills of the students. Some online French lessons provide specialized packages that cater to the clients specifications.

The online French courses contain 10 lessons in each package of the different lessons. Once the individual has completed the package the online lessons provides a quiz that helps them access their progress. People who fail to achieve the required mark should repeat the package until they acquire the mark. The web lessons also provides one with an open forum for discussion through the chats or blog pages where one can ask questions on the areas that have complications with the French experts. The online French courses are time and cost efficient to individuals who cannot afford to pay for expensive off line classes.