1.2: Grammar

B.1 The French Alphabet and French Pronunciation

Here is the French alphabet, accompanied by the IPA pronunciation for each letter.

L’alphabet français

a	[a]	h	[a∫]	o	[o]	v	[ve]
b	[be]	i	[i]	p	[pe]	w	[du blə ve]
c	[se]	j	[ʒi]	q	[ky]	x	[iks]
d	[de]	k	[ka]	r	[ɛr]	y	[i grɛk]
e	[ə]	l	[ɛl]	s	[ɛs]	z	[zɛd]
f	[ɛf]	m	[ɛm]	t	[te]
g	[ʒe]	n	[ɛn]	u	[y]

In this book, as in French dictionaries, each vocabulary word will be given along with its phonetic transcription according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). American dictionaries each have their own pronunciation guides, but the IPA is universal and used in most other countries. Although it may seem strange at first, the IPA notation will make it easier for you to remember how a word is pronounced. You will get more IPA practice in section B.10 (page 61) and lab section C.7 (page 70).

Standard French

The pronunciation and vocabulary taught in this book is that of “standard French,” the name given to the variety of French spoken in France, especially around Paris and in the center of the country. Just as English demonstrates great variation (e.g. in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, India), there are many varieties of French spoken around the world today, particularly in Canada, Europe, and Africa. If you learn standard French pronunciation, you will be understood anywhere French is spoken. However, you may have some difficulty understanding other national or regional accents.

Most French sounds are similar to sounds in English. However, here are some major differences related to spelling:

Spelling/sounds different than English

spelling	IPA	description
u	[y]	To pronounce the single letter “u,” round your lips tightly as if to say [o] but say [i]. This sound does not exist in English.
ou	[u]	The letters “ou” are always pronounced [u], similar to the English word food.
au	[o]	The letters “au” (or “eau”) are always pronounced [o], similar to the English words soap or bureau.
r	[r]	The French r is pronounced in the throat, as if you are gargling.
h		The letter “h” is always silent in French.
g	[g], [ʒ]	The French letter “g” is hard ([g], like the first g in garage) before a, o, u, but soft ([ʒ], as in rouge) before e or i.
j	[ʒ]	The French letter “j” is always pronounced like a soft g ([ʒ]). Note that the phonetic symbol [j] does not represent the sound of the letter “j,” but that of the letter “y.”
ch	[∫]	The French letters “ch” are pronounced [∫], (“shh”), as in champagne or shoe.

Note: both English and Spanish speakers sometimes pronounce the French letters "ch" as [t∫]. This is a mistake in French; the initial [t] sound must be eliminated.

Nasal sounds

In French, a syllable or word ending in one or more vowels plus -n or -m produces a sound called a nasal. The -n or -m is not pronounced in this position, but its presence changes the vowel in front of it. The back of the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth, and the vowel sounds more “nasal,” as if your nose is stuffed up. There are three commonly used nasal sounds in French today, with several different spellings. Listen to your professor model these three sounds and practice distinguishing them.

spelling	IPA	description
-an, -am, -en, -em	[ã]	The nasal combinations written with the vowel “a” or “e” before n or m are pronounced the same, e.g. sang [sã] = sent [sã]; temps [tã] = tant [tã]
-in, -im, -ain, -aim, -ein	[ɛ̃]	These nasal combinations written “in,” “im,” “ain,” or “ein” are all pronounced the same, e.g. cinq [sɛ̃] = saint [sɛ̃] = sein [sɛ̃]
-on, -om	[ɔ̃]	The nasal combination written “on,” e.g. son [sɔ̃]
-un, -um	[œ˜], [ɛ̃]	The nasal combination written “un,” found in only a few words, can be pronounced as a fourth nasal sound ([œ˜]), but nowadays most speakers in France pronounce it exactly like [ɛ̃].

General French pronunciation tips

Students beginning to study French are invariably shocked by French pronunciation. As the French language evolved through time, spelling did not always keep up with pronunciation. French spelling often reflects the sounds of about the thirteenth century, and most words today contain one or more silent letters.

Mnemonics

A mnemonic is a device used to help remember something. Some students learned the mnemonic “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas” to remember the order of the planets (back when Pluto was a planet!) . . . the first letter of each word matches a planet (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, etc.).

Students sometimes think that learning French is simply “learning grammar,” but this book aims to make you both orally proficient and literate — it will do you no good to have impeccable grammar if you go to Montreal for a vacation and no one can understand a word you say. Although French pronunciation is challenging, learning a few basic rules and practicing diligently will lead to the unutterable satisfaction that comes from a native speaker complimenting you on your pronunciation.

• Most final consonants in French are not pronounced. In particular, watch out for final -s; English speakers almost always try to pronounce this, and it is generally not pronounced. However, the letters C,R,F,L are usually pronounced at the end of a word, so this is used as a mnemonic - remember to be “CaReFuL” to pronounce these letters!
• If a French word ends in an unaccented -e, that -e is silent. An e with an accent aigu, however, -é, is always pronounced as [e].
• Although a final -e is silent, the consonant before a final e is pronounced. Masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives are often distinguished in this way. For example: petit ([pə ti], small (masc.)) has a silent final -t, whereas petite ([pə tit], small (fem.)) has a pronounced -t but a silent final -e.
• In many cases, a final consonant that is normally silent is pronounced when the following word begins with a vowel. This is called liaison. For example, petit ([pə ti]), has a silent final -t, but in the phrase petit ami (boyfriend), you pronounce the t in liaison: [pə ti ta mi]. You will learn gradually the rules for when to do this; begin by following the example of your teacher and by practicing with the audio recordings.

B.1.1 Exercise: French pronunciation self-test

Answer the following questions to see if you understood the preceding section. Check your answers in the margin and go back and reread the previous section if you missed any. True or False?

1. All French letters are pronounced.
2. The letters “u” and “ou” are pronounced the same in French.
3. The nasals spelled “en” and “am” are pronounced the same in French.
4. A final -s is usually pronounced in French.
5. A final -l is usually pronounced in French.
6. A final -t is usually silent in French.
7. The French -r- is pronounced just like the English -r-.
8. In some French words, the letter h is pronounced like the English h.

Answer

1. False; 2. False; 3. True; 4. False; 5. True; 6. True; 7. False; 8. False

Spelling in French

Mini-vocabulaire:

accent aigu	[ak sã te gy]	acute accent (like this: é)
accent grave	[ak sã grav]	grave accent (like this: è)
accent circonflexe	[ak sã sir kɔ̃ flɛks]	circumflex accent (like this: ê)
tréma	[tre ma]	diaresis (like this: ë)
cédille	[se dij]	cedilla (like this: ç)
majuscule	[ma ʒy skyl]	capital letter
minuscule	[mi ny skyl]	small letter

Please learn to spell correctly the name of the language you are learning! Languages are not capitalized in French, so you are learning to speak français. Remember that the cédille is an accent mark that tells you to pronounce the “ç” as [s].

When you spell in French, you need to name both the letters and any accents. There are four accents that can be placed on vowels and one accent for the letter c. For example, the word français is spelled aloud “F-R-A-N-C cédille-A-I-S.” The word étudiant is spelled out “E accent aigu -T-U-D-I-A-N-T.”

Accent marks are required; a word is misspelled if the accent is incorrect. Accents are normally left off capital letters. French accents are for spelling and pronunciation, and do not indicate which syllable is emphasized. In French, words do not have fixed stress on a particular syllable. The spoken emphasis always goes on the last syllable of the word or phrase. (This is unlike English, where every word has a fixed stress, and where changing the position of the stress can alter the meaning of the word. For example, the con-tent of a book can be interesting, whereas a person is con-tent.)

• The accent aigu is used only on a letter e, and changes its pronunciation. An é is always pronounced [e]. Remember the word étudiant.
• The accent grave is used mostly on the letter e, but also appears in a few cases on the letter a and the letter u, to distinguish some short words from other words with the same spelling. An è is pronounced [ɛ].
• The accent circonflexe is purely a spelling mark. It occurs on words that contained an “s” after the vowel in Old French. Many words with circumflexes resemble similar English words that kept the s: e.g., île = isle (island); hôte = host. The circumflex can appear on any vowel.
• The tréma is used in cases where two vowels next to each other are pronounced separately. For example, the letters “ai” in French are usually pronounced as one sound, [e] or [ɛ], but in the word Haïti, the tréma tells you that the vowels are pronounced separately, i.e., [a i ti].
• The cédille is used only on the letter c, to give it the soft [s] sound. C before a, o, or u is pronounced as [k]; to pronounce it as [s], the cédille must be added. The easiest example to remember is the word français [frã sɛ].
• To say “capital A,” say “A majuscule.” To spell the country France, say “F majuscule-R-A-N-C-E.”
• If a letter is doubled, you may say “deux” [two] before the name of the letter instead of saying the letter twice. For example, lettre = “L-E-deux T-R-E.”

B.1.2 Pronunciation practice and IPA (Oral exercise, do not write)

Repeat the following words after your teacher. Then spell the words.

1. France [frãs]
2. français [frã sɛ]
3. Ça va? [sa va]
4. vous [vu]
5. vingt [vɛ̃]
6. comment [kɔ mã]
7. beaucoup [bo ku]
8. les hommes [le zɔm]
9. étudiante [e ty djãt]
10. je m’appelle [ʒə ma pɛl]

 

B.2 Subject pronouns, with special attention to vous and tu

To form a sentence, we need at a minimum a subject and a verb. The subject is the person or thing that is doing the action, and the verb is the action. You must be able to identify correctly the subject of a French sentence, because you must change the form of the verb to match its subject.

Let us begin with the subject pronouns. Subjects can be singular (one person), or plural (more than one person), and are referred to as “first,” “second,” and “third” person.

Subject pronouns in English and French

	singular	plural
first person	I=je	we=nous
second person	you=tu	you=vous
third person	he/she/it=il/elle one=on	they=ils/elles

We can remember the “persons” by simple logic: in the singular, the first person is I because I am the most important; the second person is you because when I interact with another person, I address that person as you; if you and I start talking about someone or something else, then that will be the third person. The third person can be named by a proper noun (Mark, Fido), a common noun (the doctor, the dog), or a pronoun (he, she, it).

Grammar Note

A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun in a sentence. In English, pronouns include I, you, it, them, etc. There are subject pronouns, used for the subject of a sentence, and object pronouns, used for the object. For example, “he” is a subject pronoun: you use it as the subject of a sentence, e.g. “He went to the store.” “He” is a pronoun because it replaces a noun, either a proper noun (a name like “George”) or a common noun (“that man,” “my brother,” “the teacher”). It is the subject because “he” did the action of going to the store. “Him” is an object pronoun: you use it after a verb or preposition: “I love him” or “I went to the store with him.” We will discuss objects later in this book. For now, you should concentrate on being able to identify the subject (noun or pronoun) of a sentence in both French and English.

In the plural, we have more people, but their role in relation to the speaker is the same. First person plural is we = I plus more people; second person plural is you = more than one of you; third person plural is they = more than one of those people or things we’re talking about.

• In French, je (I ) is not capitalized, except at the beginning of a sentence.
• The difference between tu and vous will be discussed shortly.
• In French, not only people but also things have gender – that is to say, things are either masculine or feminine. There is no separate pronoun for it. Il is masculine, used for he or masculine it. Elle is feminine, used for she or feminine it.
• On means one and is used in contexts where English speakers might use you informally. In American English, the subject pronoun one (e.g., ”Where does one sit at a baseball game?”) sounds stuffy, but its use is extremely common in French. On is also used in spoken French to mean we. Regardless of its meaning, on is followed by the third-person singular form of the verb, i.e. the verb form used with il and elle.
•  If there is a mix of masculine and feminine people or objects, French always uses the masculine plural. A group of ten women and one man would use the subject pronoun ils.

Grammar Note

In grammar, gender means whether a word is designated as masculine or feminine. Number means whether a word is singular or plural. We will often refer to a word’s “gender and number.” These two qualities are very important to French grammar.

B.2.1 French Subject Pronouns

The preceding exercises were self-checks with answers in the margin, but most exercises are corrected using the answer key at the end of the chapter (if your version has an answer key). It is usually better to correct each exercise as you do them, rather than correcting them all at the end, so that you can see and learn from your errors immediately.

Write the French subject pronoun you see in each of the following sentences. Then give the English equivalent of the subject pronoun.

Exemple: Elle est américaine.

elle; she or it

1. Vous parlez français?
2. Ils sont professeurs.
3. On mange beaucoup à Noël.
4. Nous sommes étudiants.
5. Elles dansent bien.
6. Il aime Chantal.
7. Tu lèves la main.

B.2.2 Subject Pronouns

Indicate which French subject pronoun you would use to correspond to the subject of each of the following sentences.

Exemple: My sister is tall.

elle

(In this example, “my sister” = she = elle. You give the French subject pronoun, elle, as your answer.)

1. I like apples.
2. Teachers are often helpful.
3. Are you coming to class today?
4. George and I are going to the movies tonight.
5. My mother is not strict.
6. He eats a lot of protein.
7. Maria, Caroline, Christina, and John are in my study group.
8. We speak French in class.
9. The American and French presidents can both speak English.

Tu and vous

TU AND VOUS Linguistic differences can teach us a great deal about cultural differences. Do you think it is significant that French-speaking cultures have two different words for "you," while English-speaking cultures do not, or do you think is it just a coincidental result of linguistic evolution? What ways does English use to distinguish formal from informal relationships since there is not a difference in the word "you"? Are there dialects of English in which different ways to indicate "you" do exist? Did this difference exist in the past?

In the previous table of subject pronouns, you saw that in French, there are two words for the English “you.” Although we placed tu in the singular column and vous in the plural column, choosing which of these words to use depends on two different criteria. Not only can the second person, you, be singular or plural; in French, it also can be either informal or formal.

If you have a formal relationship with someone, you must address them with the formal form, which is vous. If you have an informal relationship, you will address a single person as tu, but more than one person as vous. So, we have:

singular informal=tu	plural informal=vous
singular formal=vous	plural formal=vous

To summarize, tu is used only when talking to one person with whom you have an informal relationship; vous is used when talking to one person with whom you have a formal relationship, or anytime you are speaking to more than one person, whether formal or informal.

But what do “formal” and “informal” mean? The social context is very important here. An interaction that is acceptably informal in one instance might need to be formal in a different country, social class, or setting. If you watch French movies from the 40s, most husbands and wives address each other formally, as vous. Nowadays, it would strike most people as extremely strange to hear a young couple address each other with vous. Young people, especially stu- dents, commonly use tu with each other even if they do not know each other, but many adults will use vous until they become good friends. ∫ometimes, people who have lived near or worked with each other for years will still use the vous form. As a student of French, you are safe using tu with children and with your classmates, but in other situations, you should use vous until invited to use tu by the French speaker. In our classroom, students should use tu with each other. Many professors still use vous with their students, but some younger professors will use tu. Again, we advise you to use vous unless your professor indicates you can do otherwise. You should try very hard to maintain the distinction between tu and vous in all the exercises you do in the classroom, as it is a very important point in both French grammar and Francophone cultures. Calling someone tu instead of vous may be insulting, and calling someone vous instead of tu may be confusing or seem stand-offish to your listener.

One last thing to note is that “formal” does not equal “superior.” In the vast majority of cases, if an adult relationship is formal, both sides will use vous. For example, at the dentist’s office, both the dentist and the patient will call each other vous. An adult, however, would address an unknown child by tu, but the child would respond with vous. French has verbs to describe “calling someone tu” (tutoyer ) and “calling someone vous” (vouvoyer ), and these verbs are used to invite another person to switch from vous to tu.

B.2.3 Exercise: Vous and tu self-test

Indicate whether the person speaking in each of the following situations would use tu or vous. Remember that this depends both on number (singular/plural) and formality. Check your answers as you go. In the key, a = tu, and b-d = vous, to show you the variety of cases that use vous: a = tu (informal singular); b = vous (formal singular); c = vous (informal plural); d = vous (formal plural).

1. A client in a bakery, speaking to the baker.
2. A doctor speaking to a patient.
3. An elementary school student speaking to three of her friends.
4. A college student speaking to a professor.
5. A telemarketer speaking to the person they call.
6. A politician making a public speech.
7. A mother speaking to her daughter.
8. A father speaking to his two sons.
9. A college student speaking to another college student in class.
10. A professor speaking to her entire class.

Answers

1. b. 2. b. 3. c. 4. b. 5. b. 6. d. 7. a. 8. c. 9. a. 10. d.

B.2.4 Vous and tu

Now try these; again, indicate whether the person speaking in each of the following situations would use tu or vous and say what type of address it is (a. informal singular (=tu); b. formal singular (=vous); c. informal plural (=vous); d. formal plural (=vous)).

1. A man stopping a woman in the street to ask the time.
2. A sales rep talking to a colleague with whom he has worked for ten years.
3. A doctor giving a lecture at a medical conference.
4. A high school student asking 2 girls to throw him a ball.
5. A person in line at City Hall to the employee.
6. A husband asking his wife to pick up some milk on the way home.
7. An employee speaking to his supervisor.
8. A college student speaking to her professor.
9. A supervisor speaking to an employee.
10. An ice-cream man speaking to a group of children buying ice cream.

 

B.3 Verb conjugation and the verb être

Grammar Note

The infinitive of a verb is the form you will find in a dictionary, before it is conjugated. It corresponds to the English form “to [verb].” The infinitive être = to be; the infinitive parler = to speak.

As we noted above, when forming a sentence in French, you must use the proper form of the verb with each subject. Since there are six different grammatical subjects, there are six forms of each verb in the present tense. The basic form of the verb is the infinitive, and changing the verb to the proper form is called conjugating the verb. You must memorize the correct forms (the conjugation) of the verb, or people will have great difficulty understanding you.

Reminder

Liaison means “linking” and it refers to the French pronunciation rule of pronouncing a normally-silent consonant if the following word begins with a vowel. The rules of liaison are complicated: some liaisons are required, some are forbidden, some are optional. If we note liaison when giving you the pronunciation of a pair of words, it is because that liaison is required. Subject pronouns ending in a consonant always make liaison if the following verb begins with a vowel.

The verb être, to be

être (to be)
je suis [ʒə sɥi]	I am
tu es [ty e]	you are
il/elle/on est [i lɛ], [ɛ lɛ], [ɔ̃ nɛ]	he/she/it/one is
nous sommes [nu sɔm]	we are
vous êtes [vu zɛt]	you are
ils/elles sont [il sɔ̃], [ɛl sɔ̃]	they are

Note that none of the final consonants of the verb forms are pronounced.

• The “s” in the form il est is also never pronounced.
• Because of liaison, vous êtes is pronounced [vu zɛt]. (You pronounce the “s” on vous because it is followed by a word beginning with a vowel.) Remember that vous can have a singular or a plural meaning; however, there is only one form of the verb that goes with the pronoun vous. Whether vous means one person or more than one person, the form is always vous êtes.
• If you use a noun instead of a pronoun as your subject, you use the verb form that matches the grammatical person. For example, ma mère = elle (third person singular), so it uses the third person singular form of the verb: Ma mère est américaine = Elle est américaine.

Grammar Note

When conjugating regular verbs, the stem remains the same, and one must simply memorize the endings. We will learn regular verbs in chapter 3, but here is an example, just so you can see that all verbs are not as bad as être! You can see that with a regular verb, the stem, parl-, is the same for both the infinitive and all six conjugated forms. That is not the case with être and a few other extremely irregular verbs.

parler (to speak)
je parle	I speak
tu parles	you speak
il parle	he speaks
nous parlons	we speak
vous parlez	you speak
ils parlent	they speak

Infinitives in French fall into three groups according to their endings (-er, -ir, or -re) and are classified as regular or irregular. The forms of être are very irregular – that is, they do not look like each other or even like the infinitive. Unlike the regular verb parler shown in the margin, the six forms of the verb être do not share the same stem but are completely different from each other. Although you do have a number of irregular verbs to learn, it should reassure you to know that over 95% of the verbs in the language fall into the regular -er group, which means that once you learn the six forms in that pattern, you can conjugate any verb in that group.

B.3.1 Practice conjugation, être

It is very important to learn the forms of a new verb. Boring as it may seem, one good way to do it is simply to write them out and recite them many times. After a while, they will start to look and sound “right.” Write out the conjugation of être four times; if your teacher has already modeled the correct pronunciation, say the forms out loud as well. Refer to the IPA to refresh your memory of your teacher’s model pronunciation.

être je ______________________ tu ______________________ il/elle ______________________ nous ______________________ vous ______________________ ils/elles ______________________	être je ______________________ tu ______________________ il/elle ______________________ nous ______________________ vous ______________________ ils/elles ______________________
être je ______________________ tu ______________________ il/elle ______________________ nous ______________________ vous ______________________ ils/elles ______________________	être je ______________________ tu ______________________ il/elle ______________________ nous ______________________ vous ______________________ ils/elles ______________________

B.3.2 Verb endings, être

The verb être, although very irregular, does share some commonalities with most French verbs: the last letters of the je, tu, il, and ils forms are typical, although the forms themselves are very unusual.

However, the nous and vous forms of être are extremely irregular. You can begin to recognize the typical endings for these forms by filling in the missing letters below.

je sui_____	nous sommes	je sui_____	nous sommes
tu e_____	vous êtes	tu e_____	vous êtes
il/elle es_____	ils/elles so_____	il/elle es_____	ils/elles so_____

B.3.3 Conjugating être

There may be words you do not know in the exercises. This is done deliberately to give you exposure to new words. Try to guess what they mean based on the context or on their similarity to English. (Words that are similar in two languages are called “cognates.”) Unless you absolutely need to understand them in order to complete the exercise, do not look them up. In any real-life situation where you are speaking another lan- guage, there will be words you do not know, so you will just have to make your best guess and continue on.

Grammar Note

Although je is the subject pronoun for I, in French, after the conjunction et (and), you must use moi (me) even if it is the subject.

Write the proper form of the verb être in each blank. Then write an English translation for each sentence. If you do not know what a word means, make your best guess.

1. Je  ________________intelligent.
2. Marie  ________________ mexicaine.
3. Nous  ________________ contents.
4. Philippe  ________________ petit.
5. Elles  ________________ intelligentes.
6. Hélène  ________________ blonde.
7. Vous  ________________ français?
8. Je  ________________ français.
9. Georges et Marie  ________________ petits.
10. Le président  ________________ sérieux.
11. Tu  ________________ content?
12. Paul et moi*  ________________ américains.

 

B.4 Giving Commands - the imperative form

Sad to say, you will spend a fair amount of time in French class being bossed around by your teacher. To give instructions, orders or suggestions, we use the imperative form of the verb. An imperative is a special verb form used to give commands, directions, or advice to another person or to a group of a people, in both French and English. The imperative is simply the verb form; no subject is used because it is clear from context. The imperative exists only in the second person (tu and vous forms), to give commands to others (as in English, “Do that!”), and in the first person plural (nous form), to make suggestions to a group (as in English, “Let’s do that”).

The imperatives you will hear most often in your French class will be in the vous form, which almost always ends in the letters -ez (pronounced [e]). We will learn more about imperatives in chapter 8; for now, you need only to recognize and understand common imperatives used in class. Examples:

Ouvrez le livre.	Open the book.
Regardez le tableau.	Look at the board.
Ecoutez-moi.	Listen to me.
Répétez.	Repeat.
Excusez-moi, Madame.	Excuse me, Madame.

B.4.1 Identifying Imperatives

In each of the following sentences, the verb is in the vous form of the imperative, which almost always ends in the letters -ez. Circle or write each verb. Also write the English equivalent for each of the sentences. You may need to use your vocabulary list (page 29) to translate some of the verbs. (Note: S’il vous plaît means please).

1. Fermez le livre.
2. Excusez-moi, Madame.
3. Ecoutez le vocabulaire.
4. Répétez la phrase.
5. Jean, ouvrez la porte, s’il vous plaît.
6. Marie et José, écrivez au tableau.
7. Pierre, regardez le tableau, s’il vous plaît.
8. S’il vous plaît, épelez votre nom, Monsieur.
9. Tout le monde, prenez un stylo.
10. Allez au tableau.
11. Mettez vos devoirs sur le bureau.
12. Dites bonjour!

 

B.5 Articles and Gender of Nouns

As we saw in the section on subject pronouns (B.2, page 37), both people and things have gender in French. This means that all nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. In English, people have gender, but things do not. So we refer to a man as he, a woman as she, but a book as it. In French, however, a book (un livre) is masculine, so the appropriate pronoun for both a man and a book is il (he = (masculine) it).

To English speakers, using he and she for people is so natural that we don’t think about it, and if someone refers to a man as she, it is very confusing to us. In the same way, if you refer to an object in French with the wrong gender, a French speaker will become confused, so you must try to use the correct gender at all times.

Sometimes, the gender for a noun is logical; for example, it makes sense that the French word for woman is feminine, and it may even make sense to you that the word for car is feminine, because English speakers sometimes refer to their cars as she. In the case of most objects, however, gender is not obvious. Furthermore, whereas in some Romance languages, the form of the noun tells you what gender it is, this is not always the case in French. (In Spanish, for example, a word ending in “o” is almost always masculine, and a word ending in “a” is almost always feminine.) Therefore, you need to learn each French noun’s gender along with the word itself.

The easiest way to learn a noun’s gender is to always practice saying or writing the noun together with the correct article. There are three types of articles in French. In this chapter, we will learn the first of these: the definite article, which is the equivalent of the in English. Each type of article has separate forms for masculine, feminine, and plural. This means that there are different words for the in French, depending on whether it is a masculine, a feminine, or a plural the.

Definite Articles

The definite article corresponds to the English word the. It has four forms in French.

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	le or l’ [lə] or [l]	les [le]
féminin	la or l’ [la] or [l]	les [le]

Before a consonant:

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	le livre [lə livr] (the book )	les livres [le livr] (the books)
féminin	la chaise [la ∫ɛz] (the chair )	les chaises [le ∫ɛz] (the chairs)

Before a vowel or a silent h*:

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	l’homme [lOm] (the man)	les hommes [le zOm] (the men)
féminin	l’amie [la mi] (the friend )	les amies [le za mi] (the friends)

Note

There are a small number of words in French (usually of Germanic origin) where, although the “h” is still silent, élision is not made. You do not need to worry about this, but you may notice one or two words like this in your first year of French, such as le hockey.

• The gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the noun determine which form of the article must be used.
• For instance, you say le livre (the book) because livre (book ) is masculine, and le is the masculine singular form of the.
• You say la chaise (the chair) because chaise (chair) is feminine, and la is the feminine singular form of the.
• Since there is only one form for the plural, you say les livres (the books) and les chaises (the chairs), with no difference between the masculine and feminine plural articles.
• In the singular, both le and la must change to l’ before a noun beginning with a vowel or an h* (remember that h is silent in French). This loss of a final vowel is called élision. It is mandatory for certain short words, and the lost vowel is always replaced with an apostrophe. When the le or la becomes l’, the contraction is pronounced as one word. In English, you pronounce “it’s” as one syllable, just like “its.” In French, you pronounce “l’eau” as one syllable ([lo]). ∫tudents often pause where the apostrophe is – this is incorrect.
• In the plural, les makes liaison with a plural noun beginning with a vowel or silent h, e.g. les hommes ([le zɔm]), les amis ([le za mi]). Remember that liaison means that you pronounce a final consonant that is normally silent because the next word begins with a vowel.

Clarification

Elision refers to the loss of a final vowel of a short word and its combination with the following word beginning with a vowel, e.g. l’ami. In written French, élision always requires the use of an apostrophe. Liaison refers to the pronunciation of a final consonant (normally silent) before the following word beginning with a vowel, e.g. les amis, pronounced [le za mi]. Liaison is a purely oral phenomenon and does not affect spelling in any way.

It is important to learn the articles for two reasons. First, they tell you whether a noun is masculine or feminine, and that will stop you from confusing people by using the wrong pronoun to refer to an object. Secondly, since the final -s is silent in French, you usually cannot tell from hearing a noun whether it is singular or plural. However, the pronunciation of the article is different and will tell you whether the word is singular or plural. For example, la chaise [la ∫ɛz] is singular; les chaises [le ∫ɛz] is plural. You can see that chaise and chaises are pronounced the same ([∫ɛz]), but the articles are pronounced differently ([la] vs. [le]). Students often mispronounce le ([lə]) – it rhymes with je ([ʒə]), and is not the same as les ([le]).

As you practice the vocabulary words for this chapter, always say or write the appropriate article with a noun. If the word begins with a vowel or silent h, the article will not divulge the gender of the noun. In those cases, for example, l’homme (m.), a small “m.” or “f.” after the word in the vocabulary list tells you whether the word is masculine or feminine.

B.5.1 Exercise: Self-check: Gender and definite articles

Answer the following questions “True” or “False.” All the information necessary to answer the questions is contained in section B.5. If you miss any question, reread the section to find the correct answer. If the answer is false, explain (in writing) why it is false.

1. Only people have gender in French.
2. The definite article in English is the.
3. The definite article in French has two forms.
4. It is easy to hear the difference between singular and plural nouns in French because you can hear the final -s on a plural noun.
5. The masculine plural definite article is les.
6. Before a vowel or an h, the plural definite article becomes l’.
7. The masculine and feminine plural definite articles are identi- cal.
8. It is easy to tell a masculine from a feminine noun in French simply by looking at the spelling of the noun.
9. The feminine singular definite article may be la or l’.
10. If a word begins with a vowel, you cannot tell from the definite article whether it is masculine or feminine.
11. Different words are used in French for he and it when it rep- resents a masculine thing.
12. One can hear the difference between a singular and plural noun if one listens carefully to the pronunciation of the article.
13. When speaking French, it is important to use the proper gen- der for people, but not very important to use the proper gender for things.
14. The best way to learn the gender of a noun is to practice the noun together with its correct article.

Answer

1. F; 2. T; 3. F; 4. F; 5. T; 6. F; 7. T; 8. F; 9. T; 10. T; 11. F; 12. T; 13. F; 14. T. Explanations of the false answers can be found in the answer key. Do not refer to them until you have attempted to find the answer yourself.

B.5.2 Form of definite articles

Based only on the form of the article, indicate whether the article is masculine (m.) or feminine (f.), or whether it is impossible to tell (??). (Important note: you may already know whether the noun itself is masculine or feminine, but in this exercise, you may only consider the form of the article. The goal of this exercise is to get you used to looking at the gender of the article to help you remember the gender of the noun it modifies.)

1. la chaise	m.	f.	??	6. les amies	m.	f.	??
2. le professeur	m.	f.	??	7. les devoirs	m.	f.	??
3. l’étudiant	m.	f.	??	8. l’affiche	m.	f.	??
4. le sac à dos	m.	f.	??	9. la craie	m.	f.	??
5. les bureaux	m.	f.	??	10. le stylo	m.	f.	??

B.5.3 Definite articles and nouns

Note

If a noun referring to people has two forms, one ending in a consonant and the other ending in an -e, the first is the masculine form and the second the feminine form. E.g. étudiant / étudiante.

Now, supply the proper definite article for each noun based on its gender and number.

1. _______affiche
2. _______bureau
3. _______étudiante*
4. _______stylo
5. _______professeurs
6. _______devoirs
7. _______craie
8. _______chaise
9. _______sacs à dos
10. _______étudiants

 

B.6 Numbers

ROMANCE LANGUAGES The Romans invaded France (and many other countries) in the first century, gradually imposing their own language, Latin, over the languages previously spoken there. Over time, words and pronunciation changed and French evolved from Latin. Languages that evolved from Latin are called Romance languages.

Numbers in French are simple - until you get to 60! In most French-speaking countries, including France, Canada, and former French colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, numbers from 60 to 100 are counted by 20s instead of by 10s. This is generally considered to be a remnant of the Celtic language spoken in France before the Romans invaded. French speakers in Belgium, Switzerland, and the former Belgian colonies in Africa have adopted somewhat easier systems. However, it is unfortunately best for you to learn the harder system, because that is what is used by the vast majority of French speakers. First, here are the numbers from 0-59. Practice their pronunciation.

0	zéro	[ze ro]	20	vingt [vɛ̃]	40	quarante [ka rãt]
1	un	[œ˜] or [ɛ̃]	21	vingt et un	41	quarante et un
2	deux	[dø]	22	vingt-deux	42	quarante-deux
3	trois	[trwa]	23	vingt-trois	43	quarante-trois
4	quatre	[katr]	24	vingt-quatre	44	quarante-quatre
5	cinq	[sɛ̃k]	25	vingt-cinq	45	quarante-cinq
6	six	[sis]	26	vingt-six	46	quarante-six
7	sept	[sɛt]	27	vingt-sept	47	quarante-sept
8	huit	[ɥit]	28	vingt-huit	48	quarante-huit
9	neuf	[nœf]	29	vingt-neuf	49	quarante-neuf
10	dix	[dis]	30	trente [trãt]	50	cinquante [sɛ̃ kãt]
11	onze	[ɔ̃z]	31	trente et un	51	cinquante et un
12	douze	[duz]	32	trente-deux	52	cinquante-deux
13	treize	[trɛz]	33	trente-trois	53	cinquante-trois
14	quatorze	[ka tɔrz]	34	trente-quatre	54	cinquante-quatre
15	quinze	[kɛ̃z]	35	trente-cinq	55	cinquante-cinq
16	seize	[sɛz]	36	trente-six	56	cinquante-six
17	dix-sept	[dis sɛt]	37	trente-sept	57	cinquante-sept
18	dix-huit	[di zɥit]	38	trente-huit	58	cinquante-huit
19	dix-neuf	[diz nœf]	39	trente-neuf	59	cinquante-neuf

Numbers 60-100

From 60-99, numbers in standard French are counted by 20s instead of by 10s. This means that to say “77,” you say “60-17.” When a French number starts with soixante or quatre-vingt, you cannot assume that it is a “60” or an “80”; it may be a “70” or a “90.”

Here are the numbers from 60-100. Practice their pronunciation.

60	soixante [swa sãt]	80	quatre-vingts [ka trə vɛ̃]
61	soixante et un	81	quatre-vingt-un*
62	soixante-deux	82	quatre-vingt-deux
63	soixante-trois	83	quatre-vingt-trois
64	soixante-quatre	84	quatre-vingt-quatre
65	soixante-cinq	85	quatre-vingt-cinq
66	soixante-six	86	quatre-vingt-six
67	soixante-sept	87	quatre-vingt-sept
68	soixante-huit	88	quatre-vingt-huit
69	soixante-neuf	89	quatre-vingt-neuf
70	soixante-dix	90	quatre-vingt-dix
71	soixante et onze	91	quatre-vingt-onze*
72	soixante-douze	92	quatre-vingt-douze
73	soixante-treize	93	quatre-vingt-treize
74	soixante-quatorze	94	quatre-vingt-quatorze
75	soixante-quinze	95	quatre-vingt-quinze
76	soixante-seize	96	quatre-vingt-seize
77	soixante-dix-sept	97	quatre-vingt-dix-sept
78	soixante-dix-huit	98	quatre-vingt-dix-huit
79	soixante-dix-neuf	99	quatre-vingt-dix-neuf
		100	cent [sã]

In the Belgian system, soixante-dix = septante and quatre-vingt-dix = nonante. In  the Swiss system, in addition to septante and nonante, huitante is used instead of quatrevingts. When using one of these systems, you continue to count by 10s instead of 20s; for example, 75 = septante-cinq, not soixante-quinze. Some of the former Belgian colonies in Africa also use the Belgian system.

Note

In the standard French system, 81 and 91 eliminate the et (and) which is used by the numbers with un (21, 31, etc.) up to 71. Also notice that quatre-vingts is written with an -s, but the numbers after it have no -s. Quatre-vingts is equivalent to Lincoln’s use of “four score and seven years ago” in the Gettysburg Address.

Numbers over 100

Numbers from 100-999 simply combine the different numbers:

532 = cinq cent trente-deux

397 = trois cent quatre-vingt-dix-sept

B.6.1 Chiffres 0-50

Write the numbers that correspond to the words.

1. quarante-deux ________	7. dix-huit ________
2. trente-six ________	8. trente-quatre ________
3. onze ________	9. treize ________
4. seize ________	10. cinquante-sept ________
5. vingt et un ________	11. vingt-neuf ________
6. douze ________	12. quarante-cinq ________

B.6.2 Chiffres 0-50 en mots

Write out the following numbers in words.

1. 9 _______________________	7. 2 _______________________
2. 14 _______________________	8. 49 _______________________
3. 23 _______________________	9. 58 _______________________
4. 37 _______________________	10. 31 _______________________
5. 44 _______________________	11. 26 _______________________
6. 15 _______________________	12. 57 _______________________

B.6.3 Chiffres 60-100

Write the Arabic numerals that correspond to the following words.

1. soixante-trois ________	7. quatre-vingt-seize ________
2. quatre-vingt-six ________	8. soixante-deux ________
3. quatre-vingt-quinze ________	9. soixante-douze ________
4. soixante-dix-neuf ________	10. quatre-vingt-dix ________
5. soixante-et-onze ________	11. cent trois ________
6. quatre-vingt-quatre ________	12. soixante-sept ________

B.6.4 Chiffres 60-100 en mots

Write out the following numbers in words.

1. 98	3. 83	5. 69	7. 80	9. 73
2. 61	4. 75	6. 92	8. 64	10. 97

 

B.7 Gender of adjectives

You may have noticed in some of the earlier exercises that adjectives following the verb être do not all have the same form. In fact, an adjective needs to match the number (singular or plural) and gender (masculine or feminine) of the person or object it is describing. This is a very important concept in French called agreement. Agreement means that two words that go together grammatically have matching forms – a masculine noun goes with a masculine adjective, the pronoun je goes with the je form of the verb, etc.

We can contrast:

Marie est petite	with	Georges et Marie sont petits.
Il est intelligent	with	Elles sont intelligentes.
Tu es content?	with	Nous sommes contents.

Can you see a pattern? Most adjectives in French have four forms:

masculine singular	masculine plural
feminine singular	feminine plural

You always start from the masculine singular form to get the other forms.

Starting from the masculine singular, you usually add -e for the feminine singular, -s for the masculine plural, and -es for the feminine plural. There are some variations on this basic rule depending on the type of the base (masculine singular) form. Learn the following patterns.

1. If the masculine singular ends in a consonant: add an -e for feminine and an -s for plural

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	petit [pə ti]	petits [pə ti]
féminin	petite [pə tit]	petites [pə tit]

2. If the masculine singular ends in an unaccented -e: do not change feminine, add an -s for plural

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	timide [ti mid]	timides [ti mid]
féminin	timide [ti mid]	timides [ti mid]

3. If the masculine singular ends in any other vowel, including -é, -i, or -u: add an -e for feminine and an -s for plural

poli polite (or polished)

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	poli [pɔ li]	polis [pɔ li]
féminin	polie [pɔ li]	polies [pɔ li]

4. If the masculine singular ends in an -s: add an -e for feminine and -s for feminine plural, but do not add an -s for masculine plural

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	français [frã sɛ]	français [frã sɛ]
féminin	française [frã sɛz]	françaises [frã sɛz]

Two other common adjective patterns you need to know right now are that a masculine -f ending changes to -ve in the feminine, and that a masculine -x ending changes to -se in the feminine (but remains -x in the masculine plural).

-f and -x patterns:

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	actif [ak tif]	actifs [ak tif]
féminin	active [ak tiv]	actives [ak tiv]

	singulier	pluriel
masculin	sérieux [se rjø]	sérieux [se rjø]
féminin	sérieuse [se rjøz]	sérieuses [se rjøz]

To summarize,

• Unless the masculine singular already ends in an unaccented -e, you will add an -e to get the feminine singular.

• Unless the singular form already ends in -s or -x, add an -s to the singular to get the corresponding plural form.

• When the masculine form ends in a consonant (patterns #1 and #4), you can hear the difference between the masculine and feminine forms.

• A final -s is not pronounced, so there is no difference in pro- nunciation between the singular and plural forms.

beau (m.) handsome, belle (f.) beautiful

There are also many irregular adjectives, most of which fall into patterns. When the feminine form of an adjective is not formed by following the above rules, it will be given in parentheses after the masculine form, e.g. beau (belle).

B.7.1 Adjective endings

Give the other forms for each of the following adjectives, starting from the masculine singular form. Consult the previous section.

masc. sing.	fem. sing.	masc. pl.	fem. pl.
1. grand
2. rouge
3. vif
4. strict
5. japonais
6. nerveux
7. content
8. calme

B.7.2 Adjective agreement

Each of the following pairs or groups of friends have much in common. Use the adjective given in one column to complete the other sentence; make the adjective agree in gender and number with the person or people it is describing. Note that although you can always predict the feminine form from the masculine form, the reverse is not necessarily true, so you should begin memorizing the spelling of the base form of each adjective.

masculin	féminin
1. Georges est grand.	Marie est ___________ .
2. Paul est américain.	Suzanne est ___________ .
3. Jean est français.	Claire est ___________ .
4. Serge est blond.	Hélène est ___________ .
5. Marc est ___________ .	Marthe est petite.
6. L’acteur est ___________ .	L’actrice est contente.
7. Le président est brun.	Sa femme est ___________ .
8. Philippe est ___________ .	Caroline est intelligente.
9. Pierre et Michel sont sérieux.	Marie et Lise sont ___________ .
10. Colin et Julien sont ___________ .	Sylvie et Nathalie sont polies.
11. Ils sont timides.	Elles sont ___________ .

B.7.3 Singular to plural

We now know that subjects, verbs, articles, nouns, and adjectives all have to agree. The subject determines the verb form; the gender and number of the noun determine the form of the article and adjective that modify it. Make each of the following sentences plural. Begin by changing the subject to its plural equivalent (consult B.2, page 37, if you are unsure which are the plural equivalents of the pronouns je, tu, il ), and then change the other elements as necessary to maintain agreement.

1. Je suis intelligent. ___________________________________________ .
2. Il est mexicain. ___________________________________________ .
3. Le professeur est strict. ___________________________________________ .
4. L’étudiante est sérieuse. ___________________________________________ .
5. Le stylo est rouge. ___________________________________________ .
6. Tu es enthousiaste. ___________________________________________ .
7. Elle est française. ___________________________________________ .
8. La chaise est confortable. ___________________________________________ .
9. La fenêtre est ouverte. ___________________________________________ .
10. Je suis contente. ___________________________________________ .

B.7.4 Plural to singular

lourd heavy blanc (m.), blanche (f.) white

Now, make the following plural sentences singular. You may need to consult your notes or the vocabulary list to see if a noun is masculine or feminine. Begin by changing the subject to singular, and then change whatever you must in order to maintain agreement.

1. Les sacs à dos sont lourds. ______________________________.
2. Les devoirs sont difficiles. ______________________________ .
3. Nous sommes enthousiastes. ______________________________ .
4. Vous êtes sociables?  ______________________________ .
5. Les murs sont blancs. ______________________________ .
6. Les étudiants sont présents.  ______________________________ .
7. Les téléphones portables sont chers.  ______________________________ .
8. Les pupitres sont petits. ______________________________ .
9. Les hommes dans la classe sont grands. ______________________________ .
10. Elles sont honnêtes. ______________________________ .

 

B.8 Questions in French

Grammar Note

Yes/no questions do not require you to supply any information in the answer that is not in the question, apart from oui (yes) or non (no). Informational questions use words like what, why, when, etc., and are covered in later chapters.

There are several ways to form questions in French. In this chapter, we give you an overview of ways to form yes/no questions, and you will learn to use intonation to ask questions.

Forming questions with intonation

The easiest way to ask a yes/no question, and the one most commonly heard in spoken French, is just to make the INTONATION of your voice rise at the end of the question.

So, for example, Ça va?↗ is a question, while Ça va.↘ is an answer.

Gilles est là?↗ is a question, while Gilles est là.↘ is a sentence.

B.8.1 Questions and statements (Oral exercise, do not write)

Listen to your teacher and repeat the following questions and statements.

aime likes

1. Paul est blond.	5. Je suis américain.
2. Paul est blond?	6. Tu es français?
3. Hélène aime le football.	7. La classe est intéressante.
4. Hélène aime le football?	8. La classe est intéressante?

B.8.2 Questions or statements? (Oral exercise, do not write)

You can also practice these with a partner; read the words with a rising or falling intonation, and have your partner indicate whether s/he thinks you are asking a question or making a statement.

Now, listen to your teacher again, and punctuate the sentence with “.” or “?” to indicate whether s/he made a statement or asked a question.

1. Ça va	5. C’est un bon film
2. Je suis petite	6. Nous parlons français
3. Tu es content	7. Vous parlez français
4. Le professeur arrive	8. Vous êtes américaine

B.8.3 Forming questions (Oral and written exercise)

Imagine that you have all of the following characteristics, and you wish to find out if your partner shares them with you. Using intonation, ask questions using the tu form of the verb plus the adjective.

First, imagine you are male and your partner is female. Change the adjective as appropriate. As you do this exercise, read your questions aloud, practicing the rising intonation. (As a written exercise, give the feminine form of the question, punctuating with a question mark to indicate the rising intonation.)

1. Je suis créatif.	4. Je suis poli.
2. Je suis sportif.	5. Je suis intéressant.
3. Je suis travailleur.	6. Je suis timide.

Now, imagine that you are female and your partner is male. Change the adjective as appropriate. (As a written exercise, give the masculine form of the question, punctuating with a question mark to indicate the rising intonation.)

1. Je suis américaine.	4. Je suis énergique.
2. Je suis forte.	5. Je suis imaginative.
3. Je suis studieuse.	6. Je suis calme.

Other ways to ask yes/no questions: Overview

In addition to using intonation, French speakers have other ways to ask yes/no questions. We will cover these in more detail in later chapters, but here are some other ways, for recognition and comprehension only at this point.

Forming questions with n’est-ce pas

French speakers often turn a statement into a question by adding n’est-ce pas? (literally, “isn’t it?”) or non? to the end of a sentence. This is similar to when Americans say “right?” or Canadians say “eh?” This type of question assumes that you know the answer and you are just asking for confirmation.

French	English
Tu es américaine, n’est-ce pas?	You’re American, right?
Vous êtes dans ma classe de français, n’est-ce pas?	You’re all in my French class, aren’t you?
Donald Trump est le président, n’est-ce pas?	Donald Trump is the presi- dent, isn’t he?

Forming questions with inversion

Intonation is by far the most common way to ask questions in spoken (informal) French; but since there is no way to indicate intonation in writing, this type of question is not correct in written French. Another way to ask questions in both spoken and written French involves inversion – this means inverting (switching) the subject (S) and the verb (V), or, in other words, placing the verb in front of the subject. We do this in English as well, for example:

sentence	question
He is tall.	Is he tall?
S - V	V - S

In French, when inversion is used with a subject pronoun, the verb and pronoun are connected in writing by a hyphen. A question using inversion we would like you to recognize in this chapter is,

question	answer
Qui est-ce?	C’est Paul.
Who is it?	It’s Paul.

Grammar Note

You can compare the French use of est-ce que to the English use of “do/does” in questions. When you hear “Do you like meat-balls?”, you don’t think about “do” as a verb (as you do in a sentence like “I do my homework in the library”); it just serves as an alert that what follows is a question.

Forming questions with est-ce que

Finally, one can ask a question by putting the words est-ce que in front of an affirmative sentence. Students often ask what est-ce que means. French speakers do not think of it as having a specific meaning; it is just a sign that a question is coming. Therefore, you should not try to translate est-ce que word-for-word; it is just a marker that what follows is a question. Est-ce que tu es français ? means “Are you French?” A question using est-ce que we would like you to recognize in this chapter is,

question	answer
Qu’est-ce que c’est?	C’est une lampe.
What is it?	It’s a lamp.

B.8.4 A variety of question formats

The following yes/no questions use a variety of formats: intonation, est-ce que, and inversion. Answer each question in the affirmative (in French, oui = yes). Remember to change the noun or adjective to the feminine form if necessary.

Exemple: Est-ce que tu es gentil?                                 Oui, je suis gentil.

1. Vous êtes étudiant?
2. Es-tu jeune?
3. M. Pence est le vice-président américain, n’est-ce pas?
4. Est-ce que le professeur est sérieux?
5. Est-ce que les devoirs sont difficiles?

 

B.9 Possessive adjectives: Introduction

As we learned earlier, all nouns in French have gender, that is, they are masculine or feminine. The form of the definite article (le, la, or les) and/or the form of an adjective describing a noun, are de- termined by the gender and number of the noun. We use le with a masculine noun, la with a feminine noun, and les with a plural noun.

Tip!!!

The hardest part for an English speaker to remember is that it is the gender (and number) of the POSSESSED ITEM that determines the form of the possessive adjective, NOT the gender of the PERSON who possesses it.

French possessive adjectives such as those meaning “my” and “your” follow this same logic.

For example, there are three forms of the French word for “my”: mon, ma, and mes. Mon is used with masculine singular nouns, ma with feminine singular nouns, and mes with plural nouns.

“Your” (if the “you” is an informal one, corresponding to tu) has three similar forms: ton, ta, and tes.

Let us look at some examples.

	Definite article (“the”) +noun	“My” + noun	“Your” + noun
The noun is masc. sing.:	le bureau	mon bureau	ton bureau
	le cahier	mon cahier	ton cahier
	le livre	mon livre	ton livre
The noun is fem. sing.:	la chaise	ma chaise	ta chaise
	la classe	ma classe	ta classe
	la table	ma table	ta table
The noun is plural:	les devoirs	mes devoirs	tes devoirs
	les livres	mes livres	tes livres
	les stylos	mes stylos	tes stylos

B.9.1 Mine! mine! mine!

Say that each of these items are yours, using the possessive adjective mon, ma, or mes. Remember that you can tell the gender and number of the noun by the definite article le, la, or les.

Exemple: le téléphone                                     C’est mon téléphone.

1. le stylo	5. la table
2. la pendule	6. le professeur
3. les papiers	7. les devoirs
4. le sac à dos	8. la chaise

B.9.2 Mine is . . .

Following the model, write a sentence describing each of your possessions. Note that you have to replace the definite article with the possessive adjective and add the correct form of the verb être. Remember that a singular subject will use est and a plural subject will use sont. Also translate each sentence into English.

Exemple: le stylo - bleu                                 Mon stylo est bleu.

1. le professeur - strict
2. les fenêtres - fermées
3. la porte - ouverte
4. le portable - petit
5. les livres - grands
6. le livre - difficile
7. la classe - intéressante
8. les murs - blancs [=white]
9. le pupitre - petit
10. la chaise - confortable

B.9.3 And yours?

You are talking to a friend. First, you tell her something about one of your possessions. Then, you ask about hers. Following the model, ask a simple question, using the possessive adjective ton, ta, or tes.

Exemple: Mon stylo est noir.                                Et ton stylo?

1. Ma chaise est confortable.
2. Mes murs sont beiges.
3. Mon sac à dos est grand.
4. Ma table est petite.
5. Mes devoirs sont excellents.
6. Mon crayon est dans mon sac.
7. Mon portable est cher.
8. Mon livre est fermé.
9. Ma porte est ouverte.
10. Mes fenêtres sont fermées

“Your”: informal and formal

Just as we have two different subject pronouns in French corresponding to the English "you," tu for the informal singular and vous for the formal or plural, we also have two different sets of possessive adjectives meaning "your." If the "you" is informal and singular (tu), then "your" is informal as well. If the "you" is formal or plural (vous), you must use a different set of possessive adjectives that correspond to vous in the same way that ton, ta, and tes correspond to tu. There are two possessive adjectives corresponding to "vous": votre is used with a singular noun and vos with a plural noun.Compare:

	Definite article + noun	"Your" noun (your = informal singular)	"Your" noun (your = formal or plural)
The noun is masc. sing.:	le bureau	ton bureau	votre bureau
	le cahier	ton cahier	votre cahier
	le livre	ton livre	votre livre
The noun is fem. sing.:	la chaise	ta chaise	votre chaise
	la classe	ta classe	votre classe
	la table	ta table	votre table
The noun is plural:	les devoirs	tes devoirs	vos devoirs
	les livres	tes livres	vos livres
	les stylos	tes stylos	vos stylos

B.9.4 Who are you?

Tip!!!

Remember, the choice of ton/ta/tes vs. votre/vos depends on whether the person addressed is tu or vous; the form (e.g. ton vs. ta) depends on whether the item possessed is masculine or feminine, singular or plural.

Read each instruction or question, then check off the appropriate box to indicate whether the "you" addressed in the question is informal singular (tu), formal singular (vous), informal plural (vous), or formal plural (vous).

	informal singular (tu)	formal singular (vous)	informal plural (vous)	formal plural (vous)
1. Marc, tes devoirs sont difficiles?
2. Tout le monde, prenez votre stylo.
3. Madame, est-ce que vos étudiants sont intelligents?
4. Regarde ton livre.
5. Maman et Papa, vos fenêtres sont fermées?

B.9.5 Is this yours?

In this exercise, you will ask a series of people if a particular item belongs to them. The information given in square brackets indicates to whom you are speaking (e.g. [à votre ami] means you are talking to your friend, whom you would address informally as tu.). Fill in the blank with the correct form of the possessive adjective ton/ta/tes or votre/vos. Follow the model; note that "C'est" means "This is" and is used if the item is singular, and "Ce sont" means "These are" and is used if the item is plural. Read the examples and explanation carefully you begin.

Exemple:

a. [à votre ami] C'est ______________stylo?	C'est ton stylo?
b. [à votre professeur] Ce sont ______________stylos?	Ce sont vos stylos?
c. [à votre maman] Ce sont ______________livres?	Ce sont tes livres?
d. [à vos amis] C'est ______________classe?	C'est votre classe?

Explanation of examples:

In a. and c., you are speaking to people whom you address informally as tu (your friend and your mother, respectively). You therefore choose between ton, ta, and tes. In a., stylo is masculine singular (le stylo), so you write ton stylo. In c., livres is plural (les livres), so you write tes livres.

In b., you are speaking to someone whom you address formally, using vous (your teacher). You therefore choose between votre and vos. Since stylos is plural (les stylos), you write vos stylos.

In d., you are speaking to a group; even though they are your friends and thus informal, remember that plural "you" must also use vous in French. You therefore choose between votre and vos. Since classe is singular (la classe), you write votre classe.

Now try the following. Fill in the blank with the correct form of the possessive adjective ton/ta/tes or votre/vos.

1. [à votre amie] C'est ________________portable?
2. [à vos amis] Ce sont ________________devoirs?
3. [à votre professeur] C'est ________________sac, Monsieur?
4. [à l'agent de police] C'est ________________crayon, Madame?
5. [à trois amis] C'est ________________appartement?
6. [au président Hollande] C'est ________________chaise, Monsieur?
7. [à votre ami] Ce sont ________________chaises?
8. [à vos grands-parents] C'est ________________téléphone?

 

B.10 Optional: IPA Help

If you are interested in using the IPA to help you remember how to pronounce French better, you will want to read this section. If you spend a little time becoming familiar with the IPA symbols, your French pronunciation will benefit greatly.

First, you need to remember that phonetic transcription only includes sounds that are pronounced. This is extremely helpful in French, because so many letters are silent.

Second, phonetic transcription can separate syllables with a space. In French, words run together so that the end of a syllable may not be the same as the end of a word. For example, vous êtes in French is pronounced [vu zɛt]. Most English speakers will try to pause between the words, but that is not correct French pronunciation.

Third, you need to figure out what the weird symbols mean. We have already presented the nasal sounds; here are more IPA symbols that do not look like normal letters.

IPA symbol	Sample French word	IPA
Consonants:
[∫]	chute	[∫yt]
[ʒ]	garage	[ga raʒ]
[j]	crayon	[krɛ jɔ̃]
Vowels:
[ɛ]	appelle	[a pɛl]
[ə]	je	[ʒe]
[ɔ]	porte	[pɔrt]
[ø]	paresseux	[pa rɛ sø]
[œ]	professeur	[prɔ fɛ sœr]

Notes:

• Two tricky IPA symbols are [j] and [y]. [j] is the sound that corresponds to the English semiconsonant "y," whereas [y] is a sound that does not exist in English, but corresponds to the letter "u" in French (see section B.1).
• You have perhaps already noticed two pronunciations of the letter "o" and three pronunciations of the letter "e." The rules for pronunciation of these letters are more complicated than you need to know right now, but we hope that the IPA will help you to notice that there are differences in the pronunciation and to pronounce your vocabulary words correctly.
• "o" can be pronounced [o] as in "dos" ([do]) or [ɔ] as in "porte" ([pɔrt]).
• "e" can be pronounced [ə] as in "je" ([ʒə]), [e] as in répétez ([re pe te]), or [ɛ] as in "appelle" ([a pɛl]). In chapter 2, we will discuss the differences between these sounds.
• The letters "eu" are pronounced [ø] or [œ]. These two sounds sound fairly alike to an English speaker, so do not worry if you cannot distinguish them yet. As with all the sounds of French, practice in class and while doing your homework will help you with these over time.

To summarize, in first-year French, you do not need to learn the rules governing the choice of these sounds. However, if you learn the IPA system, it will help you to say French words correctly and to form good pronunciation habits from the very beginning of your study of French. The IPA transcription will be useless to you unless you use it in conjunction with a good model, either recorded or in class, of how these symbols correspond to the sounds of French, so practice your pronunciation often.