French Classroom

Teacher: [herrschneemann]

Hello everyone, I'm [herrschneemann] and I'm the new French teacher. I live in Québec, which is a province of Canada, and I've spoken French since I was born. You can be sure then that what is written here is authentic, unless it is my English that fails, but I'm pretty confident in that too.

Pronounciation is a big issue in learning other languages. For that, I might write up the phonetic alphabet, but in the meantime I guess the best would be for you to watch French movies or listen to French records.

As I work on this classroom, I'll try to build an ever growing French word bank with their English translations.
The words are in alphabetical order of their English form, to make it easier for you to use it.

If there is a star (*) next to the French translation, then it means there is no litteral translation possible, so I gave its closest equivalent.

Lessons:

French Classroom: Nouns
French Classroom: Adjectives
French Classroom: Verbs
French Classroom: Miscellaneous




Notes:

- In French, nouns can be either feminin or masculin. Some nouns have both versions (ex: un chat (m), une chatte (f): both mean a cat, but the first is a male cat and the second is a female cat)
- In French, you do no pronounce the "s" at the end of the word when you pluralize it. (ex: des chats is pronounced sha instead of sha's)




Lesson 1: Introductions

Hello, what is your name? - Bonjour, quel est ton nom?
Hello, my name is Fred. - Bonjour, mon nom est Fred.

Hi, how are you? -  Salut, comment vas-tu?
I'm fine, thank you, and you? - Je vais bien, merci, et toi?
I'm fine. - Je vais bien.

Where do you live? - Où habites-tu?
I live in Montreal. - J'habite à Montréal.

How old are you? - Quel âge as-tu?
I'm twenty one years old. - J'ai vingt-et-un ans.




Lesson 2: Numbers

0=zéro 1=un 2=deux 3=trois 4=quatre 5=cinq 6=six 7=sept 8=huit 9=neuf 10=dix
11=onze 12=douze 13=treize 14=quatorze 15=quinze 16=seize 17=dix-sept 18=dix-huit 19=dix neuf

20 = vingt
30 = trente
40 = quarante
50 = cinquante
60 = soixante
70 = soixante-dix
80 = quatre-vingts
90 = quatre-vingt-dix
100 = cent
1 000 = mille
1 000 000 = million
1 000 000 000 = milliard

- To write numbers between 19 and 100, you take the first number in the colum above, add a dash (-) and write the second number as shown above. So 34 would be trente-quatre, 65 would be soixante-cinq.
- To write numbers between 99 and 1 000, write the first number as shown in the first section, add a space, add cent and then add the two follwing numbers as per the previous rule. So 253 would be deux cent cinquante-trois and 812 would be huit cent douze.
This rule is pretty much the same for mille, million, and milliard.

*For numbers ending with 1, you must replace the dash (-) with et between the two numbers. So 31 would be trente et un and 641 would be six cent quarante et un.
*The numbers following 70 and 90 don't quite follow rule 1. Instead of taking the first numbers they continue as if in the 10s. So 71 is soixante-onze, 72 is soixante-douze, 93 is quatre-vingt-treize, and 94 is quatre-vingt-quatorze.
*The numbers 20 and 100, when they are not followed by an adjectif numérique(numeral adjective), and when they are multiplied, they finish with an "s". So 200 is deux cents, 80 is quatre-vingts, but 283 is deux cent quatre-vingt-trois because both are followed by an adjectif numérique
* Million and milliard are not numeral adjectives, they are nouns, which mean they follow normal noun rules and they do not count for the previous rule. So 200 000 000 is deux cents millions. Both million and cent take an "s" because cent is multiplied and isn't followed by a numeral adjective, and it's 200 millions so million takes an "s", just like 200 cows gives "cow" an "s".

Note: Big numbers in French are seperated by spaces instead of commas, so it's 12 345 678 instead of 12,345,678.




Lesson 3: Time

What time is it? - Quelle heure est-il?
It's three o'clock. - Il est trois heure.

Giving time is really easy once you know the numbers. General rule is you say the first number + heure + et + the second number. So 4:25 would be quatre heure et vingt-cinq.

Now comes all the variations:
- If you want, you can add the word minute at the end. 2:55 -> deux heure cinquante-cinq minute
- If you want to say "and a half" for 30, you add demie after the et instead of the number. 1:30 -> une heure et demie
- In French you can also say "and a quarter" (quart) or "and three quarters" (trois quarts), which follows the same idea as the rule above. 5:45 -> cinq heure et trois quarts
- You can also give time negatively, kind of like 5 to 3, but we say it 3 minus 5. To say it, replace everything after heure and add instead moins something. 3:55 -> quatre heure moins cinq
- Noon is midi and midnight is minuit
- As a variation to the a.m. p.m. format, in French you can keep counting the hours beyond 12. This means that 2p.m. can turn into 14h, 8p.m. into 20h. The way you say it is exactly the same though. So 8:20 p.m. can as easily be huit heure et vingt as vingt heure et vingt.




Lesson 4: Present Tense: First Group Verbs

I figured I might as well start some real grammar lessons, so here's an easy one to begin with: How to conjugate First Group verbs in present tense.

All verbs that finish in er except aller (to go) are in the First Group.
To conjugate them, replace the er with the part in bold under in the example.

For the example, I will use the verb chanter (to sing).

Je chante
Tu chantes
Il chante
Nous chantons
Vous chantez
Ils chantent

Adding Present tense for the verbs avoir et être (to have and to be) because they are important verbs in French.

Avoir (To Have)
J'ai
Tu as
Il a
Nous avons
Vous avez
Ils ont

Être (To Be)
Je suis
Tu es
Il est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils sont




Lesson 5: Basic Sentence Structure

A very basic sentence structure in French is: Sujet, Verbe, Complément. Sujet is the subject of the verb, i.e. whoever's doing the action. Verbe is the action itself, and Complément could be various things that range from descriptive words to time and places.

Here are a few examples using only the verb group and verbs covered above:

Je mange une pomme.
I am eating an apple.
Sujet: Je
Verbe: mange
Complément: une pomme

Il est grand.
He is tall.
Sujet: Il
Verbe: est
Complément: grand

Now you can try some of your own, using the still very small word bank up above.





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