FRENCH FOR BEGINNERS

Key takeaways:

1 2 3 4 5 6

Introduce yourself Essential information

Greetings
Common words & phrases How to ask questions Key verbs & conjugations

About French language

French is a Romance language that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. French is spoken officially in 33 countries. It has 110 million native speakers.

Qubec

The presence (highlighted in blue color) of French language geographically.

1. Les prsentations

Krishna : Hello (Bonjour!) You : Hello (Bonjour!) Krishna : How are you doing (Comment allez-vous)? You : I am fine, thanks and you (Je vais bien, merci et vous)? Krishna : Very good (Trs bien).

Krishna : What is your name (Comment vous appellez-vous)? You : My name is Pawan and you (Je mappelle Pawan, et vous)? Krishna : My name is Krishna (Je mappelle Krishna).
Krishna : What is your profession (Quelle est votre profession)? You : I am an engineer and you (Je suis ingnieur, et vous)?. Krishna : I am a teacher (Je suis professeur). Krishna : Where do you live (O habitez-vous)? You : I live in Bangalore (Jhabite Bangalore). Krishna : Nice meeting you (enchant). You : Nice meeting you too (enchant). Krishna : Bye (Salut). You : Bye (Salut).

2. Lessentiel
(Lalphabet, les accents & les nombres)

Lalphabet
The French alphabet has the same 26 letters as the English alphabet, but they are pronounced differently.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M - ah - beh - ceh - deh - yeh (not 100% correct) - eff - gshey - aash -e - gshi - ka - ell - emm N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z - enn -o - peh - Kooh (not 100% correct) - err - ess - teh - yuu - veh - doobla veh - iks - igreg - zeydh

Les accents
Grave (`) : It serves to distinguish between words that would otherwise be homographs and can be on an a, e or u. e.g., o & ou Acute () : At the beginning of a word, it often indicates that an S used to follow that vowel and can only be on an e. e.g., tudiant

Circonflexe () : It indicates that an S used to follow that vowel. It also serves to distinguish between homographs and can be on an a, e, i, o, or u.
e.g., fort

Trma () : It is used when two vowels are next to each other and both must be pronounced and can be on an e, i, or u.
e.g., nol

Cdille (): It changes a hard sound (like K) into a soft C sound (like S) and can only be on an c. e.g., garon

Les nombres
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 - zro - un - deux - trois - quatre - cinq - six - sept - huit - neuf - dix 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 - onze - douze - treize - quatorze - quinze - seize - dix-sept - dix-huit - dix-neuf - vingt

Les nombres (suite)

21 22 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 - vingt et un - vingt-deux - trente - quarante - cinquante - soixante - soixante-dix - quatre vingts - quatre-vingt-dix - cent 121 501 1.000 10.000 100.000 1.000.000 1.000.000.000 - cent vingt et un - cinq cents un - mille - dix-milles - cent milles - un million - un milliard

The symbol - is called trait dunion.

3. Les salutations

Welcome Good Morning Good Evening Good Night Have a nice day Have a good meal Have a nice weekend Have a good vacation Happy new year Happy birth day Happy Christmas Have a good trip

- Bienvenue - Bonjour - Bonsoir - Bonne nuit - Bonne journe - Bon apptit - Bonne fin de semaine - Bonnes vacance - Bonne anne - Bon anniversaire! - Joyeux nol - Bon voyage

4. Common words & phrases

Common words Hi/Hello Bye Thanks You are welcome Please Sorry Excuse me Yes No Ok/Alright Good Bad Salut Au revior merci de rien sil vous plat dsol Excusez-moi oui non daccord bien mal

Common phrases
Can you help me? Pouvez-vous maider? I have a question Jai une question. Do you speak English? Parlez-vous anglais? I speak a little French Je parle un peu franais. I am learning French Japprends le franais. Can you speak slowly? - Pouvez-vous parler lentement? Repeat, please? Rept, sil vous plat? Good Luck! - Bonne chance! Congratulations Flicitations! Good job Bravo!

Negative sentences
Ne pas To make a sentence or question negative, place ne in front of the conjugated verb and pas after it. Ne... pas translates roughly as "not." I dont understand Je ne comprends pas. I dont know Je ne sais pas. I dont speak French Je ne parle pas les franais.

5. Les questions

Questioning words (5W & 1H):

What Where When Who Why How e.g., What is your name? Quel est votre nom? Where are you going? O est-ce que tu vas? When did you leave? Quand es-tu parti? Who is it? Qui est-ce? Why is he angry? Pourquoi est-il en colre? How are you doing? Comment a va? Note: the above sentences are not to remember, just for example. Quoi O Quand Qui Pourquoi Comment

Questioning Styles:
Est ce que (Is it that + conjugated verb) Can be used at the beginning of any sentence to convert it is as a question eg: Est ce que vous tes en vacances? literal translation: Is it that you are on vacation? actual meaning: Are you on vacation? Inversion (Verb + hyphen + pronoun) eg: Joues-tu au tennis? actual meaning: Do you play tennis? Pitch (raise pitch of your voice) e.g., Vous habitez Bangalore? actual meaning: You live in Bangalore? Nest ce pas (Isnt it/right?) eg: Tu aimes les fleurs, nest ce pas? actual meaning: You like flowers, isnt it?

Key verbs & conjugations

To be To have To go To be able to
To speak To eat

tre avoir aller pouvior

parler manger

Verb conjugations Verb: To be (tre) irregular - auxillary I am You are He/she is We are You are(plural) They are je suis tu es il/elle est nous sommes vous tes ils/elles sont

e.g., I am tired - Je suis fatigu

Verb: To have (avoir) irregular - auxillary

I have You have He/she has We have You have They have jai tu as il/elle a nous avons vous avez ils/elles ont

e.g., You have lot of work - Vous-avez beaucoup de travail.

Verb: To go (aller) irregular

I go You go He/she goes We go You go They go je vais tu vas il/elle va nous allons vous allez ils/elles vont

Eg: We are going to office Nous allons beauro.

Verb: To be able to (pouvoir) irregular I can You can He/She can We can You can They can je peux tu peux il/elle peut nous pouvons vous pouvez ils/elles peuvent

Eg: You have two books - Tu as deux livres

Verb: To speak (parler) regular ending with er I speak You speak He/she speaks We speak You speak They speak je parle tu parles il/elle parle nous parlons vous parlez ils/elles parlent

Eg: I speak Je parle Verb: To eat (manger) slightly irregular - ending with er I eat You eat He/she eats We eat You eat They eat je mange tu manges il/elle mange nous mangeons vous mangez ils/elles mangent

Eg: I eat Je mange

Tips on pronunciation:
The last letter of any word is mostly not pronounced when it is a consonant. eg: Salut Note: There are many exception also. eg: mal, avec You need to make connections between the words, especially when you have a word ending with a consonant and the next word starting with a vowel. eg: Comment allez-vous? You need to make connections between the words, especially the last letter of the first word is a vowel and the first letter of the next word is vowel or a mute h, then the first vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. eg: Le homme => Lhomme, La Alphabet => Lalphabet Note: There are exceptions, when you have an accent on the first vowel or when you are conjugating a verb which starts with vowel. eg: O habitez-vous, tu habites When there is a vowel followed by a letter s or x, s or x is pronounced as z. eg: Execusez-moi, vous avez Gender rule: The nouns and adjectives will change based on the gender. when it is a feminine word you need add an extra e at the end of the word. eg: ami m amie- f

Learning resources:
Books:
Vocabulaire simple et practique pour etudier anglais by harrap's French for dummies

Institutions: Alliance Franaise (All the major cities in INDIA & abroad) (http://www.afindia.org/) URLs: http://french.about.com/ http://livemocha.com/ http://www.ouinolanguages.com/French/index.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/guide/ http://www.duolingo.com

QUESTIONS?

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