Avoir l’air and avoir l’air de are common French expressions used to describe how something or someone seems. They link what is seen or felt to an idea or guess. The first is followed by an adjective or noun. The second is followed by a verb in the infinitive. Literal meaning Word for word, avoir…
French feminine nouns ending in eur are a different group from the masculine ones. They almost never come from English words for people or machines. Instead, they are words for qualities, feelings, or abstract ideas. The English cousins of these words often end in -or (like color, horror) but sometimes in -ness or other endings….
French nouns ending in eur often come from English words ending in er or or. This happens when the words are for jobs, machines, or people who do something. French takes the English word and changes the ending to match its own way of spelling and saying things. The gender is almost always masculine. Here…
English uses the word corner in several ways. It can mean the place where two walls meet, the point where two streets meet, the edge of a room, or a quiet or hidden spot. French does not rely on a single word for all these uses. The most common translations are le coin and l’angle….
English has many words that end in “em,” like problem, system, and poem, and most of them come from French. The French versions end in “ème” instead, so problem becomes le problème, system becomes le système, and poem becomes le poème. The pattern is simple: you just change the “em” at the end to “ème.”…
English has many words that end in “ty,” like liberty, beauty, and certainty, and they almost all come from French. The French versions end in “té” instead, so liberty becomes la liberté, beauty becomes la beauté, and certainty becomes la certitude. The pattern is simple for most of them: you just drop the “y” from…
The french words “deux” (meaning “two”) and “de” (meaning “of”) sound different to a French ear. They are easy to confuse for a learner because they are short and share the letter “d.” But the way you say them is not the same. The difference is in the vowel sound. “Deux” has a sound like…
To talk about the date in French, you need to know numbers, the days of the week, the months of the year, plus a few other terms. Days of the week The french week starts on Monday. Days are not capitalised unless they start a sentence. To say “every Monday” or “on Mondays,” use le….
The french tell time in two ways. The common way for everyday speech. And the official way for timetables, tv guides, and train schedules. the 12-hour clock For ordinary life, the french use the 12-hour clock like english speakers do. But they say things a little differently. To ask the time, you say: To answer,…
The choice between c’est (and its plural ce sont) and il est (and its feminine elle est, plural ils sont and elles sont) is a basic but important part of french grammar. They both translate as “it is,” “he is,” or “she is,” but they are not used in the same way. The general rule…