Many French nouns ending in -té match English nouns ending in -ty. Both often come from the same Latin source. The French form usually kept -té, while English often changed it into -ty. Because of this shared history, many pairs look and sound alike and have close meanings. Examples include: This pattern is very common…
Many English adjectives ending in -al have close French matches ending in -al or -el. This is a useful pattern because both languages inherited many of these words from Latin. In many cases, the English and French forms are almost the same, with only small spelling shifts. Examples such as normal → normal and natural…
French plural articles work in much the same way as singular articles, but with fewer forms. The plural definite article has one form for both masculine and feminine nouns. The plural indefinite article also has one form for both genders. Plural articles often cause trouble for English speakers because French uses them in places where…
French has two main kinds of singular articles. The indefinite article points to one thing that is not yet known, not yet named, or not important to identify. The definite article points to one thing that is known, specific, already mentioned, unique, or understood from the setting. Singular articles change for gender, and in some…
French has two large families of verbs that often cause trouble for learners: verbs built on mener and verbs built on porter. They often look alike because they take the same prefixes such as ap-, em-, ra-, and re-. Yet the basic split is simple. Verbs based on mener usually mean to lead, guide, take,…
Most French verbs use the ending -ez with vous in the present tense. Examples: Yet three very common verbs do not follow this pattern: These forms end in -tes instead of -ez. This is not a random quirk of modern French. These forms are very old. They come from Latin forms that already contained a…
The French word même has several jobs. It can be an adjective, an adverb, or part of a compound word. Its core ideas are “same,” “even,” and “self.” Meaning 1: same (adjective) As an adjective, même agrees with the noun it describes. It changes to mêmes in the plural. Nous avons la même voiture.“We have…
The French phrase avoir envie de means “to want” or “to feel like.” It is common in everyday speech. You use it to express a wish, a need, or a longing for something. Literal meaning The word envie alone means “envy.” But in avoir envie de, the sense shifts. Literally, it breaks down as “to…
The French word aussi means “also,” “too,” “as,” or “so.” It is an adverb. Its meaning changes depending on context and sentence position. Meaning 1: also or too In this sense, aussi adds information. It shows that something applies to another person or thing. Je suis fatigué. Paul aussi.“I am tired. Paul too.” Il aime…
There are several French words for “people,” including personne, gens, peuple, monde, âme, populations, public and individu. personne Personne means a single person. It is feminine even for a man. It often follows une (a) or la (the). It can be used with an adjective after it. Examples: Personne alone can also mean “nobody,” but…