Many English nouns ending in -ncy (usually -ancy or –ency) have close French matches ending in -ance or -ence. All French nouns ending in -ence or -ance are feminine. This is a useful pattern and can help with reading and building French words. In many cases, English -ncy and French -nce come from the same…
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…
Future simple pronunciation in French with -er verbs and the silent e The French future simple tense of most -er verbs is built by adding endings to the full infinitive. On paper, the infinitive stays whole. In speech, though, things often tighten and shorten. With many common -er verbs, the last written e of the…
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,…
English uses “differently” in many ways. French does not always use one direct match. The best choice depends on what “differently” means in the sentence. The main French words are: Each has its own use. Différemment Différemment is the most direct match for “differently.” It means “in a different way.” It is common in both…
English uses “depending on” in many ways. It can mean “according to”, “based on”, “if this changes”, or “in relation to”. French does not use one fixed phrase for all these cases. The best choice depends on what follows, and on the kind of link between the two parts of the sentence. The most common…
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…