Illusion of Gaia/fr-en/The Beginning/Grammar

Indefinite and Defnite Articles

Recall that in English "the" is a definite article and "a/an" are indefinite articles. Definite articles mark something spefiic: the book on the floor, the building past the street. Indefinite articles mark something unspefic: give me a pen, there is a dog in the street.French has the same articles, so that part will be easy. What won't be so easy, is that articles are divided into two caterogries, two genders: femine and masculine. All nouns have a gender, and their isn't a neutral gender. While nouns have gender, it isn't based on the object itself. Moustache is feminine, while soutien-gorge (bra) is masculine. Let's look at the four articles:

             Definite         Indefinite

Masculine Le un

Feminie La une

These are used just like in English:

• La fille - The girl
• Le chien - The dog
• Une pomme- an apple
• Un garcon - a boy

Personal Pronouns

In English, we have 7 personal pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, and they. In French, there are 8 pronouns:

               Singular           Plural 

First Person Je (I) Nous (we)

Second Person Tu (you, informal) Vous (you, formal)

Third Person Il, Elle ( He, she) Elles, Ils (They, they)

Je, nous, il and elle work just like they do in English. The difference between tu and vous will be covered in the next section, but is used just like in English. Elles and ils are used slightly differently. THey both mean "they", but elles is used toward a group made up of only woman, while ils is used for a group of at least one man. For instance, a group of 100 men will use ils, while a group of 99 women, and one man will use ils also. Elles would only be used if it was made of completely 100 women.

In English, the personal pronoun I is always capitalized, but in French, je is only capitalized if it is the first word of the sentence, just like with all nouns.

There isn't a pronoun for "it", but il and elle cover this pronoun, because all nouns have a gender that can be classified under these two pronouns. For instance, to say "Here is my car. It is red", you will use the gender of the noun car to say it:

• Voici ma voiture. Elle est rouge". You will use elle because la voiture, car, is feminine. In this sentence, elle is translated as "it". If the object is masculine, you will use il:

• "Voici mon téléphone. Il est noir." Here is my telephone. It is black.

Tu verses Vous

Tu and vous are both translated as you, but there are some key differences. First, tu (and it's verb conjugations) are used when you are talking to one person who is close to you: your friend, your mother, your siblings. Vous is used with people who you want to respect: your teacher, a doctor, or a stranger. Vous is also used as the plural you, regardless if you are talking to a group of friends or a group of teachers.

Tu:

• Used among friends or those close to you
• Used as a singlar pronoun.

Vous:

• Used among people who you want to show respect to
• When it is the plural you, it is used between both those who are close to you, and those who you respect.

The Verb Être - To be

The first verb we will look at is one of the most important verbs in the French language (Really, "To be" is an important verb in any language)

• Je suis
• Tu es
• Il est
• Elle est
• Nous sommes
• Vous êtes
• Ils sont
• Elles sont

Notice how each pronoun has its own verb conjugation. This is true for all verbs, meaning you will have to learn 6 different conjugations for each tense of a verb. However, almost all the verbs follow a simple pattern that is much more regular and easier to do than the verb être.

These work just like in English, so let's try to make some sentences:

• Je suis un élève (I am a student)
• Tu es un artiste (You are an artist)
• Il est très stupide. (He is very stupid)
• Vous êtes françaises. (You all are French)
• Nous sommes américains (We are American)

In the next and last section, we will look at adjectives, and how to make the adjectives agree in gender and amount.