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Lawless French » Frequently Asked Questions » Lessons by Level

French grammarA1 Grammar

Beginning French Lessons

French for beginners Self-study checklist:
 Lawless French for Beginners

Grammar Lessons

À

À - French prepositionThe French preposition à is generally summarized as "to, at, or in," but it has quite a few more meanings and uses than that.
Grammar Lessons

Adjectives

French adjectivesOne of the eight parts of speech, adjectives are a type of modifier; that is, they modify or describe nouns in a certain way, letting you know the size, shape, weight, color, nationality, or any of a myriad other possible qualities of nouns.
Grammar Lessons

Adverbs

French adverbsAn adverb is an invariable word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs can provide additional information about manner, quantity, frequency, time, or place - they explain when, how, where, how often, or to what degree something is done.
Grammar Lessons

Aller – Near Future

French near futureYou can explain what will happen in the near future with the construction aller + infinitive; for example, L'avion va atterrir ici - "The plane is going to land here."
Grammar Lessons

Aller – to go

Aller - to go - French verbAller is one of the most common and useful French verbs and has irregular conjugations in most tenses and moods. Aller literally means "to go" and is required to create the near future.
Grammar Lessons

Answering Questions

French questionsIn English, you can only answer yes / no questions with variations on the themes of yes, no, and I don't know. French, however, has another possibility: yes in response to no.
Grammar Lessons

Arriver – to arrive, happen

Arrive - to arrive, to happenThe French verb arriver usually means "to arrive" or "to happen." It's a regular -er verb that requires être as its auxiliary verb in compound tenses/moods.
Grammar Lessons

Articles – le, la, les, un, une, des, du, de la

Comparison of French articlesAn article is a word that modifies a noun in a particular way, by stating whether the noun is specific, unspecific, or partial. There are three types of French articles, and they all agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.
Grammar Lessons

Avec

Avec - French prepositionThe preposition avec is used similarly to its English equivalent "with," but with a few differences.
Grammar Lessons

Avoir – to have

Avoir - to have - French verbAvoir is one of the two most important French verbs and has irregular conjugations in just about every tense and mood. Avoir literally means "to have" but also serves an an auxiliary verb and is found in many idiomatic expressions.
Expressions

C’est

C'est un garçon !
C'est, literally "this is," is the required contraction of ce + est. It's one of the most important French expressions with a few possible meanings, including that is, it is, and he is.
Grammar Lessons

Chercher – to look for

Chercher - French verbThe regular -er French verb chercher generally means "to look for" something or "to try to" do something.
Grammar Lessons

Contractions

French contractionsContractions occur when two words are combined into one, sometimes with a distinctly different spelling. In English, contractions like "won't" are optional and indicate informality. In French, however, contractions are required, regardless of the register you're speaking or writing in.
Grammar Lessons

Dans

Dans - French prepositionThe preposition dans usually means "in," but as always there are exceptions. Dans can't be followed directly by a noun - it's always followed by some kind of determiner, such as an article or possessive adjective.
Grammar Lessons

Dates

French datesIf you ever write letters, make plans, or request appointments, this lesson will be invaluable. There are a few little formulas to memorize in French, but otherwise, dates are very easy to talk about.
Grammar Lessons

De

French preposition deThe French preposition de is generally summarized as "of, from, or about," but it has quite a few more meanings and uses than that.
Grammar Lessons

Definite Article – le, la, l’, les

French definite articleThe French definite articles (le, la, l', les) indicate either a particular noun or, contrarily, the general sense of a noun. They're used similarly to their English counterpart "the," but there are many instances where a definite article is required in French but not English.
Grammar Lessons

Devoir – Pouvoir – Vouloir Conjugation Pattern

French verb conjugationsIn the present tense, the irregular -ir verbs devoir (must), pouvoir (can), and vouloir (want) are conjugated according to a similar pattern.
Grammar Lessons

Dire – Écrire – Lire Conjugation Pattern

French verb conjugationsIn the present tense, the irregular -re verbs dire (to say, tell), écrire (to write), and lire (to read) are conjugated mostly according to the same pattern.
Grammar Lessons

Dire – to say, to tell

Dire - French verbDire is one of the most common and useful French verbs and has irregular conjugations. It literally means "to say" or "to tell," and is also found in many idiomatic expressions.
Grammar Lessons

Dormir – Partir – Sortir Conjugation Pattern

French verb conjugationsIn the present tense, the irregular -ir verbs dormir (to sleep), partir (to leave), and sortir (to go out) are conjugated according to the same pattern.
Expressions

Est-ce que

Est-ce qu'il l'aime?
Is it a question or an expression? Learn all about the essential French phrase est-ce que.
Grammar Lessons

Être – to be

Être - to beÊtre is one of the two most important French verbs. It literally means "to be," but also serves as an auxiliary verb and is the key to the passive voice.
Expressions

Être en train de

Le train est en train de cracher une fumée noire
Your French is getting better as you learn about the French expression être en train de.
Grammar Lessons

Faire – to do, to make

Faire - to do, to makeOne of the most common and useful French verbs, faire literally means "to do" or "to make" but it's also found in many idiomatic expressions and is the key to the causative construction.
Grammar Lessons

Grammar Glossary

French grammarNeed a refresher on grammar basics like parts of speech and the various verb elements? Check out this French grammar glossary for short explanations of all the essential French grammar terms, from adjectives to verb voice.
Expressions

Il y a

Il y a
There are few expressions more useful than il y a, the French equivalent of "there is/are" and "ago."
Grammar Lessons

Indefinite Article – un, une, des

French indefinite articlesThe aptly named indefinite article (un, une, des) indicates an unspecific or unidentified countable noun.
Grammar Lessons

Introduction to Verb Conjugation

French verb conjugationWhen you start learning French, it's not just French vocabulary you have to get used to - you're also introduced to a whole new world of grammatical terms. For many students, one of the most daunting of these is verb conjugations. Just what is a verb conjugation and what does it mean to conjugate a verb?
Grammar Lessons

Introduction to Verbs

French verbsVerbs are action words that express the action or state of being of a sentence. French verbs have five to six different conjugations for each tense and mood.
Expressions

N’est-ce pas

N'est-ce pas
You want to learn about the French expression n'est-ce pas, don't you?
Grammar Lessons

Negative Adverbs

French negative adverbsNegative adverbs turn affirmative statements and questions into negative statements and questions. The most common English negative adverb is the word "not," but French is a little more complicated - quelle surprise ! ;-)
Grammar Lessons

Nouns

French nounsOne of the eight parts of speech, a noun is commonly defined as "a person, place, or thing." If that seems vague, that's because it is.
Grammar Lessons

Partitive Article – du, de la, de l’, des

French partitive articlesThe partitive article (du, de la, de l', des) refers to an unspecified quantity of food, liquid, or some other uncountable noun. English has no equivalent article - the partitive is usually translated by the adjectives "some" or "any," or may be left out entirely.
Grammar Lessons

Prepositions

French prepositionsPrepositions are short but essential words which are placed after a verb, noun, or adjective in order to indicate a relationship between that word and the noun or pronoun that follows.
Grammar Lessons

Present Tense

French present tenseThe French present tense, also known as the present indicative, is fairly similar to the English simple present, but there are some key differences.
Grammar Lessons

Progress with Lawless French

Progress with Lawless FrenchProgress with Lawless French is an adaptive, test-driven French learning system that will help you learn more efficiently with personalized kwizzes, writing challenges, and dictées.
Grammar Lessons

PwLF Super Study Lists

Progress with Lawless FrenchTake your Progress with Lawless French account to the next level with these super study lists that bring together all the lessons on a particular grammar topic.
Grammar Lessons

Questions

French questionsKnowing how to ask questions is essential for making plans, shopping, traveling, getting to know people, and any other activity that requires obtaining information. There are two different types of questions, and different ways to ask each type.
Grammar Lessons

Reflexive Pronouns

French reflexive pronounsReflexive pronouns reiterate the subject, which may seem redundant, but in fact serves an important purpose: it indicates that the subject of the verb is performing that action on itself.
Grammar Lessons

Regular -er Verbs

Regular -er French verb conjugationsThere are several thousand verbs that end in -er, the largest category of regular French verbs. To conjugate them, remove the infinitive ending and then add the appropriate -er verb ending.
Grammar Lessons

Regular -ier Verbs

French -ier verbsFrench verbs that end in -ier are regular -er verbs, but that -i- in front of the infinitive ending can be a little confusing, so here's a closer look.
Grammar Lessons

Regular -ir Verbs

Regular -ir French verb conjugationsThere are several hundred regular French verbs that end in -ir. To conjugate them, remove the infinitive ending and then add the appropriate verb ending.
Grammar Lessons

Regular -re Verbs

Regular -re French verb conjugationsThere are several dozen regular French verbs that end in -re. To conjugate them, remove the infinitive ending and then add the appropriate verb ending.
Grammar Lessons

Regular Feminine and Plural Nouns

Feminine and plural French nounsLike English nouns, most French nouns have singular and plural forms. In addition, French nouns referring to people and animals often have different masculine and feminine forms, which means that these nouns can have up to four forms.
Grammar Lessons

Sans

Sans - French prepositionThe preposition sans is used similarly to its English equivalent "without," but not without a few differences.
Grammar Lessons

Spelling Change Verbs -cer -ger

French spelling change verbsFrench verbs that end in -cer or -ger require a small spelling change in certain conjugations. For the most part, these verbs are conjugated just like regular -er verbs, other than a little problem in some conjugations that must be corrected for reasons of pronunciation. It's easy enough to do, once you understand why and how.
Grammar Lessons

Stem-Changing Verbs -e_er -é_er -yer

French stem changing verbsStem-changing verbs, also known as "shoe verbs" or "boot verbs," take the same conjugation endings as regular -er verbs, but have two different verb stems depending on the grammatical person the verb is conjugated for.
Grammar Lessons

Subject Pronouns

French subject pronounsSubject pronouns indicate who or what is performing the action of a verb. French has a total of six grammatical persons, each of which has at least one subject pronoun.
Grammar Lessons

Telling Time

Telling time in FrenchKnowing how to tell time is essential for traveling, meeting up with friends, making appointments, and getting to work or school on time. Once you learn these formulas, you'll never have an excuse to be late again!
Grammar Lessons

Tu vs Vous

Tu vs vousFrench videoOne of the tricky aspects of French is that there are two different words for you, tu and vous, and very complicated rules about when to use which one. Choosing the right subject pronoun is important not just from a grammatical point of view, but also for reasons of etiquette. You can read more about that in my lesson, or watch this video for some general guidelines to help you decide which pronoun to use with different people.
Grammar Lessons

Tu vs Vous – Subject Pronouns

Tu vs vousThe distinction between tu and vous is one of the most confounding aspects of French, and one of the most basic. The influence it has on verb conjugations, adjectives, and pronouns is considerable, but more than that, the choice of tu or vous is a matter of etiquette.
Grammar Lessons

Venir – to come

Venir - to come - French verbVenir is one of the most common and useful French verbs and has irregular conjugations in most tenses and moods. Venir literally means "to come" and is used to create the recent past.
Grammar Lessons

Venir de – Recent Past

French recent pastYou can explain what happened in the recent past with the construction venir de + infinitive; for example, Je viens de terminer ce puzzle - "I (have) just finished this puzzle."

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Parts of Speech

Adjectives

Articles

Nouns

Pronouns

 

Adverbs

Conjunctions

Prepositions

Verbs

French Verbs

Most common verbs

aller
avoir
croire
devoir
dire
être
faire
falloir
manquer
pouvoir
savoir
tenir
vivre
voir
vouloir

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  • Être (to be) - Verb Tables
  • French for Beginners
  • Aller (to go) - Verb Tables
  • Avoir (to have) - Verb Tables
  • Telling Time
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