Easter

French Easter vocubulary
Easter occurs every year somewhere between 22 March and 25 April, and the week immediately preceding it (Sunday to Saturday) is called Holy Week. Here's all the French vocabulary you need to celebrate this Christian period of renewal.

   

En

French preposition enThe preposition en can be summarized as "to or in," but it's a bit more complicated than that.

   

   

   

Euphonic Adjectives

French euphonic adjectivesFrench grammar is sometimes trumped by pronunciation, as in the case of euphonic adjectives. Because French does not like the hiatus created when a word ending with a vowel precedes a word that begins with a vowel or mute h, a few adjectives change their spelling—and thus their pronunciation—for purely euphonic reasons.

   

Euphonic Inversion

French euphonic -t inversionWhen inversion results in a hiatus (two vowel sounds together), the letter -t must be added for euphony, but only under two conditions.

   

   

Falloir

Falloir - to needThe irregular French verb falloir means "to need," "to be necessary," or "to be lacking." Since falloir is an impersonal verb, it has only one conjugation in each tense and mood: the third person singular; for example, the present tense il faut.

   

Feminine Nouns

Feminine French nouns
There's no simple trick to knowing the gender of every single French noun (other than looking in a dictionary), but there are several categories of words that are always or usually feminine.

   

Fête des Mères

Fête des Mères
One Sunday every May or June is Mother’s Day in France, but why? Where does this annual maternal celebration come from? Find out in this bilingual audio article.

   

   

   

FluentU – French Videos

FluentU French videosFrench videoFrench learners are always looking for new sources of French listening practice, and FluentU is one of the best. This subscription site offers videos for all levels of French, enhanced with quizzes, spaced repetition, and other tools to help you practice what you know and learn at your own pace.

   

Forbidden Liaisons

French forbidden liaisonsSome liaisons are forbidden: they aren't—can't be—pronounced even in the most formal French. Sometimes this is to avoid confusion with similar expressions, sometimes it has to do with a sort of respect for names and foreign words, and other times there's no apparent logic to it.