French grammar A1: beginner
The complete guide from A1 to C1: the rules, examples to listen to, the usual mistakes.
At level A1, you learn the grammar of your first exchanges in French. Each point has its own paragraph, with examples, the differences from English and the mistakes English speakers often make.
By the end of level A1, you will be able to:
- greet people, introduce yourself and present people and things (bonjour, je m'appelle, c'est, voici);
- name and describe people and things, with an article and an adjective that agree with the noun;
- talk about food and quantities (du pain, beaucoup de);
- say whose something is (mon, ma, mes);
- talk about your daily habits (the present tense);
- say what you can, want or have to do (pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, il faut);
- ask for something politely (je voudrais) and give instructions (the imperative);
- ask questions and make a sentence negative (est-ce que, ne… pas);
- talk about what has just happened (venir de) and what happened with the passé composé (past simple);
- talk about your plans (aller + infinitive);
- place people, things and events in space and time (à, dans, depuis);
- link your ideas (et, mais, parce que).
-
The verb in the present tense
In this part, you will learn to say who you are, what you do and what is happening now.
-
Presenting and identifying
In this part, you will learn to greet people and to say who you are.
-
Being able, wanting, having to; requests and orders
In this part, you will learn to say what you can, want or have to do.
-
The past and the near future
In this part, you will learn to talk about what has just happened, what happened and your plans.
-
Nouns and articles
In this part, you will learn to name things in French and whether a noun is masculine or feminine.
-
Quantity: the partitive and de
In this part, you will learn to talk about amounts of food and drink and to give a quantity.
-
Adjectives
In this part, you will learn to describe people and things.
-
Pronouns and possessives
In this part, you will learn to talk about people and things without repeating their names.
-
Questions and negation
In this part, you will learn to ask a question and to answer it.
-
Prepositions of place and time
In this part, you will learn to say where something is, where you go and how you travel.
-
Adverbs of place and time
In this part, you will learn to say where something is, when it happens and how often.
-
Linking words
In this part, you will learn to join words and sentences.