French: Start Here

Practise: French flashcards and quizzes (works on any phone).

Core lists: vocabulary by theme · everyday phrases · example sentences

I had seven years of French at school and was still terrible at it, so this is my second attempt, this time with comprehensible input, parallel texts and a lot of patience. This page covers how French sounds, the grammar you need first, the essential phrases, and then a numbered path through my French pages.

1. Alphabet and pronunciation

French uses the Latin alphabet plus accents, and the accents matter:

Mark	Example	What it does
é (aigu)	été summer	closed ay sound
è (grave)	père father	open eh sound; also separates à (to) from a (has)
ê (circonflexe)	forêt forest	often marks a lost s (forest → forêt)
ç (cédille)	français	makes c sound like s before a, o, u
ë / ï (tréma)	Noël, naïf	pronounce the vowel separately

Key sounds:

Final consonants are usually silent: petit (puh-TEE), ils parlent (eel PARL). The exceptions are often C, R, F, L (“CaReFuL”): sac, mer, chef, sel.
Nasal vowels: an/en (enfant), on (bon), in/ain (vin, pain), un (brun).
The French r is made at the back of the throat.
u (tu) is “ee” with rounded lips; ou (tout) is “oo”.
Liaison: a silent final consonant is pronounced before a vowel: les amis (lay-za-MEE).
Stress falls evenly, with a slight lift on the last syllable of a phrase.

2. Core grammar

Every noun has a gender

le livre (m), la maison (f). Learn the article with the noun. See French: Vocabulary for the article cheat sheet and gender clues.

The three key verbs

	être (to be)	avoir (to have)	aller (to go)
je / j'	suis	ai	vais
tu	es	as	vas
il / elle / on	est	a	va
nous	sommes	avons	allons
vous	êtes	avez	allez
ils / elles	sont	ont	vont

A regular -er verb: parler (to speak)

Person	Present	Passé composé	Futur proche
je	parle	j’ai parlé	je vais parler
tu	parles	tu as parlé	tu vas parler
il / elle	parle	il a parlé	il va parler
nous	parlons	nous avons parlé	nous allons parler
vous	parlez	vous avez parlé	vous allez parler
ils / elles	parlent	ils ont parlé	ils vont parler

Je parle, tu parles, il parle and ils parlent all sound the same.

Negation and questions

ne … pas around the verb: Je ne parle pas allemand. I don’t speak German. (In speech the ne often disappears: Je parle pas allemand.)
Questions: rising voice (Tu parles français ?), est-ce que (Est-ce que tu parles français ?), or inversion (Parlez-vous français ?).
Note the space before ? ! : ; in French typography.

Adjectives agree, and usually follow the noun

un livre intéressant, une histoire intéressante, des livres intéressants. A few short common ones come before (BANGS: beauty, age, number, goodness, size): une belle maison, un petit chat, un bon ami.

3. Essential phrases

French	English
Bonjour ! / Bonsoir !	Hello / Good evening
Salut !	Hi! / Bye! (informal)
Comment allez-vous ? / Ça va ?	How are you? (formal / informal)
Ça va bien, merci. Et vous ?	I’m fine, thanks. And you?
Je m’appelle VikiD.	My name is VikiD.
Enchanté(e).	Pleased to meet you.
S’il vous plaît / s’il te plaît	Please (formal / informal)
Merci (beaucoup).	Thank you (very much).
De rien.	You’re welcome.
Excusez-moi. / Pardon.	Excuse me. / Sorry.
Je ne comprends pas.	I don’t understand.
Pouvez-vous parler plus lentement ?	Can you speak more slowly?
Comment dit-on « … » en français ?	How do you say “…” in French?
Au revoir ! / À bientôt !	Goodbye! / See you soon!

4. Vocabulary by theme

French: Vocabulary: the home, furniture, kitchen, the day, plus all the words from my reading cards (animals and nature, describing people, things and feelings, verbs).

The learning path

French: Start Here (you are here)
French: Vocabulary
French: iTalki Community Message
French: Mon Enfance (My Childhood)
French: De Zéro à Un
French: The King's Secret (A Santali Folktale)
French: Foundation's Edge
French: Medical Information Form
French: Everyday Phrases
French: Example Sentences

Texts written in several languages at once are under Multilingual Texts.