A simple video about the French alphabet and its pronunciation.

• The French alphabet has the same 26 letters as the English alphabet, but of course most are pronounced differently.
• Some letters have the exact same pronunciation as in English : F, L, M, N, O
• The English “ee” letters (B, C, D, P, T, V) become “ay” in French. Bee become Bay, Cee becomes Cay, etc.
• The letter “E” in French is pronounced “Eh”, and the letter “I” is pronounced “ee”.
• The letter G and J can be a little confusing as well :

1. G, pronounced “Gee” in English, is pronounced “Jay” in French.
2. J, pronounced “Jay” in English, is pronounced “Gee” in French.

• The French Q and U can be difficult to pronounce, but no worries, we will explain how to get there !

• The letter R is pretty tricky to pronounce, and often students just wonder how to say it. Try to follow our instructions and practice daily and you'll get it.

One of the things French has and English has not are accents. Accents are use with certain letters only and often affects the way they are pronounced.

There are four French accents for vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and one accent for a consonant (C).

• The accent aigu ´ (acute accent) can only be used on the letter “e”.
• The accent grave ` (grave accent) can be found on the letters “a”, “e”, and “u”.
• The accent circonflexe ˆ (circumflex) can be on the letters “a”, “e”, “i”, “o” and “u”.
• The accent tréma ¨ (dieresis) can be on the letters “e”, “i”, and “u”.
• The cédille ¸ (cedilla) is found only on the letter “c”.

Stressing in French : Unlike in English, their is not much stressing to worry about when speaking French. The one main rule you have to remember if for the general intonation of your sentences : Intonation refers to the pitch of someone's voice. Basically your intonation goes down for normal sentences and it goes up for questions.

In this video we are going to talk about some of the important aspects of French pronunciation. It may look difficult at first, but you don’t have to worry too much : this lesson is only meant to introduce these rules to you, and the more you learn, listen to and speak French, the more natural these rules will become.

Silent letters : in French, the letters B, C, F, K, L, Q, and R are usually pronounced at the end of a word. The other French consonants are usually silent at the end of a word, with some exceptions which are mostly words borrowed from other languages.

Silent E & Dropped E (Elision) : in spoken French, the letter E may sometimes be silent or even disappear.

Liaison : a liaison is the pronunciation of a word’s final consonant when it immediately precedes a following vowel sound.

Double consonants : they change the sound of the letter E to É.

The letter H is usually silent in French.

Finally ! After the mind wrecking but inevitable videos about grammar, here is your first “real” lesson : the numbers.

Check out our detailed explanation and master the French numbers in no time. You will see that it is a piece of cake... for most.

You will come to realise that French people have funny ways to say 70 (soixante-dix = 60 + 10), 80 (quatre-vingts = 4 x 20) and 90 (quatre-vingt-dix = 4 x 20 + 10).

Although foreigners know that the basic greeting in French is “bonjour”, there is much more her to be told !

Formal vs Informal : Even though French shares a lot with English, there are a few main differences. One of these differences is the fact that in French, the is a formal and informal way to address someone, and this will show as well in the way you greet the person.

Faire la bise or serrer la main ? If you know the person or are being introduced, you're also expected to either faire la bise (kiss cheeks) or serrer la main (shake hands). When arriving at work, this means you should go around the room and individually greet each person.

When meeting French speakers, you need to know how to introduce yourself and what to say when you are introduced. Here are some useful expressions for you to memorise.

• Comment vous vous appelez ? What's your name ? (formal)
• Comment tu t'appelles ? What's your name ? (informal)

• Je m’appelle... My name is…
• Je suis… I am...
• Mon prénom est… My (first) name is...

• Enchanté / Enchantée. It's nice to meet you.

Age : Now that you know the numbers by earth, telling your age is going to be a breath !

You simply need to say “J’ai” your age “ans”. It means “I am” your age “years old”.

Nationality : Je suis français. I am French.

In this video you are going to learn how to talk about your job as well as your hobbies. First, let’s start with the most important verb when it comes to expressing feelings, the verb AIMER (to like / love).

1. J’aime - I like
2. Tu aimes - You like
3. Il/Elle aime - He/she likes
4. Example : J'aime le tennis. I like tennis.

Talking about your job

If someone asks you “Tu fais quoi ?”, literally “What do you do ?”, the person is most likely asking about your profession. The answer is pretty simple, you can say :

Similarly to English, to be and to have are the 2 most used verbs in French.

To be, “être” in French.

• Je suis - I am
• Tu es - You are
• Il / Elle est - He / she is
• Nous sommes - We are
• Vous êtes - You are
• Ils / Elles sont - They are

To have, “avoir” in French.

• J’ai - I have
• Tu as - You have
• Il / Elle a - He / she has
• Nous avons - We have
• Vous avez - You have
• Ils / Elles ont - They have

You might have heard that French conjugation was terribly complicated… Well, you were not totally wrong. However, while surely more complicated than English conjugation, French conjugation has its rules, and it is not as difficult to understand than it seems.

What is conjugation ?

To conjugate a verb is write it accordingly to the person (I, he, you, we, my mother, the teacher…) and the tense (to make it simple, present, future and past).

Structure of a verb : verbs have a RADICAL (the stem) and a TERMINAISON (the ending). The helpful part is that for regular verbs, the RADICAL will not change, only the TERMINAISON will. For example, reguler verbs ending in -ER will follow this pattern :

• Je donne
• Tu donnes
• Il / Elle donne
• Nous donnons
• Vous donnez
• Ils / Elles donnent

FAIRE - TO DO

ALLER - TO GO

POUVOIR - TO BE ABLE TO (commonly translated by CAN)

VOULOIR - TO WANT

One of the beauties of the French, genders ! Similarly to using IL (he) and ELLE (she) when talking about a man or a woman, each object in French is either male or female.

There is no way to guess the gender of a word, see yourself : the word moustache is feminine, the word lipstick is masculine !!!

The best and maybe only way to easily remember the gender of a word is, when learning it for the first time, to remember the article with it “UN” (masculine) or “UNE” (feminine). This will make your brain memorise not only the word but its gender as well.

Besides having a gender, words have a “number”, meaning that they can be singular or plural and for some exception invariable. This is exactly the same as in English, you would say “a man” but “men”, and you would say “one red car” but “two red cars”.

In both English & French, the most common way to obtain the plural form of a word is by adding an S to its singular :

This is my only friend > These are my only friends.

However, in both languages, not all words have their plural ending with a S.

English examples : man > men, child > children, baby > babies

In French, simply follows these 3 simple rules :

The French definite article corresponds to "the" in English. There are four forms of the French definite article :

• le masculine singular
• la feminine singular
• l' m or f in front of a vowel or some words starting with H
• les m or f plural

Which definite article to use depends on three things: the noun's gender, number, and first letter:

• If the noun is plural, use les
• If it's a singular noun starting with a vowel or h, use l'
• If it's singular and starts with a consonant or h aspiré, use le for a masculine noun and la for a feminine noun

These prepositions contract with the definite articles le and les :

• à + le = au
• à + les = aux
• de + le = du
• de + les = des

The subject of a verb, a sentence, is the person or thing which performs the action of that verb. Subject pronouns simply replace this person or thing.

The full list of pronoms sujets (subject pronouns) is : JE, TU, IL, ELLE, ON, NOUS, VOUS, ILS, ELLES

Stressed pronouns are used to emphasise a noun or pronoun that refers to a person.

The full list of pronoms toniques (stressed pronouns) is : MOI, TOI, LUI, ELLE, NOUS, VOUS, EUX, ELLES

• Qui veut manger ? Moi !
• Who wants to eat ? Me !

Now, here is something easy ! Telling time in French is just a matter of knowing the French numbers and a few formulas and rules.

Remember, French use the 24-hour system.

Quelle heure est-il ? What time is it ?

Il est une heure. It is 1 o'clock.

Il est deux heures de l'après-midi. It is 2 in the afternoon.

Il est six heures du matin. It is 6 in the morning.

Il est huit heures du soir. It is 8 in the evening.

Il est midi. It is 12 noon.

Il est minuit. It is 12 midnight.

Il est cinq heures et quart. It is a quarter past 5.

Il est sept heures et demie. It is half past seven.

Il est dix heures moins le quart. It is a quarter to ten.

Deciding which French preposition to use with countries, cities, and other geographical names can be somewhat confusing, at least until now! This lesson will explain which prepositions to use and why.

As a general guideline, geographical names which end in e are feminine, while those that end in any other letter are masculine.

Masculine country

• Je vais au Japon - I go to Japan
• Je suis au Japon - I am in Japan
• Je viens du Japon - I am from Japan

Feminine country

• Je vais en France- I go to France
• Je suis en France - I am in France
• Je viens de France - I am from France

Plural country

• Je vais aux États-Unis- I go to the US
• Je suis aux États-Unis - I am in the US
• Je viens des États-Unis - I am from the US

Exploring French-speaking countries can be quite an adventure, but you need to know how to ask for directions in French and to understand what you're told. After all, if you don't understand the directions, you might miss the very things you hoped to see !

C - Parfait! Je suis sûre qu'Alice va être très heureuse dans votre école de pâtisserie!

À quelle heure avez-vous une classe pour ados le mercredi?

S - Le mercredi? À 10h et à 15h30.

C - Et le samedi?

S - Le samedi? à 9h15 et à 13h45.

C - Pour moi, c'est difficile d'amener ma fille, mais pour mon mari, lui, c'est possible.

Où se trouve l'école de cuisine exactement?

S - Elle n'est pas loin d'ici. Elle se trouve 15 rue Nobel. L'école est à droite du petit cinéma, derrière le parc. À gauche de notre école, il y a une pâtisserie. C'est là que sont commercialisées les délicieuses créations de nos élèves!

C - C'est parfait. La séance du mercredi à 15h30 est parfaite. Combien coûte l'inscription?

Congratulations ! You made it through the first level !

How was it ? Did you find it difficult, challenging or was it a breeze ?

Well, do not worry, the first step when learning a new foreign language, no matter which, is always the most difficult, especially for adults.

Everything is new, vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar… While it is exciting, it is a lot to get used to and to remember. And even though we have all the motivation and good will in the world before you get started, once you come face to face with the difficulties you might have a hard time overcoming them.

Watch the video and take note of our tips to overcome these difficulties and make your learning experience better !

We hope that you had as much fun learning as we had preparing this course for you !