Learn French - Pronunciation, Subject Pronouns, The Present Tense of Regular -ER Verbs

1. Pronunciation

1. In French, different letters and letter combinations can be pronounced the same way, as is the case with the letter e with different accents and the combination of a and accented i

This sound is equivalent to a as in  father.

a, â, à


bas, tâche, là

This sound is similar to e as we hear it in  set.

ê, è, ai, ei, aî, et


fête, gène, maison, plaît, reine, et


e before two consonants

elle

This sound is similar to s as we hear it in  set.

2. French uses a mark " ¸ " called cedilla placed beneath c, as in the spelling of the French word "garçon". This mark indicates that the letter is to be pronounced "s".
C before e, i, y is also pronounced as "s".

c before e, i, y

cette, cible, cygne

ç

garçon, ça, français

s, sc, x

semaine, science, six

  Learn to recognize these sounds - Phonetic Exercises

Grammar

A. Subject Pronouns

The Pronoun is a word which can be used instead of a noun. For example, instead of saying "John is a student.", the pronoun he can be used in place of the noun John and the sentence becomes "He is a student." We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do not have to keep on repeating a noun. Learn the following French subject pronouns:

There are two forms for the pronoun "you" in French, tu and vous. Tu is the singular, familiar form. It is used with family members, friends, children and animals. Vous is used when addressing more than one person. It is also used to address someone you don't know well or maintain a degree of respect toward an older person or colleague.

B. The Present Tense Of Regular -ER Verbs

French verbs are divided into three groups, or conjugations, according to the ending of the infinitive. The first group of verbs ends in -er, the second group of verbs ends in -ir and the third group of verbs ends in -re. Verbs that fall into those three groups are called regular verbs.

Regular verbs are all conjugated according to specific patterns. Regular -er verbs are all conjugated according to the following pattern. You just need to memorize the ending for each person and attach it to the root of the verb. The root is obtained by dropping -er from the infinitive:
habiter - habit

to speak - PARLER
I speak you speak he/she/one speaks we speak you speak they speak	je parle tu parles il/elle/on parle nous parlons vous parlez ils/elles parlent
Click on a phrase to hear the sound.

2. EXERCISES

Learn French - Pronunciation, Subject Pronouns, The Present Tense of Regular -ER Verbs

J'aime parler français!    == > Leçon 3