Clear explanations for tense, gender, and agreement — with real sentences, not just tables.
French has three definite articles depending on gender and number: le for masculine singular nouns (le chat), la for feminine singular nouns (la maison), and les for all plural nouns (les chats, les maisons). Before a vowel or a mute h, le and la both contract to l’ (l’ami, l’heure).
Most French verbs end in -er in the infinitive (parler, manger, aimer). To conjugate in the present tense, drop -er and add: -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. Example: parler → je parle, tu parles, il/elle parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils/elles parlent.
French adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe. Most add -e for the feminine (petit → petite) and -s for the plural (petit → petits). Adjectives that already end in -e stay the same in the feminine (jeune → jeune).
French negates a verb by wrapping it with ne and pas: je ne sais pas (I don't know). In casual spoken French, the ne is frequently dropped, leaving just pas after the verb: je sais pas.
Most French nouns become plural by adding -s (un chat → des chats), which is silent in speech — plurality is usually heard in the article, not the noun. Nouns ending in -eau or -eu add -x (un bateau → des bateaux), and most ending in -al change to -aux (un animal → des animaux).
Possessives agree with the noun they describe, not the owner: mon for masculine singular (mon frère), ma for feminine singular (ma sœur), and mes for any plural (mes parents). Before a feminine noun starting with a vowel, mon is used instead of ma for smoother pronunciation (mon amie).
Many -ir verbs (finir, choisir, réussir) conjugate by dropping -ir and adding -is, -is, -it, -issons, -issez, -issent. Example: finir → je finis, tu finis, il/elle finit, nous finissons, vous finissez, ils/elles finissent.
The passé composé is the most common past tense in spoken French, formed with an auxiliary verb (avoir or être) plus a past participle: j'ai mangé (I ate), elle est partie (she left). Most verbs use avoir; a small set of motion/state verbs (aller, venir, partir, naître, mourir, and others) use être instead, and their past participle then agrees with the subject.