Every French printable, chapter by chapter

10 words · A pronoun, a few verbs, the things they act on. Enough to build a real French sentence by the end.

Subject, verb, object - and the moments French bends the English order.

7 words · Subject pronouns for everyone else, plus the rest of the vocabulary you need for your first story.

Every word in this story comes from the lessons you've just finished. No lookups required.

6 words · The definite, indefinite, and partitive articles in one place: le / la / un / des / du / de. The next lesson covers when to use which, including the partitive that English doesn't have.

Definite vs indefinite vs partitive - including du / de la / des, the article English speakers consistently drop and shouldn't. Plus the elision rules (l'eau, d'un) that make the difference between French that sounds native and French that sounds wrong.

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Why every noun is le or la, and the endings that give it away.

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Add -s, say nothing - le/les and un/des carry the plural in speech.

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10 words · Memorise these 10 verb infinitives. The next lesson covers how to conjugate them.

Present-tense conjugation for the verbs you just learned, with a worksheet to drill the endings.

10 words · Memorise these 10 verb infinitives. The next lesson covers how to conjugate them.

Present-tense conjugation for the verbs you just learned, with a worksheet to drill the endings.

10 words · Memorise these 10 verb infinitives. The next lesson covers how to conjugate them.

Present-tense conjugation for the verbs you just learned, with a worksheet to drill the endings.

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This / that / these / those in French. The four forms, the cet-before-vowel rule, and the -ci / -la distinction for near vs far.

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mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa, ses, notre, nos, votre, vos, leur, leurs - and the mon-before-feminine-vowel rule English speakers miss.

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How French wraps negation around the verb, the four core negative pairs, and the colloquial ne-drop you'll hear in spoken French.

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6 words · ranks 194-200

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Adjectives agree with the noun for gender and number. The feminine endings (-e default, -se, -lle, -nne, -ve, -ere), the plural rules, and the BAGS-set adjectives that go before the noun.

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du, de la, de l', des as partitives - and the rule that turns every partitive into 'de' after a negative verb or a quantity expression.

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a, de, en, dans, sur, sous, chez - plus the mandatory contractions au, aux, du, des and the a / en split for countries and cities.

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me, te, le, la, lui, nous, vous, leur - the words that replace 'him', 'her', 'it' and 'to him/her'. Preverbal position, the m'/t'/l' elision, and the order when two pronouns stack.

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Verbs where the subject acts on itself: se laver, se lever, s'appeler, se coucher. The me / te / se pronouns, present-tense use, and a flag that compound tenses need etre.

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plus / moins / aussi + adjective + que. The three irregulars meilleur (better), pire (worse), and mieux (the adverb).

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qui, que, quoi, quand, ou, comment, combien, pourquoi - plus the three ways French builds a question: intonation, est-ce que, and inversion.

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avoir + past participle. The default compound past, the regular participles -e / -i / -u, the three you must memorise (ete, eu, fait), and a flag that a small closed set of verbs takes etre instead.

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Stem from the nous form, endings -ais / -ais / -ait / -ions / -iez / -aient. Only one irregular stem (etre -> et-). For habitual, ongoing, and background past.

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Bounded specific event = passe compose. Habitual / ongoing / background = imparfait. The interruption pattern, the decision rules, and the verbs that shift meaning between the two.

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Two ways: aller + infinitive (futur proche) and the inflectional futur simple. Regular endings -ai / -as / -a / -ons / -ez / -ont, the irregular stems, and when each tense is the right call.

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Future stem + imparfait endings. Same irregular stems as the future. Used for politeness (je voudrais, j'aimerais), hypothesis, and reported speech.

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Three forms (tu, nous, vous), the -er drop-the-s on tu, three irregulars (avoir, etre, savoir), and the hyphen-attachment of pronouns: donne-moi, allons-y, prenez-en.

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How French says 'there is', 'one must', 'it's cold'. The constructions that take il as a dummy subject with no real referent.

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qui = subject relative, que = object relative, dont covers de-relations, ou covers place and time. Plus ce qui / ce que for nominal relatives.

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The most and the least: le/la/les plus + adjective with the repeated article, de for 'in/of', and the irregulars le meilleur, le pire, le mieux.

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Building adverbs from the feminine adjective (lente -> lentement), the -amment / -emment pairs, and the suppletive irregulars bien, mal and vite.

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y replaces a + a thing or place (j'y vais, j'y pense); en replaces de + a thing, partitives and quantities (j'en veux, j'en ai trois). Position and the imperative attachment (vas-y, prends-en).

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The disjunctive pronouns after prepositions (avec moi), for emphasis (moi, je pense), after c'est, in comparisons, and with -meme.

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venir de + infinitive means 'to have just done' (je viens de manger). The present-tense form, the imperfect venais de for 'had just', and how it differs from the passe compose.

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depuis + the present for an action still going on, pendant for a bounded duration, il y a for 'ago', pour for a planned future stretch - and the depuis present-tense trap.

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ne... que for 'only' (and why it isn't a true negative), ni... ni for 'neither... nor' with its dropped articles, aucun(e) always singular, nulle part, and where each piece lands in the passe compose.

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quel as the interrogative adjective that agrees with its noun (Quelle heure ?), lequel as the pronoun that replaces quel + noun (Lequel ?), and the auquel / duquel contractions.

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celui / celle / ceux / celles for 'the one(s)', completed by -ci / -la, by de + noun (celui de Marc), or by a relative clause (celui qui parle), plus the neuter ceci / cela / ca.

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le mien / la mienne / les miens through le leur for 'mine, yours, theirs'. The pronoun agrees with the thing owned, the circumflex on le notre / le votre, and c'est a moi vs c'est le mien.

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Where an adjective sits changes its meaning: un ancien ami (a former friend) vs un meuble ancien (an antique), un grand homme (a great man) vs un homme grand (a tall man), ma propre voiture vs une voiture propre.

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plus / moins / aussi + adverb + que with no agreement, the frozen-le superlative (le plus vite), and the irregulars bien -> mieux, mal -> plus mal / pis, beaucoup -> plus, peu -> moins.

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The mechanical rule: take the ils form of the present (ils parlent), drop the -ent, add -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent. The nous / vous forms borrow the imperfect stem, plus the handful of irregulars you memorise - etre, avoir, aller, faire, pouvoir, savoir, vouloir, falloir.

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il faut que, vouloir que, il vaut mieux que and the rest of the necessity-and-will triggers, governed by the different-subject rule: je veux partir (same subject, infinitive) vs je veux que tu partes (different subjects, subjunctive).

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Emotion (etre content que, avoir peur que, regretter que) and doubt (douter que, il est possible que) take the subjunctive, and the negative-and-question flip turns penser que / croire que / etre sur que from indicative (je pense qu'il vient) to subjunctive (je ne pense pas qu'il vienne).

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Conjunctive phrases that always trigger the subjunctive: bien que and quoique (although), pour que and afin que (so that), avant que (before), jusqu'a ce que (until), a condition que and pourvu que (provided that), a moins que (unless), sans que (without), plus the same-subject shortcut pour que -> pour + infinitive.

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etre (in any tense) + past participle agreeing with the subject (la lettre a ete ecrite), the agent introduced by par, and the ways French prefers to avoid the passive: on (on m'a vole mon sac) and the pronominal passive (ca ne se dit pas).

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The -ant form (parlant, finissant, with irregulars etant, ayant, sachant) and the gerund en + participle for simultaneity (en mangeant), means (en travaillant) and condition, under the same-subject rule, plus why French has no -ing continuous tense.

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The 'had done' tense: imperfect of avoir / etre + past participle (j'avais mange, elle etait partie), with the same auxiliary and agreement rules as the passe compose, for an action finished before another past action (quand il est arrive, elle etait deja partie).

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The three si types: si + present -> present/future (si tu veux, je viens); si + imperfect -> conditional (si j'avais le temps, je viendrais); si + pluperfect -> past conditional (si j'avais su, je serais venu). Never a future or conditional directly after si.

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Un matin au marché.

Le coup de téléphone.

Perdu en ville.

La fête surprise.

Un après-midi de pluie.

Le bus manqué.

Cuisiner ensemble.

Chez le médecin.

Le premier jour de travail.

Le nouveau voisin.