French Grammar

French verbs conjugate differently according to tense, mood, aspect and voice. This means that there are more possible conjugations for French verbs than English verbs, and learning how to conjugate each verb in different scenarios can be a challenge for English speakers.

French nouns are divided into 2 different genders: masculine and feminine. Unlike in English, all inanimate objects have a gender assigned to them (eg. pain (bread) is masculine; comédie (comedy) is feminine), and the article of each noun depends on its gender: le (m), la (f) or l' (before words starting with h or a vowel, regardless of gender). The plural definite article is les, for all genders. Similarly, third person pronouns also depend on the grammatical gender of the subject: il (m) or elle (f). The grammatical gender of nouns denoting persons generally follows the person's natural gender (eg. mère (mother) is feminine, père (father) is masculine), though some nouns are always of the same gender regardless of the natural gender of the person they are referring to (e.g. professeur (teacher/professor) is always masculine even if referring to a woman, vedette (actor) is always feminine even if referring to a man).

In French, there are two equivalents of the English word "you". In informal situations, and when addressing children or pets, the word to use will be tu, while in formal situations, or when addressing a group of people regardless of circumstance, the word to use will be vous. It is important to know the distinction, as while addressing a pet dog with the vous form would sound ridiculous and be likely to amuse, using tu in a formal situation would be inappropriate and may offend the person whom you are addressing. After initially using the vous form, a person may say to you "On peut se tutoyer"; this is a polite invitation for you to use the tu form with them.