English to French in 3 Months: The Beginner’s Guide to Learning French

To go from English to French in 3 months, it is normal to see people begin their journey with learning to greet, count or say random words.

I prefer to start with what I consider the real French 101, the conjugation of the three most important verbs in French grammar; les verbes avoir (to have), être (to be), and aller (to go).

This is because these three verbs will find their way into almost every French conversation you will ever have and if you know how to conjugate them, you have the first key to learning French. So here we go!

First off, let’s get familiar with the pronouns we will be using to conjugate:

 

Les Pronoms – French Pronouns

Je = I

Tu = You (Tu shows familiarity, it is used to address a single individual that you have an informal relationship with. For example, your friend, David — 😉everybody knows a David)

Il = He

Elle = She

Nous = We

Vous = You (Vous signifies respect. It is used to directly address a group of individuals, a person who is older than you, who you have a formal relationship with or who you just met)

Ils = They (Ils is used to indirectly address a male — or majorly male — crowd, the way the Bible says ‘fishers of men’, not ‘fishers of men and women’)

Elles = (Elles is used to indirectly address a female crowd)

 

Now, that we are familiar with our pronouns, let’s get down to business.

 

La conjugaison du verbe avoir – The conjugation of the verb to have

J’ai — I have

Tu as — You have

Il a — He has

Elle a — She has

Nous avons — We have

Vous avez — You have (more than one person)

Ils ont — They have (male)

Elles ont — They have (female)

 

La conjugaison du verbe être – The conjugation of the verb to be

Je suis — I am

Tu es — You are

Il est — He is

Elle est — She is

Nous sommes— We are

Vous êtes— You are (more than one person)

Ils sont — They are (male)

Elles sont — They are (female)

 

La conjugaison du verbe aller – The conjugation of the verb to go

Je vais— I go

Tu vas— You go

Il va — He goes

Elle va— She goes

Nous allons — We go

Vous allez— You go(more than one person)

Ils vont — They go (male)

Elles vont — They go (female)

 

Things you should note in your journey from English to French:

• The letter ‘s’ at the end of French words is not pronounced, this means ils (they) and il (he) are pronounced the same way.
• Il (he) is always conjugated the same as Elle (she) and Ils (they — males) is always conjugated the same as Elles (they — females).
• When a word ends with the letter ‘e’ and the next word begins with a vowel, the ‘e’ from the first word is taken out and replaced with l’apostrophe (’). This can be seen in la conjugaison du verbe avoir when we say ‘J’ai’ not ‘Je ai’.
• Pay attention to the pronunciation and spelling of ‘lls sont’ for le verbe être vs the pronunciation of ‘ils ont’ for le verbe avoir. The reasons for the difference will be explained in another lesson.

 

To join us on our journey from English to French in 3 months, click here to follow me on Twitter @chaotic_vixen and click here to join our Telegram community, where I will be sharing written and audiovisual content en français — in French — as we go on.

If you enjoyed our first lesson, please let me know in the comment box below.