Learn to read French
A short, active path into reading French: decode real words before revealing their sound, learn the silent endings and the joins between words, follow where the pieces of a sentence sit, and read a small story before opening your first book.
The, a, and where a describing word sits
- Every naming word is masculine or feminine — the word, not the thing. Learn the noun with its little word in front.
- The plural s is silent, so only the little word in front says there is more than one.
- Most describing words sit after the thing they describe; a few short common ones sit in front. They change shape to match the thing — visible far more often than audible.
The and a
| English | Masculine | Feminine | More than one |
|---|---|---|---|
| the | le renardluh ruh-nar | la maisonlah meh-zoh(n) | les renardslay ruh-nar |
| a | un renardu(n) ruh-nar | une maisonewn meh-zoh(n) | des renardsday ruh-nar“some foxes” |
Before a vowel both le and la shrink to l'. The plural noun sounds unchanged, so the grammar you can hear sits at the front of the word group.
a small yellow bird
un petit oiseau jaune
u(n) puh-tee-twah-zoh zhohn
petit is one of the short in-front set — petit, grand, bonboh(n)“good” — and its silent t wakes up before the vowel. jaune sits behind, where most describing words go — the opposite of what your eyes expect. With a feminine word the in-front set grows the waking e — bonnebon, where the vowel also leaves the nose. A word already ending in e (jaune, rouge, triste“sad”) has nothing to change.
My, and his-or-her
| English | With one kind of word | With the other kind |
|---|---|---|
| my | mon arbremoh(n)-nar-bruh | ma maisonmah meh-zoh(n) |
| his, her, its | son arbresoh(n)-nar-bruh | sa maisonsah meh-zoh(n) |
sa maison is his, her, and its house — only the story tells you which; the shape follows the thing owned.
Read a noun and its describing word
- un grand arbre
What happens to the silent d in front of a vowel?
Show answer +Hide answer −
“u(n) grah(n)-tar-bruh” — a big tree. The silent d wakes, as a t. - une petite maison
Feminine, so the describing word grew an e — and you can hear it.
Show answer +Hide answer −
“ewn puh-teet meh-zoh(n)” — a small house. - les oiseaux
The noun sounds exactly as in the singular. Only one word changed.
Show answer +Hide answer −
“lay-zwah-zoh” — the birds. The s of les wakes up; the plural x stays silent.