3. Likes and Dislikes
• Likes – “aimer”
• Asking about likes
• Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire?
• Est-ce que tu aimes…?
• Expressing likes
• J’aime…
• Use with infinitives
• Danser
• Écrire
• Travailler
• Nager
• Dislikes – “ne…pas”
• Sandwich the verb “aimer”
• Translates as “not”
• Add “du tout” to make it stronger
• “ne” changes to “n’” before a vowel
Je n’aime pas travailler.
J’aime danser.
4. Articles
Definite Articles
• Definite articles
• Refer to specific objects
• Translate as “the” in English
le
la
feminine singular
l’
elision of le or la; occurs before a
noun that begins with a vowel;
singular
les
• Indefinite articles
• Refer to objects in general
• Translate as “a,” or “an” in English
masculine singular
plural; both masculine and
feminine
• Articles in French must agree in gender and
number with the nouns they modify
• Definite and indefinite articles can be used
interchangeably
• Examples:
• le/un monsieur – the man/a man
• la/une dame – the woman/a woman
• l’/un enfant – the child/a child
• les/des amis – the friends/some friends
Indefinite Articles
un
masculine singular
une
feminine singular
des
plural; both masculine and
feminine
5. Subject Pronouns
• Pronouns are words that take the
place of nouns.
• Like nouns, pronouns can be
subjects or objects.
• Subjects perform the action of a
sentence.
• Objects receive the action of a
sentence
Singular
English
Plural
1st Person
Includes the self
2nd Person
Speaks directly to
someone
3rd Person
Looks in from
the outside
While it may seem logical, you shouldn’t translate the
French pronoun “on” as “it.” In English, the pronoun “it” is
gender neutral and refers to objects. While also gender
neutral, the pronoun “on” refers to people. It is often used
to make general statements in the place of the English
pronoun “we.” For now, think of it as “someone,” so you
remember that it is singular.
I
we
you
you
he, she, it
they
French
je
nous
tu
vous
il, elle, on
ils, elles
6. Pronunciation
• Final consonants – in general, final consonants are silent
Ex. les messieurs
les dames
• Liaison – a link of sounds between a word ending in a
consonant and another word beginning with a vowel
Ex. les amis
les enfants
• Elision – the omission of a vowel at the end of a word before
another word beginning with a vowel sound
Ex. je n’aime pas…
j’habite…
