Learn French: Lesson 2
In this lesson I will cover three areas: numbers, basic vocabulary, and basic verbs. Let’s learn french!
Basic Numbers
In Lesson 1 you learned the basics of counting from one to ten; now we’ll cover eleven through twenty and finish up the basic numbers.
Follow along with this audio file: Learn French – Lesson 2 – Numbers
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- onze
- douze
- treize
- quatorze
- quinze
- seize
- dix-sept
- dix-huit
- dix-neuf
- vingt
Basic Vocabulary
In this lesson we will learn some words for things around the house.
le livre
la chaise
le divan
la cheminée
le réfrigérateur
le téléphone
l'évier
la table
la télévision
Basic Verbs
Now we will cover basic conjugation in French; I have written an article that explains verb conjugation for those of you who do not know. If you are ready then let’s walk through it together.
Let’s begin with a simple verb: chanter. In French, chanter means ‘to sing’. However, we have to conjugate chanter before we can use it. For example, to say “I sing” in French, one would say, “Je chante.” Take a look at the examples below:
- Je chante
- Tu chantes
- Il/Elle/On chante
- Nous chantons
- Vous chantez
- Ils/Elles/Ons chantent
- I sing, I do sing, I am singing
- you sing, you do sing, you are singing
- he/she/it sings, he/she/it does sing, he/she/it is singing
- we sing, we do sing, we are singing
- you-all sing, you-all do sing, you-all are singing
- they sing, they do sing, they are singing
As you can see, chanter has different forms for each subject; unlike in English, they vary a lot between subjects! In English, ‘I sing’ is nearly the same as ‘You sing’, but in French, ‘Je chante’ is clearly different from ‘Tu chantes’!
Try practicing some of these phrases aloud; if I asked, “Is he singing?”, you might respond, “Oui, il chante.” Literally that means “he sings”, however it can be translated as “He is singing”, “He sings”, or even “He does sing.”
One final note: chanter is called a regular -er verb because it follows a pattern and it ends with the letters ‘er’. Every regular -er verb will follow the same pattern above; they drop the -er and add the letter that is in bold.
In the next lesson I will cover other verbs similar to chanter as well as other types of regular verbs.
Credits:
- omniNate: refridgerator photo.
- Jason Spaceman: couch photo.
- Helga’s Lobster Stew: sink photo.
- independentman: chairs photo.
- Beige Alert: television photo.
- mrbill: phone photo.
- Urthstripe: book photo.
- janeyhenning: table photo.
- KaCey97007: fireplace photo.
Tags: Learn French