LinguaWhat you can already do
Three lessons in, you can already hold the first minute of any conversation in French. You greet according to the time and the person (bonjour, bonsoir, salut), ask and answer Ça va ?, say your name with je m’appelle or je suis, say what you are (étudiant, étudiante, professeur), where you come from (je viens de, je suis + nationality) and where you live (j’habite à / en / au), then take your leave (au revoir, à bientôt, à demain). Behind every one of these lines sits the same decision: tu or vous. This checkpoint puts them all into one exchange.
| Step | With vous | With tu |
|---|---|---|
| greet | Bonjour, monsieur | Salut, Théo |
| ask the name | Comment vous vous appelez ? | Comment tu t’appelles ? |
| ask where they are from | Vous êtes d’où ? | Tu es d’où ? |
| return the question | Et vous ? | Et toi ? |
| say goodbye | Au revoir, à bientôt | Salut, à plus |
Je m’appelle, je suis: the introduction in one breath
A French introduction has a fixed order: greeting, name, then one or two facts about yourself. Je m’appelle takes the name directly; je suis takes a name, a nationality or a job without an article: je suis étudiante, je suis professeur. Remember the elision: je stays whole before m’appelle and suis, but becomes j’ before habite. And enchanté closes the introduction – with an extra -e when a woman says it.
Bonjour ! Je m’appelle Amina, je suis belge et j’habite à Bruxelles.Hello! My name is Amina, I am Belgian and I live in Brussels.
| Pronoun | s’appeler (to be called) | être (to be) |
|---|---|---|
| je | m’appelle | suis |
| tu | t’appelles | es |
| il / elle | s’appelle | est |
| vous | vous appelez | êtes |
Nationality and gender, once more
Nationality is an adjective, so it agrees with the person: il est canadien, elle est canadienne; il est allemand, elle est allemande; il est russe, elle est russe. It is written in lower case. Where you live and where you come from depend on the kind of place: a city takes à and de (à Lyon, de Lyon), a feminine country en and de (en France, de France), a masculine country au and du (au Japon, du Japon). One test settles the gender: a country that ends in -e is feminine.
– Tu es d’où, Diego ? – Je suis espagnol, je viens de Séville et j’habite au Canada.– Where are you from, Diego? – I am Spanish, I come from Seville and I live in Canada.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| salut | hi; bye (informal) | Salut, Manon, à plus ! Bye, Manon, see you later! |
| ça va | fine, OK; how are you? | – Ça va, Léo ? – Oui, très bien. – How are you, Léo? – Yes, very well. |
| au revoir | goodbye | Au revoir, madame, et merci ! Goodbye, madam, and thank you! |
| à plus | see you later (very informal) | À plus, Karim ! See you later, Karim! |
| s’il vous plaît | please (to someone you address with vous) | Un café, s’il vous plaît. A coffee, please. |
| s’appeler | to be called, to be named | Tu t’appelles Lucas ? Is your name Lucas? |
| enchanté | pleased to meet you (said by a man; a woman writes enchantée) | Enchantée, je suis Clara. Pleased to meet you, I am Clara. |
| étudiant | student (male; female: étudiante) | Tu es étudiant ou professeur ? Are you a student or a teacher? |
| professeur | teacher, professor | Monsieur Petit est professeur de français. Mr Petit is a French teacher. |
| français | French (the language; as an adjective, feminine: française) | Elle est française, il est belge. She is French, he is Belgian. |
| habiter | to live (somewhere) | Vous habitez en Belgique ? Do you live in Belgium? |
| venir de | to come from (a place) | Elle vient d’Italie. She comes from Italy. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- fill the gap: 2
- build the sentence: 1
- translate the sentence: 2
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Your friend’s little sister, eight years old, says hello to you. What do you answer?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.