French Phrases: Basic French words
Function words
The following are some basic 'function' words in French. They provide some of
the 'glue' that allow other words (nouns, adjectives etc) to be put together to
form sentences.
The words below are therefore useful for forming a sentence in French.
For the French for simple salutations such as hello, goodbye etc,
see the section on greetings in French.
 If you have an iPhone or iPad, then you may wish to check out
the site's French Vocab Games app.
See also: French subject pronouns, French greetings.
Very basic articles and prepositions
The following little words crop up extremely frequently. They are slightly tricky to begin
with because they are words whose form changes depending on the following word.
| de | də, d, t | of, from | | du | dy | of/from the (masculine1 singular); some | | des | de | of/from the (plural); some | | à | a | to; at; in2 | | au | o | to/at/in2 the (masculine1 singular) | | aux | o | to/at/in2 the (plural) | | le | lə, lø | the (with masculine1 word) | | la | la | the (with feminine1 word) | | les | le | the (with plural) |
 Pronounce these words Suggest a change / proposez une modificationSee also: When to use le and la.
Question words
Other basic words
The following lists contain a number of basic 'function' words that will crop
up in a range of French sentences. Firstly, some basic French prepositions and
words to do with space and location:
| pour | puʁ | for | | par | paʁ | by; via | | sur | syʁ | on | | dans | dɑ̃ | in2 | | en | ɑ̃ | in2 | | avec | avɛk | with | | dehors | dəɔʁ | outside, out | | là | la | here, there; now | | ici | isi | here | | là-bas | laba | there, over there | | près de... | pʁe də, pʁɛd | near to... | | près d'ici | pʁɛdisi | nearby, near here | | loin | lwæ̃ | far |
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Suggest a change / proposez une modificationNow some words to do with 'ownership'. Note that the labels masculine
and feminine refer to the "gender" of the possession rather than
the owner (remember that, unlike English, all nouns in French including
words for 'table', 'newspaper' etc as well as words referring to people, are
arbitrarily assigned a "gender").
| mon | mõ | my (masculine) | | ma | ma | my (feminine) | | mes | me | my (plural) | | ton | tõ | your (masculine) | | ta | ta | your (feminine) | | tes | te | your (plural) | | votre | vɔtʁə | your (referring to a stranger/multiple people) |
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Suggest a change / proposez une modificationAnd here are a few other common French words, some to do with expressing
degree and quantity:
| parce que | paʁsk(ə) | because | | très | tʁe | very | | peu | pø | little, hardly | | bien | bjæ̃ | well; rather | | assez | ase | quite; enough, sufficiently | | trop | tʁo | too; too much | | trop de... | tʁod | too much...; too many... | | pas | pa | not | | jamais | ʒame | never | | toujours | tuʒuʁ | always; still | | encore | ɑ̃kɔʁ | still, yet | | plus | ply, plys | more | | moins | mwæ̃ | less, fewer | | que | kə | that; what |
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Suggest a change / proposez une modificationNotes:
1. As in many languages, French nouns are arbitrarily divided into groups called genders.
In French, there are two genders, usually called 'masculine' and
'feminine'. Which gender a noun belongs to depends on various criteria such as the gender of the person/animal they
represent (if any), or the ending of the noun (for example, nouns ending in -ation
are feminine). The gender of the noun determines which form of
determiners (words meaning 'the', 'a', 'some', 'any', 'my' etc) and adjectives are used.
2. As a very general rule, dans is used in cases where there is a determiner
(a word like le/la (the), un/une (a);
and en is used in other cases, such as before names of countries and regions
and in figurative expressions. In some cases, au, à la
and aux are used with a similar meaning to dans le/dans la/dans les.
The following phrases are worth knowing:
| il y a... | il i ja, ilja | there is...; there are... | | y a... (Informal) | ja... | there is...; there are... | | c'est... | se | it's... | | ce n'est pas... | sne pa | it isn't... | | ceci est... | søsi e | this is... | | ce n'est pas... | s(ə)ne pa | it isn't... | | voilà | vwala | here's..., there's... | | voici | vwasi | here is... | | est-ce que... | ɛsk(ə) | is it true that... (formula used to ask a question in French) | | est-ce qu'il y a...? | ɛskilja | is there...? | | j'ai... | ʒe | I have... | | avez-vous...? | ave vu | do you have...? | | je suis... | ʒə sɥi | I am... | | je ne suis pas... | ʒən sɥi pas | I'm not... | | êtes vous...? | ɛt vu | are you...? | | (en) anglais | (ɑ̃n) ɑ̃gle | (in) English | | (en) français | (ɑ̃) fʁɑ̃se | (in) French |
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Page written by Neil Coffey. Copyright (c) Javamex UK 2014. All rights reserved. |
