French grammar facts for kids
French grammar is all about the rules that help you speak and write the French language correctly. It's quite similar to the grammar of other languages that came from Latin, like Spanish or Italian.
French words sometimes change their form depending on how they are used in a sentence. This is called being "inflected."
Contents
Verbs: Actions and States
In French, verbs are words that show actions or states of being. They change their endings to match who is doing the action and when it's happening. This is called conjugation.
Who is Doing the Action?
Verbs change their form to agree with the grammatical person. This means the verb looks different if "I" am doing something compared to "you" or "they."
For example, the verb parler (to speak) changes like this:
- Je parle (I speak)
- Tu parles (You speak - informal)
- Il/Elle/On parle (He/She/One speaks)
- Nous parlons (We speak)
- Vous parlez (You speak - formal or plural)
- Ils/Elles parlent (They speak)
Tricky Irregular Verbs
Most French verbs follow a regular pattern when they conjugate. This means if you know the ending of a verb, you can often guess how to change it for different people.
However, some verbs are irregular. They don't follow the usual rules, so you have to learn their forms specially. A very important irregular verb in French is être, which means "to be."
Here's how être changes:
- Je suis (I am)
- Tu es (You are)
- Il/Elle/On est (He/She/One is)
- Nous sommes (We are)
- Vous êtes (You are)
- Ils/Elles sont (They are)
Nouns: Names of Things
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.
Masculine or Feminine?
Every single French noun has a grammatical gender. It's either masculine or feminine. You can often tell a noun's gender by the small word (called an article) that comes before it.
- Le (the) or un (a/an) usually go with masculine nouns.
- La (the) or une (a/an) usually go with feminine nouns.
For example:
- le livre (the book) - livre is masculine
- la table (the table) - table is feminine
Singular or Plural?
Nouns also change to show if there is one of something (singular) or more than one (plural).
Usually, you add an -s to the end of a noun to make it plural.
- un chien (a dog) becomes des chiens (dogs)
- une fleur (a flower) becomes des fleurs (flowers)
But there are some special rules:
- If a noun ends in -au, -eu, or -ou, it might add an -x instead of an -s. For example, un jeu (a game) becomes des jeux (games).
- If a noun already ends with -s, -x, or -z, it doesn't change at all in the plural form. For example, un bras (an arm) stays des bras (arms).
Adjectives: Describing Words
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. In French, adjectives are special because they have to agree with the noun they describe. This means they change their ending to match the noun's gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural).
For example, the adjective grand (tall/big):
- un grand garçon (a tall boy - masculine singular)
- une grande fille (a tall girl - feminine singular)
- des grands garçons (tall boys - masculine plural)
- des grandes filles (tall girls - feminine plural)
Word Order: Putting Sentences Together
The usual word order in a French sentence is subject-verb-object. This is the same as in English.
Let's look at the sentence: Je mange le gâteau.
- Je (I) is the subject (who is doing the action).
- mange (eat) is the verb (the action).
- le gâteau (the cake) is the object (what the action is done to).
So, Je mange le gâteau means "I eat the cake."
However, if the object is a pronoun (a word like "it," "him," "her," "them" that replaces a noun), it usually goes before the verb.
If we replace le gâteau (the cake) with le (it), the sentence becomes: Je le mange. This means "I eat it." Notice how le (it) comes before mange (eat).
See also
In Spanish: Gramática del francés para niños
