As I see it – à mon sens

Be that as it may – Quoi qu’il en soit

Because of – à cause de

By contrast – Par contre

Compared to – Comparé a

Compared with - Par rapport à

Finally - Enfin

First of all - En premier lieu

Firstly – Premièrement

For this reason - Pour cette raison

Furthermore – En outre

However – Toutefois

However - Cependant

I am of the opinion that – Je suis d’avis que

I consider that - J’estime que

In conclusion – En conclusion

In my opinion – Selon moi

In my opinion – à mon avis

It’s about – Il s’agit de

It’s evident that – C’est évident que

Next- Ensuite

Since – Puisque

Thanks to – Grâce à

The end – la fin

The ending - le denouement

This is why – C’est pour cela que

To add to this – à ceci s’ajoute

To be a consequence of – Etre la conséquence de

To conclude – Pour conclure

To play a major role in – Jouer un rôle prépondérant

Turning point – le tournant

Yet – Pourtant

Assuré de quelquechose – confident/sure of something

Certain de quelquechose – convinced of something

Content de faire quelquechose – happy to do something

Différent de quelquechose/quelqu’un – different from something/someone

Difficile à faire – difficult to do

Dur à faire – hard to do

Favorable à quelquechose – in favour of something

Mécontent de quelquechose – dissatisfied with something

Nécessaire à quelquechose – necessary for something

Préférable à quelquechose – preferable to something

Utopique de faire quelquechose – Unrealistuc to do something

To personalise the phrases for use in your own work simply conjugate the verb (the first French word in the phrases) and replace quelquechose and quelqu’un with the object or person you want the phrase to refer to.

Accepter de faire quelquechose – agree to do something

Acheter quelquechose à quelqu’un – to buy something for someone

Aider quelqu’un à faire quelquechose – to help someone to do something

Aimer faire quelquechose – to enjoy doing something

Apprendre à faire quelquechose – to learn to do something

Avoir envie de faire quelquechose – to feel like doing something/want to do something

Bénécificer de quelquechose – to benefit from something/to enjoy something

Chercher quelquechose/quelqu’un – to look for something/someone

Chercher à faire quelquechose – to try to/attempt to do something

Choisier de faire quelquechose – to choose to do something

Conseiller quelqu’un – to give advise to someone

Continuer à faire quelquechose – to continue to do something

Décider de faire quelquechose – to decide to do something

Discuter de quelquechose – to debate/discuss/argue about something

Échouer à (un examen) – To fail (an exam) – Something you’ll be less likely to do if you learn this vocab!

Empêcher quelqu’un de faire quelquechose – to prevent/stop someone from doing something

Faire du mal à quelqu’un – To hurt/harm someone

Garder quelquechose/quelqu’un – to look after/keep something/someone

Jouir de quelquechose – to enjoy something

Se mettre à quelquechose – to begin/start something

Oublier de faire quelquechose – to forget to do something

Se pencher sur quelquechose – to be interested in/to examine something

Promettre à quelqu’un de faire quelquechose – to promise someone that one will do something

Réfléchir à quelquechose – to think about/consider something

Remettre quelquechose en cause – to question something

Réussier à (un examen) – to pass (an exam)

Rire de quelquechose/quelqu’un – to laugh at something/someone

Sembler faire quelquechose – to seem to do something

Suggérer à quelqu’un de faire quelquechose – to suggest that someone does something

Tenir compte de quelquechose – to take something into consideration

Viser à quelquechose – to aim at/for something

A state of being
E.g.
He is slim
I am tired

An action which occurs habitually
E.g.
I go to school every day
She plays tennis on Fridays

Absolute truths
E.g.
The Earth is round
Water is a liquid

Regular forms of the present tense

ER verbs

To get the stem for ER verbs, remove the ER from the infinitive and add the endings below:

E.g. jouer (to play) -> jou

Je joue

Tu joues

Il/Elle/On joue

Nous jouons

Vous jouez

Ils/Elles jouent

IR verbs

To get the stem for IR verbs, remove the IR from the infinitive and add the endings below:

E.g. finir (to finish) -> fin

Je finis

Tu finis

Il/Elle/On finit

Nous finissons

Vous finissez

Ils/Elles finissent

RE verbs

To get the stem for RE verbs, remove the RE from the infinitive and add the endings below:

E.g. vendre (to sell) -> vend

Je vends

Tu vends

Il/Elle/On vend (There is no extra ending here)

Nous vendons

Vous vendez

Ils/Elles vendent

E.g.

la table -> les tables

Exceptions to this are:

Nouns ending in s, x and z remain the same, the use of the plural definitive article, les, instead of le or la is the signal that the noun is plural.

E.g.

Le procès -> les procès

Le temps -> les temps

Le gaz -> les gaz

La voix -> les voix
To make nouns ending with either au or eu plural, simply add an x

E.g.

Le gateau -> les gateaux

Le drapeau -> les drapeaux

Le jeu -> les jeux

For nouns ending in al and ail the ending is changed to aux

E.g.

Le travail -> les travaux

Le journal -> les journaux

(There are some exceptions to this exception – le festival and le détail just add an s to become plural)

A list is feminine word endings:

-aison (la maison)

-ance (la tendance)

-anse (la danse)

-ée (la soirée)

-ence (la patience)

-ense (la défense)

-ière (la bière)

-sion (la tension)

-tion (l’ambition)

-ude (une habitude)

-ure (la culture)

-xion (la réflexion)

There are, as always some exceptions to the rules

Some masculine exceptions:

Le silence

Le musée

Le lycée

Here is a list of masculine word endings:

-acle (un obstacle)

-age (le cottage)

-asme (le sarcasme)

-eau (le couteau)

-ège (le collège)

-ème (le problème)

-et (le rejet)

-isme (le socialisme)

-ment (un argument)

There are, as always, a few exceptions but by learning the list above you’re well on the way to knowing genders.

Some feminine exceptions:

La cage

L’eau

L’image

La jument

La page

Le peau

La plage

La rage

In French the indefinite articles are un, une, de la, du and des

Un and une can be translated into English as a, an and one

e.g. Il y a un chat (There is a cat)

Je vais rester pour un mois (I am going to stay for one month)

Du, de la, de l’, des can be translated as any and some

Est-ce qu’il y a du pain? (Is there any bread?)

Je mange de la soupe (I ate (some) soup)

Tu as de l’argent? (Do you have any money?)

Nous avons des enfants (We have (some) children)

In French there are 4 – la, le, les and l’

All French nouns are either feminine or masculine and it’s important to get the gender correct – great pleasure is taken in making corrections when a foreigner uses ‘la‘ instead of ‘le‘.

The definitive article l’ is used in place of le or la in front of nouns that begin with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u, y)

e.g. l’eau (masculine noun meaning water)

l’avion (feminine noun meaning plane)

l’ is also used with an unaspirated h – this means an h that is not pronounced, a bit like a French version of the English silent k in words like knee, knife and knight

e.g. l’heure (hour)

l’histoire (history)

However when you have an aspirated h – you’ve guessed it, an h that is pronounced – you must use le or la

e.g. le handicap (handicap)

la hausse (rise)

les is used when you are talking about plural nouns

e.g. les chiens (dogs)

les robes (dresses)