Parcours A1: les Bases Absolues

Who this path is for

You have decided to learn French and you are starting from zero, or close to it. You may recognise bonjour and merci, but anything longer than a single word feels like an unbroken wall of sound. This path walks you through roughly thirty topics that, taken together, let you read short signs, introduce yourself, ask basic questions, order in a café, and understand a patient speaker talking about everyday life.

Nothing here is optional. Every later path assumes you are comfortable with this material — but everything here is achievable in two to four months of steady study.

Phase 1 — Hear it before you write it

Before you touch any grammar, spend a week with the sounds. French has nasal vowels, a uvular r, and a small set of vowels (u, eu, é vs è) that English does not distinguish. None of this is hard once you know to listen for it. All of it is invisible if you start by reading.

1. Pronunciation Overview

The five things that make French sound like French: nasal vowels, the uvular r, u vs ou, the silent final consonant rule, and liaison.

2. Oral Vowels

Twelve vowel sounds — far more than the five English speakers expect. Lit, les, lait, là, l'eau all start with the same consonant but differ in the vowel.

3. Nasal Vowels

Pain /pɛ̃/, pan /pɑ̃/, pont /pɔ̃/, pun /pœ̃/. Four nasals (three for most speakers). The single biggest accent giveaway for English speakers.

4. U vs Ou

The vowel in tu /ty/ is not the vowel in tout /tu/. Confusing them is the most reliable way to sound foreign.

5. Silent Final Consonants

Most final consonants are silent: Paris is /pa.ʁi/, not /pa.ʁis/. The exceptions (c, r, f, l) cluster around the word CaReFuL.

6. Liaison: Obligatory

Some silent consonants come back to life before a vowel: les amis sounds like /le.za.mi/. Liaison is what makes French sound smooth and connected.

Phase 2 — Subject pronouns and the four indispensable verbs

Every French sentence has a subject. You cannot drop it the way you can in Spanish or Italian. Learn the seven pronouns and the four irregular verbs that show up in roughly every other sentence you will ever say.

7. Subject Pronouns: Overview

Je, tu, il, elle, on, nous, vous, ils, elles. Note that on is everywhere — modern spoken French uses on far more than nous for "we".

8. Tu vs Vous

When to address someone as tu (close, familiar, children, peers among students) versus vous (anyone older, anyone in a formal role, anyone you do not know). The default for strangers is vous. Misjudging this is more socially visible than any grammar error.

9. The Pronoun on

On means "we" in casual speech, "people in general" in writing, and occasionally "someone". Always conjugated like the third-person singular (on est, on a, on va), no matter what it actually means.

10. Être in the Present

Je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont. The most irregular verb in the language, used for identity, profession, location, and state.

11. Avoir in the Present

J'ai, tu as, il a, nous avons, vous avez, ils ont. Used for possession, but also for many states that English expresses with to be: j'ai faim (I'm hungry), j'ai vingt ans (I'm twenty), j'ai froid (I'm cold).

12. Aller in the Present

Je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont. Used for movement, but also — crucially — to build the near future: je vais manger (I'm going to eat). You will use this construction every day.

13. Faire in the Present

Je fais, tu fais, il fait, nous faisons, vous faites, ils font. Means "to do" or "to make", but also "to play" (a sport), "to study" (a subject), and shows up in dozens of weather expressions: il fait beau, il fait froid.

Phase 3 — Regular verbs and the present tense

With the four irregulars in hand, the regular verbs feel like a relief. About 90% of French verbs end in -er and follow a single pattern.

14. The Three Verb Groups

How French classifies its verbs: first group (-er), second group (-ir with -iss-), and the irregular third group (everything else). Knowing the group tells you most of the conjugation.

15. Regular -er Verbs

Parler, aimer, habiter, travailler, manger, écouter... Add -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent to the stem. Note that four of those six endings are silent — je parle, tu parles, il parle, ils parlent all sound identical.

16. Regular -ir (-iss-) Verbs

Finir, choisir, réussir, grandir... The "second group". Less common than -er verbs, but still very productive — most new verbs that aren't -er slot in here.

17. Regular -re Verbs

Vendre, attendre, entendre, perdre, rendre... A small but useful family.

18. Subject–Verb Agreement

How the verb changes shape depending on the subject — and why the changes are often invisible in spoken French. (Spoiler: this is why French verbs are easier than they look on the page.)

Phase 4 — Articles, the small but everywhere words

French has three article systems where English has roughly one. Sort this out now, or it will haunt you forever.

19. Articles: Overview

Why French has so many words for "the" and "a". The system is not random — there is a logic — but it does need active study.

20. Definite Articles le, la, les

Le chat, la chaise, les amis. Used for specific things ("the cat we saw") but also — and this surprises English speakers — for entire categories ("cats", in general): j'aime les chats.

21. Indefinite Articles un, une, des

Un chat, une chaise, des amis. Roughly equivalent to English "a" and "some". The plural des has no English equivalent and gets dropped in English; in French you must say it.

22. Partitive Articles du, de la, des

The article system that has no English equivalent at all. Used for an unspecified amount of something: je mange du pain (I'm eating [some] bread), je bois de l'eau (I'm drinking [some] water). English drops the article entirely; French requires it.

23. Partitive vs Definite

The single most important article distinction: j'aime le café (I like coffee, in general) versus je bois du café (I drink some coffee, right now). One is about preference, the other about quantity.

24. Contractions au, aux, du, des

À + le = au, à + les = aux, de + le = du, de + les = des. These are mandatory, not optional. Je vais au cinéma, never je vais à le cinéma.

Phase 5 — Nouns and adjectives

25. Nouns: Gender Overview

Every French noun is masculine or feminine. There is no fully reliable rule, but there are strong patterns by ending. Learn each noun with its article from the very first day — un livre, not just livre.

26. Plural Formation

Usually add -s (silent in speech). A few groups take -x (animaux, journaux, chevaux) and a handful of irregulars (œil → yeux).

27. Adjective Agreement Overview

Adjectives agree with their noun in gender and number: un livre intéressant, une histoire intéressante, des livres intéressants. The pattern is mostly add -e for feminine, -s for plural — though the result is often silent.

28. Adjective Position

Most adjectives follow the noun (une voiture rouge) but a small set of common ones precede it (un grand homme, une belle maison). Memorise the short list — they show up constantly.

Phase 6 — Negation, questions, and small but essential words

29. Negation Overview

How French wraps its negation around the verb. The structure is two-piece — ne... pas — even though in spoken French the ne is almost always dropped.

30. Ne... pas

The default negation: je ne sais pas, elle n'aime pas. Note that after negation, indefinite and partitive articles change to de: j'ai un chat → je n'ai pas de chat.

31. The Three Question Forms

French has three ways to ask a yes/no question: intonation (tu viens ?, casual), est-ce que (est-ce que tu viens ?, neutral), and inversion (viens-tu ?, formal/written). All three are valid; the choice signals register, not meaning.

32. Est-ce que Construction

The safe default question form. Stick est-ce que in front of any statement and you have a question. No inversion needed.

33. Cardinal Numbers

1 to 100, with the famous trap at 70 (soixante-dix, "sixty-ten"), 80 (quatre-vingts, "four-twenties"), and 90 (quatre-vingt-dix, "four-twenties-ten"). Belgian and Swiss French keep the saner septante, octante/huitante, and nonante.

34. Dates and Time

How to give the date (le 14 juillet), tell the time (il est trois heures et demie), and use the 24-hour clock for anything official.

Phase 7 — Putting it together in real situations

35. Café and Restaurant Expressions

The fixed phrases you need to order, ask for the bill, and not get glared at: je voudrais..., l'addition, s'il vous plaît, je prendrai... Practical, frequent, and an immediate confidence boost.

36. Greetings and Leavings

Bonjour in the morning, bonsoir in the evening, salut with friends, bonne journée when leaving. France in particular treats greetings as obligatory — entering a shop without saying bonjour registers as actively rude.

What you can do at the end of A1

By the end of this path you can:

• Introduce yourself, say where you are from, what you do, and what you like
• Order food, ask for prices, and handle a simple shop transaction
• Ask and answer basic personal questions (Où habites-tu ? Tu as des frères et sœurs ?)
• Conjugate the present tense of être, avoir, aller, faire, and any regular -er verb
• Form simple negatives and yes/no questions in two registers
• Recognise (not produce) the passé composé when you hear it
• Sound consistently French in your vowels and your final-consonant rule

What you cannot do yet — and what comes next in Parcours A2 — is talk about the past in any sustained way, plan the future explicitly, or use object pronouns (le, la, lui, les). Those are the headline acquisitions of the next level.

Common A1 traps

These are the mistakes English speakers make almost universally. Awareness is half the fix.

When in doubt, look the noun up. Gender is the single most consistent source of A1 errors, and there is no way around it except sustained exposure with the article attached.