Who this path is for
You have finished Parcours A1 — or its equivalent — and you can hold a halting conversation in the present tense. You can introduce yourself, order food, and ask basic questions. What you cannot yet do is talk about anything that happened yesterday, anything that will happen tomorrow, or anything more nuanced than "I do X". A2 fixes all of that.
This is the level where most learners feel real, dramatic progress for the first time. You will roughly double your sentence length, halve your dependence on hand gestures, and start to recognise yourself as someone who speaks French, not someone who is learning French. Plan for three to five months of steady study.
Phase 1 — The two past tenses
French splits past time differently from English. Where English has one workhorse past ("I ate", "I was eating", "I did eat", "I have eaten"), French has two — and they are not interchangeable. The passé composé tells you what happened. The imparfait tells you what was going on or what used to happen. Get this right and you sound French; get it wrong and every story you tell sounds slightly off.
1. Passé Composé: Overview
The default past tense in spoken and informal written French. Built with an auxiliary (avoir or être) plus a past participle. J'ai mangé, je suis allé(e).
2. Formation with Avoir + Regular -er
About 90% of verbs take avoir: parler → j'ai parlé, aimer → j'ai aimé. The participle of -er verbs ends in -é.
J'ai mangé une pizza incroyable hier soir.
I had an incredible pizza last night.
3. Formation with Avoir + Irregular Participles
The high-frequency irregulars: avoir → eu, être → été, faire → fait, prendre → pris, voir → vu, boire → bu, vouloir → voulu, pouvoir → pu, devoir → dû, mettre → mis, dire → dit, écrire → écrit, lire → lu. Memorise the list — these participles appear daily.
4. Formation with Être: the "Maison d'Être"
A small but indispensable group of verbs takes être, not avoir, as their auxiliary. The traditional mnemonic ("the house of être") groups them: aller, venir, monter, descendre, entrer, sortir, arriver, partir, rester, retourner, tomber, naître, mourir, plus their compounds. With être, the participle agrees with the subject: elle est allée, ils sont partis.
5. Formation with Être + Reflexive Verbs
Every reflexive verb takes être: je me suis lavé(e), nous nous sommes levés. The reflexive pronoun stays glued to the auxiliary.
6. Imparfait: Overview
The other past tense. Used for ongoing past states, descriptions, habits, and background. Je mangeais, il faisait beau, nous habitions à Paris.
7. Imparfait: Formation
A single, easy rule: take the nous-form of the present, drop the -ons, add -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. Only one verb is irregular (être → j'étais).
Quand j'étais petit, j'habitais à Bordeaux.
When I was little, I lived in Bordeaux.
8. Imparfait for Habits and Descriptions
The default tense for "used to" sentences and for setting a scene: tous les étés, on allait à la mer, il faisait nuit, le café était vide.
9. Imparfait for Interrupted Actions
The classic "I was X-ing when Y happened" pattern. The ongoing action goes in the imparfait; the interrupting event in the passé composé: je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné.
Je dormais quand le téléphone a sonné.
I was sleeping when the phone rang.
10. Choosing: Passé Composé vs Imparfait
The single most important page on this whole path. Read it three times. The rule of thumb: ask whether the past event has a finished beginning-middle-end you could draw on a timeline (passé composé), or whether it was a state, a description, or a repeated habit (imparfait).
Phase 2 — Talking about the future
French has two main ways to express future events, and you should learn to use both. They are not stylistic variants — they encode different things.
11. Future Tense: Overview
The map: futur proche for plans and near events, futur simple for predictions and more distant or formal futures.
12. Futur Proche: aller + infinitive
The simpler form and the more common one in conversation: je vais manger, on va voir, ils vont arriver. If you only learn one future form, learn this one.
Je vais appeler ma mère ce soir.
I'm going to call my mother tonight.
13. Futur Simple: Formation
Add -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont to the infinitive (or to a modified stem for irregulars): je parlerai, tu finiras, il vendra. Note that the endings come from the present-tense forms of avoir — that is not a coincidence; it is the etymology.
14. Irregular Future Stems
About twenty common verbs use an irregular stem in the futur simple: être → je serai, avoir → j'aurai, aller → j'irai, faire → je ferai, venir → je viendrai, voir → je verrai, pouvoir → je pourrai, vouloir → je voudrai, savoir → je saurai. The stem is the same in the conditionnel, so learning it now is double-duty.
15. Choosing: Futur Simple vs Futur Proche
When each is preferred. Rough rule: futur proche for things you've decided to do, futur simple for predictions and formal writing.
Phase 3 — The conditional, for politeness above all
The conditionnel will return at B1 as the headline tense for hypotheticals. At A2 you need it for one reason: politeness. Je voudrais is far softer than je veux, and using the wrong one is the single most common politeness misstep English speakers make.
16. Conditional: Overview
The conditionnel uses the same stem as the futur simple but with imparfait endings: je parlerais, je serais, je voudrais.
17. Voudrais, Pourrais: Politeness
The two conditional forms you must master at A2. Je voudrais un café (I'd like a coffee) — not je veux un café, which sounds like a demand. Pourriez-vous m'aider ? (Could you help me?) — softer than pouvez-vous m'aider ?
Je voudrais réserver une table pour deux, s'il vous plaît.
I'd like to reserve a table for two, please.
Tu pourrais me passer le sel ?
Could you pass me the salt?
Phase 4 — Object pronouns
A1 left you saying je vois Marie, je parle à Marie, j'aime Marie like a textbook robot. A2 fixes this by introducing object pronouns — the words for her, him, it, them, to her, to him. These pronouns sit before the verb in French (unlike English), and getting comfortable with their position is the single biggest A2 syntax leap.
18. Pronouns: Overview
The full inventory and how the pieces fit together. Bookmark this page; you will come back to it.
19. Direct Object Pronouns
Me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les. They replace the direct object: je vois Marie → je la vois. Note that le and la both contract to l' before a vowel: je l'aime.
— Tu connais ce film ? — Oui, je l'ai vu trois fois.
— Do you know this film? — Yes, I've seen it three times.
20. Direct Object Pronoun Placement
The pronoun goes before the conjugated verb (je le vois, je l'ai vu) — never after. The one exception is the affirmative imperative (regarde-le !).
21. Indirect Object Pronouns
Me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur. Replace à + person. Je parle à Marie → je lui parle. Note that lui and leur don't distinguish gender — both work for masculine and feminine.
Je lui ai téléphoné hier soir.
I called him/her last night.
22. Multiple Pronouns: Order
When two pronouns stack, they follow a fixed order: me/te/se/nous/vous before le/la/les before lui/leur before y before en. Je le lui donne (I give it to him). Memorise the order; do not try to derive it.
23. The Pronoun y
Replaces à + place (or à + thing): je vais à Paris → j'y vais. Also appears in fixed expressions: il y a, j'y suis, ça y est.
24. The Pronoun en
Replaces de + something and quantities: j'ai trois frères → j'en ai trois, je veux du pain → j'en veux. The trickiest pronoun for English speakers, but it is unavoidable.
— Tu as des enfants ? — Oui, j'en ai deux.
— Do you have kids? — Yes, I have two.
Phase 5 — Reflexive verbs
Reflexive (or "pronominal") verbs are everywhere in French, including for many actions that English does not mark as reflexive: se lever (to get up), se laver (to wash), se promener (to go for a walk), s'amuser (to have fun), se souvenir (to remember).
25. Reflexive Verbs: Overview
Why French marks so many actions as reflexive, and what the se actually means.
26. True Reflexives
Where the subject and object are the same: je me lave (I wash myself).
27. Reciprocal Reflexives
For "each other": ils se parlent (they talk to each other), nous nous voyons souvent (we see each other often).
28. Reflexives in the Passé Composé
All reflexives take être in the passé composé. The participle usually agrees with the subject, with a notable exception when there is a separate direct object (elle s'est lavée but elle s'est lavé les mains).
Je me suis levé tard ce matin.
I got up late this morning.
Phase 6 — The connective tissue
29. Possessive Determiners
Mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, son, sa, ses, notre, votre, leur, nos, vos, leurs. The form depends on the gender and number of the thing possessed, not the possessor: sa voiture can mean "his car" or "her car".
30. Mon/Ma with Vowel-Initial Nouns
Before a vowel, feminine ma becomes mon for euphony: mon amie, never ma amie. Same for ton/sa.
31. Demonstrative Ce, Cet, Cette, Ces
"This/that": ce livre, cet ami (vowel-initial), cette histoire, ces enfants.
32. Comparatives
Plus... que (more than), moins... que (less than), aussi... que (as ... as). Marie est plus grande que Paul. Irregulars to memorise: bon → meilleur, bien → mieux, mauvais → pire.
Mon nouvel appartement est plus grand mais moins lumineux que l'ancien.
My new flat is bigger but less bright than the old one.
33. Superlatives
Le plus... de, le moins... de: c'est le restaurant le plus cher du quartier. The article doubles: once for the noun, once before plus/moins.
34. Depuis + Present Tense
The single most common A2 trap. To say "I've been doing X for Y", French uses the present tense: j'habite ici depuis cinq ans (I have lived here for five years). English uses a perfect; French does not. This rule will trip you up at least twenty times before it sticks.
35. Prepositions with Countries
En with feminine countries (en France, en Italie), au with masculine (au Japon, au Canada), aux with plurals (aux États-Unis). The gender of a country is usually predictable from its ending: countries ending in -e are feminine (with the exception of le Mexique, le Mozambique, le Cambodge, le Zimbabwe, le Zaïre).
36. Gérondif Basics
En + present participle: en mangeant, en partant, en travaillant. Expresses simultaneity ("while X-ing") or means ("by X-ing"): j'écoute de la musique en cuisinant (I listen to music while cooking).
What you can do at the end of A2
By the end of this path you can:
- Tell a coherent story about your past, switching between the passé composé and the imparfait without thinking
- Make plans, predictions, and polite requests
- Replace nouns with the full set of object pronouns
- Talk about routines, including reflexive actions
- Compare things and describe relationships
- Handle prepositions with countries, cities, and most everyday locations
You are now functionally conversational. The structures that remain (the subjunctive, the plus-que-parfait, si-clauses, relative pronouns) are the headline acquisitions of Parcours B1.
Common A2 traps
❌ J'habite ici pendant cinq ans.
Incorrect — for ongoing duration, use 'depuis' with the present.
✅ J'habite ici depuis cinq ans.
I've been living here for five years.
❌ Je vois Marie hier.
Incorrect — yesterday requires the past tense.
✅ J'ai vu Marie hier.
I saw Marie yesterday.
❌ Je suis allé à le cinéma.
Incorrect — 'à + le' contracts to 'au'.
✅ Je suis allé au cinéma.
I went to the cinema.
❌ Je veux un café.
Acceptable but blunt; politer to use the conditional.
✅ Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît.
I'd like a coffee, please.
❌ Je vois la.
Incorrect — direct object pronoun goes before the verb.
✅ Je la vois.
I see her.
❌ Je suis mangé hier.
Incorrect — 'manger' takes 'avoir', not 'être'.
✅ J'ai mangé hier.
I ate yesterday.
The auxiliary-choice mistake (using être where avoir belongs, or vice versa) is the single most common A2 conjugation error. The "Maison d'Être" verbs plus reflexives take être; everything else takes avoir. There is no shortcut except sustained practice.
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Start learning French→Related Topics
- Parcours A1: les Bases AbsoluesA1 — The thirty-or-so topics to master as an absolute beginner in French, in the order that minimises confusion and maximises useful sentences.
- Parcours d'Apprentissage: OverviewA1 — A map of the six CEFR-aligned learning paths for French, from absolute beginner to native-level mastery, with what to focus on at each level.
- Parcours B1: Vers la MaîtriseB1 — The grammar that takes you from functional A2 conversation to expressing almost any idea: the subjunctive, the full conditional system, plus-que-parfait, and the four relative pronouns.
- Le Passé Composé: OverviewA1 — The passé composé is French's main spoken past tense — used for completed past events, formed with avoir or être plus a past participle. It does the work that English splits between simple past (I ate) and present perfect (I have eaten).
- L'imparfait : vue d'ensembleA2 — The imparfait — French's past-imperfective tense. Five core uses (habit, description, ongoing action, politeness, hypothetical), one almost-universal formation (1pl present minus -ons plus -ais/-ais/-ait/-ions/-iez/-aient), and the single irregular stem (être → ét-).
- Passé Composé vs ImparfaitA2 — The central French past-tense decision. Passé composé reports completed events; imparfait paints background, ongoing states, and habits. Mastering the distinction means learning to think of the past as a film in which the camera either holds steady (imparfait) or cuts (passé composé).
- Le Futur: OverviewA1 — French has two main futures — the synthetic futur simple (je parlerai) and the analytic futur proche (je vais parler) — plus the futur antérieur (j'aurai parlé) for completed future actions. This page maps how each is built, when each is used, and how they divide up the future-time space.
- Les Pronoms Compléments d'Objet Direct (COD)A1 — Direct object pronouns — me, te, le, la, nous, vous, les — replace the noun the verb acts on. They sit in front of the verb, not after, and that single fact reshapes how French sentences are built.