Who this path is for
You have finished Parcours A2 — or its equivalent — and you can hold a real conversation in two past tenses, two futures, and the polite conditional. You can replace nouns with pronouns and tell a coherent story. What you cannot yet do is express opinions where French requires the subjunctive, talk about events that preceded other past events, hypothesise about counterfactuals, or stitch sentences together with the full set of relative pronouns. B1 fixes all of that.
B1 is where French starts to feel like a complete language rather than a working subset of one. It is also the level where most learners hit a wall — not because any single topic is hard, but because the volume of new structures is significantly higher than at A2. Plan for four to six months, and do not be alarmed if you spend three of those months on the subjunctive alone.
Phase 1 — The subjunctive
This is the headline B1 acquisition. The subjunctive is a mood, not a tense — it marks actions that exist in the realm of wishes, doubts, judgments, and possibilities rather than established facts. Once you grasp that core meaning, the long list of triggers becomes much less arbitrary.
1. Subjunctive: Overview
What the subjunctive is, why it exists, and why English speakers find it disorienting. Read this before anything else in Phase 1.
2. Subjonctif Présent: Formation
For most verbs: take the third-person plural of the present (ils parlent, ils finissent, ils vendent), drop the -ent, add -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent. Result: que je parle, que tu parles, qu'il parle, que nous parlions, que vous parliez, qu'ils parlent.
Il faut que je parte avant huit heures.
I have to leave before eight.
3. Irregular Subjunctive Stems
The verbs you must memorise: être → que je sois, avoir → que j'aie, aller → que j'aille, faire → que je fasse, pouvoir → que je puisse, savoir → que je sache, vouloir → que je veuille, falloir → qu'il faille, valoir → que je vaille, pleuvoir → qu'il pleuve. These ten cover roughly half of all subjunctive use in the wild.
4. Trigger: Falloir / Il faut que
The first trigger to master because it is the most common: il faut que je parte, il faut qu'on fasse attention. Use it for every "I have to / one must" sentence.
5. Trigger: Desire and Volition
Vouloir que, souhaiter que, préférer que, aimer que: when you want someone else to do something, French marks it with the subjunctive because the action is not (yet) a fact. Je veux qu'il vienne (I want him to come). Note that if the subject is the same, French uses an infinitive instead: je veux venir (I want to come) — no subjunctive needed.
Je voudrais qu'on parte tôt demain matin.
I'd like us to leave early tomorrow morning.
6. Trigger: Emotion
Être content/triste/surpris que, avoir peur que, regretter que: French marks the event as filtered through your emotional reaction. Je suis content que tu sois là (I'm glad you're here).
7. Trigger: Doubt and Uncertainty
Douter que, il est possible que, il se peut que, ne pas penser que (in the negative or interrogative). Doubt and possibility live in the subjunctive; certainty does not.
8. Penser / Croire: Affirmative vs Negated
The single trickiest subjunctive rule. Je pense qu'il vient (indicative — I believe he's coming, no doubt). Je ne pense pas qu'il vienne (subjunctive — I don't think he's coming, the action is doubted). The negation flips you into the subjunctive.
9. Trigger: Purpose Conjunctions
Pour que, afin que: when X happens in order that Y might happen. Je t'explique pour que tu comprennes (I'm explaining it so that you'll understand).
10. Trigger: Concession Conjunctions
Bien que, quoique, malgré que: "although". Bien qu'il soit fatigué, il continue à travailler (Although he's tired, he keeps working).
11. Trigger: Time-Anteriority Conjunctions
Avant que, jusqu'à ce que, en attendant que: when one event has not yet happened relative to another. Je reste jusqu'à ce qu'il arrive (I'll stay until he arrives).
12. Avoidance Strategies
When subject is the same in both clauses, French often prefers a preposition + infinitive over the subjunctive: avant de partir (before leaving) instead of avant que je parte. Pour faire instead of pour que je fasse. Knowing the avoidance routes saves you a lot of subjunctive errors.
13. Subjunctive in Spoken French
Yes, native speakers really do use the subjunctive in casual speech — but they avoid it where they can, and they make occasional errors with rarer verbs. Knowing what speakers actually do gives you permission to relax around the edges.
Phase 2 — Past tenses, expanded
A2 gave you two past tenses. B1 adds two more: the plus-que-parfait for events that preceded other past events, and the conditionnel passé for past hypotheticals.
14. Plus-que-parfait: Overview
The "past in the past": quand je suis arrivé, il était déjà parti (when I arrived, he had already left). Built like the passé composé but with the auxiliary in the imparfait: j'avais mangé, il était parti.
15. Plus-que-parfait: Formation
Avoir or être in the imparfait + past participle. Auxiliary choice is the same as in the passé composé; agreement rules are the same; the only thing that changes is the tense of the auxiliary.
Quand je suis arrivé, il était déjà parti.
When I arrived, he had already left.
16. Uses: Anteriority
The core use: marking that one past event happened before another past event. Once you can use the imparfait and passé composé together, layering in the plus-que-parfait is a small step.
Phase 3 — The conditional, expanded
A2 gave you the conditionnel présent for politeness. B1 adds the conditionnel passé (would have done) and connects both to the full si-clause system.
17. Conditional: Full Formation
Recap and consolidation: same stem as the futur simple, but with imparfait endings. Je parlerais, je serais, j'aurais.
18. Conditionnel Passé
Avoir or être in the conditionnel + past participle. J'aurais mangé, je serais allé. Used for past hypotheticals: "I would have done X" or "I should have done Y".
J'aurais préféré que tu m'appelles.
I'd have preferred you to call me.
19. Devrais and Past Regret
Tu devrais partir (you should leave) vs tu aurais dû partir (you should have left). The conditional of devoir — present and past — is how French expresses "should" and "should have".
20. Si-Clauses: Conditional Sentences
The three patterns:
- Realistic: si
- present, main clause in present or future. Si tu viens, on mange / on mangera.
- Hypothetical: si
- imparfait, main clause in conditionnel présent. Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais.
- Counterfactual past: si
- plus-que-parfait, main clause in conditionnel passé. Si j'avais su, je serais venu.
21. The Three Si-Types
A consolidated reference for the three patterns. The single most reliable B1 grammar error is mixing the tenses across these patterns; refer back here whenever you hesitate.
Si j'avais su, je n'y serais jamais allé.
If I had known, I'd never have gone there.
22. Never Si + Conditional
The classic English-speaker error: si je serais riche, j'achèterais une maison. Wrong. The conditional never appears in the si-clause itself. Use the imparfait there: si j'étais riche, j'achèterais une maison.
Phase 4 — Relative pronouns
Relative pronouns are what let you build long sentences without sounding choppy. French has four core ones at B1: qui, que, dont, and où. (Lequel is also relative, but mostly B2 territory.)
23. Relative Clauses: Overview
Why relative pronouns matter and how the four French ones map onto English "who/whom/which/whose/where/when".
24. Qui vs Que
Qui is the subject of the relative clause; que is the object. L'homme qui parle (the man who is speaking — qui = subject) vs l'homme que je vois (the man whom I see — que = object). Not gender, not animacy — purely grammatical role.
C'est l'homme qui m'a vendu la voiture.
That's the man who sold me the car.
C'est la voiture que j'ai achetée hier.
That's the car I bought yesterday.
25. Dont
The relative pronoun for de + X. Used for possession (l'homme dont je connais le fils — the man whose son I know), for verbs requiring de (la voiture dont je rêve — the car I dream of), and for topic (le livre dont je parle — the book I'm talking about). There is no clean English equivalent — dont compresses several English constructions into one.
26. Où
Relative pronoun of place and time: le café où je travaille (the café where I work), le jour où je suis arrivé (the day I arrived).
Phase 5 — Other B1 milestones
27. Reported Speech
When you re-tell what someone said: "Je viens" → il a dit qu'il venait. The tense shifts back one step: present → imparfait, passé composé → plus-que-parfait, futur → conditionnel. This is a high-frequency pattern, especially in journalism and storytelling.
28. Indirect Speech
Specifically how questions get reported: "Tu viens ?" → il m'a demandé si je venais. Est-ce que and inversion disappear; si replaces them.
29. Gérondif: Fuller Uses
A2 introduced the gérondif (en + ant) for simultaneity. B1 adds means (en travaillant dur — by working hard), condition (en partant maintenant — if we leave now), and the concessive tout en (tout en sachant la vérité — while knowing the truth).
30. Advanced Negation: Ne... rien, Ne... personne
Beyond ne... pas: ne... rien (nothing), ne... personne (nobody), ne... jamais (never), ne... plus (no longer), ne... aucun (no/none), ne... que (only). Each has its own quirks; see ne... personne and ne... jamais.
Je ne connais personne ici, et je n'ai vu personne arriver.
I don't know anyone here, and I haven't seen anyone arrive.
31. Ne... que: "Only"
A pseudo-negation that means "only": je n'ai que cinq euros (I only have five euros). Not actually negative in meaning — but it shares the ne structure.
32. Idiomatic Pronominal Verbs
Reflexive verbs whose meaning is not predictable from the non-reflexive form: s'en aller (to go away), se rappeler (to remember), se rendre compte de (to realise), s'agir de (to be about), se passer (to happen). High-frequency and idiomatic; memorise the list.
33. Prepositions: More Verbs
Which verbs take à before an infinitive (commencer à, apprendre à, réussir à) and which take de (essayer de, décider de, éviter de). There is no rule; there are only patterns and lists. Memorise the most frequent twenty.
34. Sequence of Tenses (Past)
The full system of how tenses align when the main clause is in the past. The shifts are predictable once you see the pattern; getting them right is what separates B1 from A2.
35. Complex Sentences Overview
A table mapping each conjunction (parce que, bien que, quand, si, pour que…) to the mood it takes. Bookmark this — it is the single most useful B1 reference.
What you can do at the end of B1
By the end of this path you can:
- Express opinions, doubts, wishes, and emotions with the subjunctive after the core triggers
- Distinguish four past tenses (passé composé, imparfait, plus-que-parfait, and the conditionnel passé) without thinking
- Build all three types of si-clause correctly
- Connect ideas with the four core relative pronouns
- Report someone else's words and questions
- Negate with the full set of negative adverbs
You are now functionally fluent for most everyday and many professional situations. What remains is consolidation, register awareness, and the harder syntactic structures (clefting, dislocation, the passive, the faire-causative) — the headline acquisitions of Parcours B2.
Common B1 traps
❌ Je veux que tu viens.
Incorrect — 'vouloir que' triggers the subjunctive.
✅ Je veux que tu viennes.
I want you to come.
❌ Si j'aurais le temps, je viendrais.
Incorrect — never use the conditional after 'si'.
✅ Si j'avais le temps, je viendrais.
If I had the time, I'd come.
❌ L'homme que parle est mon voisin.
Incorrect — the relative pronoun for a subject is 'qui', not 'que'.
✅ L'homme qui parle est mon voisin.
The man who is speaking is my neighbour.
❌ Je pense qu'il soit là.
Incorrect — affirmative 'penser que' takes the indicative.
✅ Je pense qu'il est là.
I think he's there.
❌ Il a dit qu'il vient demain.
Incorrect — reported speech in the past requires tense backshift.
✅ Il a dit qu'il venait le lendemain.
He said he was coming the next day.
❌ Bien qu'il est fatigué, il continue.
Incorrect — 'bien que' triggers the subjunctive.
✅ Bien qu'il soit fatigué, il continue.
Although he's tired, he keeps going.
The B1 wall is mostly a subjunctive wall. The other structures on this page are mechanical once you understand them; the subjunctive requires that you rebuild your mental category for fact versus non-fact. Take it slowly, drill the top five triggers until they are reflexes, and trust that the others will follow.
Now practice French
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning French→Related Topics
- Parcours A2: la Grammaire QuotidienneA2 — The grammar that turns A1 survival French into a working conversational language: past tenses, futures, pronouns, and the everyday connective tissue.
- 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 B2: Subjonctif et Syntaxe AvancéeB2 — The structures that take B1 fluency into B2 sophistication: the full subjunctive trigger set, the passive, the faire-causative, clefting, dislocation, and conscious register control.
- Le Subjonctif: Overview of the French SubjunctiveB1 — The French subjunctive is alive and well — used in casual conversation, not just literary prose. The mood marks uncertainty, emotion, necessity, and desire, and learners need it from B1 onward to sound like an adult speaker.
- Le Plus-que-parfait: OverviewB1 — The plus-que-parfait is the workhorse French past-anterior tense — for an action completed before another past action. It maps almost perfectly onto English 'had + past participle' (I had eaten, I had gone) and is essential for reported speech, sequential past, hypothetical regret, and si-clauses about past.
- Le Conditionnel: Overview of the French Conditional MoodA2 — The conditionnel is more than 'would' — it's the polite voice, the hypothetical voice, the future-in-the-past, and the journalistic hedge. One paradigm, six everyday jobs, and a place at the heart of grown-up French.
- Les Phrases Conditionnelles: les Trois TypesB1 — The three patterns of French conditional sentences — real, hypothetical, and counterfactual past — with the tense pairings, the iron rule that 'si' never takes the conditionnel, and the high-frequency English transfer errors learners must unlearn.
- Les Propositions Relatives: Vue d'ensembleB1 — A relative clause attaches a mini-sentence to a noun, sharpening or extending its description. French has a small set of relative pronouns — qui, que, dont, où, lequel — each tied to a specific syntactic role inside the clause. Mastering them unlocks complex sentence-building, and the rules are rigid: French never lets you drop a relative pronoun the way English does.