Question 1

How is veulent pronounced? Do I say the "-ent" at the end?

Accepted Answer

No, the -ent ending for the "they" form (ils or elles) of verbs is completely silent in French. You pronounce veulent like "vull" (roughly rhyming with the vowel sound in the English word "pull" or "sir").

Question 2

Do I need a word for "to" between veulent and apprendre?

Accepted Answer

No extra word is needed! The verb vouloir (to want) connects directly to the next verb. Since the dictionary form (infinitive) apprendre already means "to learn", you just put them right next to each other: veulent apprendre.

Question 3

Why is apprendre used here instead of a conjugated form?

Accepted Answer

When you have two verbs acting together in French, only the first one is conjugated to match the subject (ils veulent). The second verb stays in its unconjugated infinitive form (apprendre). This works just like English: "they want" (conjugated) + "to learn" (infinitive).

Question 4

Why is it qu'ils instead of que ils?

Accepted Answer

The phrase to ask a question is Est-ce que, but in French, two vowel sounds generally don't like to bump into each other. Because the pronoun ils starts with a vowel, the que drops its "e" and uses an apostrophe to become qu'ils. This makes the sentence flow more smoothly.

Question 5

Why is there an l' before anglais? We don't say "learn the English".

Accepted Answer

In French, you almost always need a definite article (le, la, l', or les meaning "the") before nouns, including the names of languages. Because anglais starts with a vowel, the masculine article le shrinks down to l'.

Est-ce qu'ils veulent apprendre l'anglais ?

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