Question 1

Why does appelle have two Ls here, but the infinitive verb appeler only has one?

Accepted Answer

Appeler is a stem-changing verb. You double the l whenever the verb ending is silent. In j'appelle, the -e ending is silent, so the double l tells you to change the pronunciation of the vowel before it from a soft uh sound to an open eh sound. You do not double the l for forms with pronounced endings, like nous appelons.

Question 2

Why is it j'appelle instead of je appelle?

Accepted Answer

Whenever the pronoun je comes right before a verb starting with a vowel (like the a in appelle) or a silent H, you drop the e and use an apostrophe. This process, called elision, helps the words flow together smoothly without a pause.

Question 3

If I were calling a female friend, would I change mon to ma?

Accepted Answer

No, you would actually still say mon amie. Even though the noun is feminine, it starts with a vowel. French uses the masculine mon before any singular noun starting with a vowel to avoid the awkwardness of saying two vowels in a row, like ma amie.

Question 4

How do you form adverbs like immédiatement?

Accepted Answer

The French suffix -ment works a lot like the English suffix -ly. To make an adverb, you typically take the feminine form of an adjective, which here is immédiate, and add -ment. This turns the adjective immediate into the adverb immediately.

J'appelle mon ami immédiatement.

Breakdown of J'appelle mon ami immédiatement.

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