Learn French: J'appelle mon ami immédiatement. - I am calling my friend immediately.

J'appelle mon ami immédiatement.

I am calling my friend immediately.

Breakdown of J'appelle mon ami immédiatement.

Questions & Answers about J'appelle mon ami immédiatement.

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

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.

Why is it j'appelle instead of je appelle?

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.

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

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.

How do you form adverbs like immédiatement?