If you search Google enough for learning materials, you’ll find that we generally break up French into 6 stages: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2.
A1 – Brand spanking new. If I said, ‘Bonjour, merci mon amour,” you would smile and back away slowly…
A2 – You have some knowledge and can communicate in simple transactions such as buying food, talking about what to do for the evening, and introducing yourself.
B1 – You’re a wise gal. Maybe you can carry some extended, simple conversations in a social situation with patient French people.
B2 – You could navigate living in a francophone country and work in English… and hope to resolve most day-to-day challenges in French.
C1 – You have an advanced level. You can live and work in French, and you can make French friends.
C2 – Reserved for those who want to work with advanced French litterature. Most Americans would not be this level in English.
Now, forget all that. Sure, the academic community will push these levels onto you, and most websites will offer material based on your self-assesed level above. I think this is nonsense.
For one, even the Council of Europe’s official descriptions are hard to understand. It feels like guess work. For example, I passed the official C1 exam, my French friends say I’m beyond C2, and I would rank myself at B2 on the official scale.
In other words, please don’t think too hard about these descriptions. It’s a waste of time.
Instead, you should focus on French Fundamentals: the basic patterns that flow through each “level” of French. Once you have identified them, the only roadblock is building vocabulary.
Table of Contents
Those Nifty Patterns
I never got the chance to see these patterns up front. Instead, I spent years learning from textbooks and exercises, beating my head against a wall because I had no idea where I was going. If you have the framework for your learning–your Fundamental French–then you will be able to accelerate through the process.
That said, the following patterns may seem strange at first, especially if you’re a little rusty on your English grammar (I created an English grammar cheat sheet for you here). Spend some time looking these over and familiarizing yourself. Then you will be able to decide if you want to continue learning French. If so, check out the full version of French Fundamentals, a link to which you will find at the bottom of the article.
Alphabet
French uses the same alphabet as English. So hey, you win that debate with Russian and Mandarin learners!
Nouns
French nouns carry the same characteristics as their English counterparts. Learning them is simply a vocabulary battle (see The 500 Word Rule). You have to use the balanced strategy to start learning the words. Pattern #1: in English, we have common word endings that we use to identify certain traits.
For examples, -ness means “of the quality.” So kindness means “of the kind quality.” There are also “-ern,” “-e,” “-tle,” and a multitude of others that carry patterns. In Fundamental French, I lay these out so you can begin to familiarize yourself with them.
In addition, French nouns have genders: feminin and maculin. A car, for example, is feminin in French. Don’t get scared. This simply means you learn the article (the, a) that comes before each noun. Pattern #2: endings that indicate genders in French and their articles. I explain it in depth in French Fundamentals!
Pronouns
In English, the basic pronouns are I, you, she/he/one/it, we, and they. In French it’s almost the same. The main difference is the addition of the formal “you.”
In French, there are two ways to say “you.” One is formal, and the other is informal. At a dinner party, you would use the you formal. With your friends, you would use the you informal. This isn’t exacly a pattern, but it’s an important point that I explain more thoroughly in French Fundamentals.
Adjectives
French adjectives come almost always after the noun. In English, it’s ussually before. For example, to say, “the slow car,” in French, you say “the car slow.” There are some exceptions to this rule, and I explain them in French Fundamentals. Pattern #3: Adjectives come after the noun.
In addition, adjectives must agree with the noun in both number and gender. This means that adjectives must be spelled differently based on the plurality and gender of the noun they modify. This sounds more complicated than it actually is. Pattern #4: Adjectives agree with the noun they modify.
Verbs
Oh French verbs–the turning point of the language journey. This is where many people get scared because of conjugations. But conjugations exist in English as well! For example, the verb “to run” changes based on who is running. Let’s look at “I” and “she:” I run often. She runs often.
In French, there is a different conjugation for each suject: I, you, she/he/one, we, you (formal), and they. The good news is that there are patterns. Three different patterns make up the vast majority of verb conjugations. Then, there are some verbs that follow their own pattern: irregular verbs. Pattern #5: French verb conjugations.
Second, French verbs have a different infinitive form. In English, the infinitive is “to ___,” such as to run, to make, to fly, etc. In French, the infinitive is simply one word: the verb ending in -er, -ir, or -re. Pattern #6: the French infinitive endings. These are what help you with pattern #5.
Third, French tenses (past, present, and future) all follow a similar two-word format. Once you learn this format, the rest comes naturally. Pattern #7: French verbs have a pattern with regard to tenses.
Slow down there Noah…
I know, it’s starting to feel like a lot. Don’t worry, really. I’m packing this information tightly here, and if you are rusty on your English grammar, it feels overwhelming. What you’re feeling is the tricky thing about languages. You feel like you have to learn grammar terms in order to learn regular words… that’s normal. There is a steep learning curve. Once you get over these basics, i.e Fundamental French, your progress will skyrocket.
Adverbs
Just as in English, most adverbs have the same ending. In English, it’s -ly. In French, it’s -ment. That’s easier! Partern #8: Adjectives end in -ment.
Prepositions
In English, some common examples are in, to, over, under, from, with, etc. They connect ideas. In French, there are two preposition rules to remember. Pattern #9: Propositions follow two rules.
Saying “Not,” or the Negative
Think about how you say the opposite of doing an action, like running. It’s a fundamental part of language, but we almost always overlook it becasue it feels so simple. For example, negate “I am running.” You got it: “I am not running.” In English, to negate an action (a verb), we simply add “not.” More examples: “I do not want to go to the movies,” “You are not my friend,” “The negative is not so complicated in English.”
Excellent.
In French, the negative is a two-word construction, made up of “ne” and “pas.” For fun’s sake, let’s see what that would look like in an English sentence: “I ne want pas to go.” In other words, you put the “ne” before a verb and the “pas” just after it. Thus, pattern #10: the negative in French uses a two-word constuction: ne…pas.
The negative changes slightly depending on the tense of the verb (past, present, future), and I explain this more thoroughly in French Fundamentals.
Asking questions in French
There are several ways to ask questions in French. Here’s a secret: you only need two of them, and they work no matter the context. Pattern #11: asking questions in French requires two basic phrases.
Who, what, when, where, why and how
Once you know how to ask questions, you only need to add these 6 words to your reperatoire in order to get any information you want. You really don’t need Fundamental French for this because you can simply translate these words with Google. As a gesture of goof faith, I encourage you to do so now. Then come back to get some more examples in Fundamental French! Pattern #12: how to ask questions that need more than a “yes” or “no.”
Download the eBook for Free!
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