About This Quiz
Think you know the ins and outs of French grammar? French may be known as the language of love, but it is actually a Romance language. This means that it is one of the languages, like Spanish, Portuguese and Italian that is a descendant of Latin. Latin was spoken by the Ancient Romans, which is why it is a Romance language. French is a tricky language to get a handle on, especially for English speakers, because it has a lot of elements that make it very different from English. From all of the accents, to the different pronunciations of letters, to the structure of sentences, French grammar can be a tricky thing to master. Â
For a long time, French was the international language of business, and while it isn't any longer, it is still one of the most spoken languages in Europe and spoken by more than 70 million people around the world. It's spoken in about 60 countries and is the official language in 29. You can hear French in Europe, Canada and Africa.Â
If you think you are ready to tackle the grammar of the world's most romantic language, then put your skills to the test with this quiz!Â
La fleur means flower in French. It, like many other French verbs, becomes plural when an -s is added.
One common example of this is "Je t'aime." This means "I love you."
L'accent aigu is the accent on top of the "e" in "la cédille." It means that, that "e" is pronounced with a long "a" sound.
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French nouns can be either masculine or feminine. Feminine nouns are denoted by the article "la" and masculine nouns are denoted by the article "le."
Verbs in the present tense are things that are happening right now. For example, if someone asks you what you are doing and you are eating a meal at that moment, you might respond "Je mange."
There are over a dozen verb tenses used in French, and all of them change how a verb is a written. For example, the verb "aimer" meaning "to love" is written as "J'aime" in the present tense, but "J'aimai" in the passe simple tense.
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This sentence means "I am eating cake." "Mange" comes from the verb "manger."
French, like Spanish, makes use of a formal and non-formal you. Use "tu" with your friends, loved ones, and others you know. Use "Vous" with strangers and those you want to show respect toward.
Some adjectives, like "calme," already end in -e. Nothing is done to them when they are used to describe feminine nouns.
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In French, there are several ways to ask questions. These include tacking "Est-ce que" on the beginning of any affirmative statement and ending it with a question mark and inversion.
L'accent grave can be found on top of a's, e's, and u's. This indicates that the vowel beneath it should be pronounced in a shortened way.
Nouns that end in -al end in -aux when made plural. Le journal, meaning the newspaper, becomes les journaux.
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"Elle" is a pronoun which means she. "Il" is he and it.
All unconjugated regular verbs except "aller," meaning to go, fall into two groups. They end in either -er or -ir, like "manger," which means to eat.
This sentence means "The jacket is green." La is the feminine article meaning "the."
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Toucher means "to touch." "Vous touchez" is formal and in the present. It means "you touch."
While words like la chemise and le café are feminine and masculine in their singular forms, they lose their gendered articles in the plural. They become les chemises and les cafés when plural.
The circumflex, or l'accent circonflexe, comes from an earlier state of French, but can still be seen in many words today. This includes both hôtel and the verb être, meaning "to be."
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All French nouns have a gender and the adjectives used to describe them generally change to reflect that. For example, the black bicycle would be "le vélo noir," but the black cup would be "la tasse noire."
Adjectives change in French to match the gender and number of a noun. For example "la chemise bleue" means "the blue shirt" and when plural becomes "les chemises bleues."
The default form of many French adjectives is masculine singular, like "bleu" which means "blue." The feminine singular form is "bleu."
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Elle and Il mean she and he, so verbs are conjugated the same to match these pronouns. "elle aime" means "she loves" and "il aime" means "he loves."
La cédille can be seen in words like "garçon." It indicates that the "c" should be pronounced as an "s."
All regular verbs with the exception of "aller" end en -er or -ir. Irregular verbs often have the other 3 endings.
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Nouns with these endings stay the same, but their article changes to make them plural. Un virus, a virus, becomes des virus when plural.
"Bon," meaning "good," becomes "bonne" when made feminine. For many French adjectives that end in a vowel and consonant, that consonant is doubled and an --e is added to make them feminine.
Le bijou means jewel in French. In French, nouns that end in -ou either take an -s or -x to become plural.
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Le tréma looks like two dots and is usually placed on the second of two vowels. It indicates that the vowels are both pronounced separately.
This is a popular informal way to ask questions. For example, "Vous dansez" becoming "Vous dansez?" is only a matter of pitch.
Certain adjectives in French do not follow any of the patterns of the language when it comes to matching gendered nouns. For example "blanc," meaning "white," is masculine singular and "blanche" is the feminine singular form.
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"Elle est grande" has the right pronoun, verb conjugation, and correct feminine verb agreement. It uses the correct conjugation of the irregular verb meaning "to be," être.
Passé composé is used to express an action that happened in the past or already started at the time of speaking. It involves using the verb "avoir" to talk about actions that already have happened.
Choisir means "to choose." Conjugated into the passé composé it reads "tu as choisi" which means "you have chosen."
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"Le chien est heureux." is correct. The article, verb tense, and adjective all match up.
Inversion is a formal way to ask questions where the conjugated verb and subject pronoun are switched and joined with a hyphen. "Quand veux-tu partir?" means "When do you want to leave?"