Autour de l'École (Around the School) | Foreign Language

Getting to know someone means being able to talk about age, profession, family, and address, and to describe the everyday objects and surroundings of a classroom. The verb avoir (to have) is central here, and, alongside être, forms the backbone of everyday spoken French.

Grammar

The Verb avoir (to have)

Examples:

• J'ai un frère. — I have a brother.
• Tu as quel âge ? — How old are you? (literally: you have what age?)
• Nous avons une classe à dix heures. — We have a class at ten o'clock.

Important idiomatic uses of avoir that don't translate literally from English — French uses “to have” where English uses “to be”:

Example: J'ai vingt ans. J'ai faim et j'ai soif ! — I am twenty years old. I am hungry and thirsty!

Il y a (There is / There are)

Il y a is invariable — it doesn't change for singular or plural, unlike English's "there is" vs. "there are."

• Il y a un livre sur la table. — There is a book on the table.
• Il y a des étudiants dans la classe. — There are students in the class.
• Il y a vingt personnes ici. — There are twenty people here.
• Negative: Il n'y a pas de... — Il n'y a pas de professeur aujourd'hui. (There is no teacher today.)

Singular to Plural (Le pluriel)

The general rule for forming plurals in French is to add -s, just as in English, though it is usually silent in speech (which is why il y a doesn't audibly change).

Note: the article changes along with the noun — un/une (singular) becomes des (plural) for indefinite articles, and le/la becomes les for definite articles.

Contracted Articles (Les articles contractés)

When the prepositions à (to/at) or de (of/from) are followed directly by the definite articles le or les, French forces them to contract into a single word. This is compulsory — you cannot say "à le" or "de les" in French.

Only le and les contract; la and l' never do.

Prepositions (Les prépositions)

Examples: Le stylo est sur la table. (The pen is on the table.) / Je vais chez le professeur. (I'm going to the teacher's place.) / Elle habite à Paris. (She lives in Paris.)

Numbers: 50 to Infinity

French numbers develop an important irregularity between 60 and 99 that trips up most learners, because French (unlike English) doesn’t have separate words for seventy, eighty, and ninety. It builds them out of sixty and twenty instead, a leftover of an old base-20 (vigesimal) counting system.

Note: quatre-vingts takes an -s when it stands alone (80 exactly), but loses it when followed by another number (quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-deux...).

Vocabulary

Age, Profession, Family, Address

Family (La famille)

In the Classroom (Dans la classe)

Days and a Timetable (L'emploi du temps)

Sample Dialogue

Jai : Salut ! Je m'appelle Jai. Et toi, comment tu t'appelles ? (Hi! My name is Jai. And you, what's your name?)

Meera : Je m'appelle Meera. Enchantée ! (My name is Meera. Pleased to meet you!)

Jai : Quel âge as-tu ? (How old are you?)

Meera : J'ai dix-neuf ans. Et toi ? (I am nineteen years old. And you?)

Jai : J'ai vingt ans. Tu as des frères et sœurs ? (I am twenty. Do you have any siblings?)

Meera : Oui, j'ai un frère. Il s'appelle Arjun. Et il y a aussi ma sœur, Diya. (Yes, I have a brother. His name is Arjun. And there's also my sister, Diya.)

Jai : Super ! Tu habites où ? (Great! Where do you live?)

Meera : J'habite à Shimla, près du collège. (I live in Shimla, near the college.)

Tasks

1. Introduce a friend, teacher, or classmate

Je vous présente mon professeur. Il s'appelle Monsieur Dubois. Il est français, il vient de Paris. Il a quarante-cinq ans. Il est professeur de français à notre collège.
(Let me introduce my teacher. His name is Mr. Dubois. He is French, he comes from Paris. He is forty-five years old. He is a French teacher at our college.)

2. Describe an object

Voici mon sac. Il y a un livre, un cahier et deux stylos dans le sac. Il y a aussi un ordinateur. Le livre est sur la table et le sac est sous la chaise.
(Here is my bag. There is a book, a notebook, and two pens in the bag. There is also a computer. The book is on the table and the bag is under the chair.)

3. Make a timetable

(Monday, 9 o'clock: I have a French class. Tuesday, 10 o'clock: I have a law class. Wednesday, 11 o'clock: I have an English class. Thursday, 2pm: I have a history class. Friday, 3pm: I have a mathematics class.)