The Best And Most Efficient Way To Learn French / Step #1

Avant de commencer, so before we start learning French together, I just wanted to actually tell you something and it's the fact that French language and English language, well they've got a special, special relationship. Well the first thing that of course you probably know, like many other languages, French tend to take quite many new words from English, so these are called les néologismes. So it does mean that you already know quite many words in French, when we're talking about the new words, of course you will have to pronounce them a bit differently. And the second thing that you should keep in mind, maybe you don't know that already, but until the 14th century, approximately 10,000 words were introduced into English language and they were coming from French and Norman. So what does it mean? It does mean that you know a lot, and really I mean a lot of French words already, if you master English, if it's your mother tongue, then it's quite good for you. If it's not your mother tongue, then you will encounter, while we do this series of videos, many words that you already know, because you've been learning them already in English. So this is the thing, and well, just wanted to start with that, keep in mind that you already know quite many words in French before you even start learning it. But now, we will start with a serious thing, and we will start learning French. So the structure of the sentence in French. So you'll see that in a way it's not that different from English, because we are using English here to study and for me to teach. So it means that for us it will be quite nice, because in a way French language will actually work or behave in a way similar to English. So first normally will come the subject, le sujet, then you will put the verb, le verbe, and after that will come what we call les compléments. So this is the normal structure of a sentence, you start with the subject, then will come the verb, and after that you will complete the sentence with more information, so basically des compléments. So let's see now an example, je suis français, je, I, so it's the subject here, suis, so it's to be, you conjugate it, I am, français, in that case it's an adjective and it's French. Je suis français. So it goes in that order, you will start with the subject, then you will put the verb, you can see that the verb is conjugated here, so you will have to modify it according to the subject, and then after that you will put more information, adjectives, or other things if you want. And then a second example, tu habites en France, tu, it's you, habite, the verb is habiter, and then you conjugate it here, habiter is to live, en France, in France, so you can see that in that case it's what we call complément de lieu, you introduce a place here, tu habites en France. But then we keep the same order because that's normally the way we should do it, so first the subject, then the verb, same thing here, you conjugate it according to tu, and after that in that case you will put en France. So this is what we call a normal sentence, une phrase normale. But then of course, as usual, in French, and this is something that you will discover with all these videos that I will make, we've got some exceptions possible, and then the modifications, you can modify the sentences in some cases, but then this is the basic, you should keep in mind that first you will put the subject, then the verb is coming, and after that the complément. Le sujet, le verbe, les compléments. Je suis français, tu habites en France, and that's it. Les phrases simples, so simple sentences, and we'll see that right now. So les phrases simples in French language are la phrase interrogative, la phrase affirmative, la phrase négative, la phrase exclamative, la phrase impérative. So la phrase interrogative, interrogative sentence, la phrase affirmative, affirmative sentence, la phrase négative, negative sentence, la phrase exclamative, exclamation, la phrase impérative, imperative sentence. And we'll start of course with the first one, so for each type of sentence I will put an example. So let's start with la phrase interrogative, aimez-vous le fromage? So the first thing that you should notice is this point d'interrogation here, and then keep in mind that in French we will put a space before. The second thing that you can notice is that you've got the verb here, aimer, aimer is to like, or to love, and then you will have this vous, so it's the you, and it's the plural form, aimez-vous, do you like, do you love, do you love, sorry, le fromage, so it's cheese of course, it's a question that a French person could ask, you know, do you love cheese, do you like cheese? And well the first thing, or the second, because the first one was le point d'interrogation, the second thing that you could notice is that if we want to respect the rule when we ask a question, we should change the order of the sentence, so normally in French we've got first the subject, then the verb, but when we ask a question like that, and we want to, well, respect the rule, then we should first put the verb, then the subject, okay? I will make some videos explaining how it works in real situations, or if this is the way that people do normally when they ask a question, but this is the way it should be done, okay? So this is a question, c'est une phrase interrogative, aimez-vous le fromage, aimez-vous le fromage, and remember you need to raise your voice a little bit at the end, aimez-vous le fromage, phrase affirmative, oui, j'aime le fromage, in that case you just want to say that you like or you love cheese, and then this is affirmative, you will start with oui here, oui, j'aime le fromage, okay? So you can see that in that case you will use this je, I will explain in a next video why the e is disappearing here, and then it's I like, oui, j'aime le fromage. So you keep the same order, subject and then verb, okay? So the order that actually normally we've got in the French language, the subject, the verb is coming. So in that case you want to say non, non, je n'aime pas le fromage, no, I don't like cheese, okay? And in that case, well, we'll see that a bit later as well, you will use this ne and then pas, so basically when we introduce the negative form in French we will have two parts, that will be before and after the verb, okay? Non, je n'aime pas le fromage. La phrase impérative, mangeons ce fromage, okay? And in that case you can see quite clearly that you get what we call le point d'exclamation here at the end, keep in mind that you should put a space before it, okay? So, point d'exclamation, and normally it means that you will use that whether to give an order, in most of the cases it will be for an order, or then if you want to give an advice, it's possible as well, okay? And in that case, mangeons, so it's a new form, okay? So, we eat, okay? So let's eat, but in that case it could be an order, so eat this cheese, okay? You can see that, we will see, when we'll discover l'impératif form together, that this nou, so the subject, is not here, it's something quite special for the imperative form, you take away les pronoms personnels, mangeons ce fromage, okay? In that case, this sentence is une phrase, phrase exclamative, and in that case it's actually interesting because it's so short, and in a way it's a sentence even if you don't have any verb, because here, quel, what, and then bon, good, fromage, so one more time, cheese, what a good cheese, quel bon fromage, okay? It's a sentence, but then clearly you don't have any verb, okay? So it means that in some cases, like this one for instance, you can have sentences without having a verb in, and it's here, une phrase exclamative, quel bon fromage, le sujet, and we'll see actually in this video what is the subject of a sentence, okay? Basically it can be un nom, un pronom personnel, un pronom interrogatif, un pronom indéfini. So when we're talking about a subject, it can be un nom, and it's a noun, un pronom personnel, and it's a subject pronoun, un pronom interrogatif, interrogative pronoun, or then un pronom indéfini, indefinite pronoun. We'll see, and we'll of course start with the first one, un nom, okay? So let's start with un nom, and I just wanted to have a simple sentence in that case, and it will be Vincent enseigne le français, okay? So Vincent is the first name, and it's mine by the way, enseigne, here you've got a verb, so the verb is enseigner, and it's conjugated in that case, le français, so it's French, and we're referring to French language. Vincent enseigne le français. And in this sentence you can see quite easily that Vincent here is the subject of the verb here, okay? So we could also change this Vincent, take it away and then put le professeur, and it means the teacher, and it will stay also the subject of the sentence, so it's connected directly to the verb enseigner here. Le sujet peut être un pronom personnel, so it can be also a subject pronoun as we saw, so let's see now how it would go. And in that case, same thing, simple sentence to start, il visite Paris, okay? So you get il here, il visite, this is the verb visiter, you conjugate it, il visite Paris. So in that case you can see also quite easily that this is the subject of the sentence, and it's what we call un pronom personnel, so in English it's more clear because it's subject pronoun, so no doubt about the function, and actually we'll discover them together, so the first one is je, I, tu, you, il, he, elle, she, okay? So je, tu, il, elle. And then for the plural form, we have nous, oui, vous, you, so for the plural form, as in English, we tend to use it, well of course for the plural form, and also for the polite form if you meet someone for the first time, it would be nice to use vous instead of tu. Ils, they, so it's the masculine in that case, and then elles, they, but it's the feminine in that case, so in French we make the difference between the masculine form and the feminine form when we use les pronoms personnels and the plural, okay? So je, tu, il, elle, nous, vous, il, elle, alright? And so let's see now un pronom interrogatif, so same thing, simple structure, simple sentence, and the sentence is qui parle, so it's a question, okay? So the verb is parler, parler is to talk, okay? And then when you put this qui, and qui is who, basically this qui becomes of course the subject in this sentence, and it's a question, who is talking? Qui parle, qui parle, and the last one will be un pronom indéfini. And it's also quite useful, and I just wanted to make a simple sentence as well to make it clear, same verb, parler is to talk, and then quelqu'un, someone or somebody, okay? And in that case, quelqu'un parle, somebody is talking, someone is talking, and in that case you can see quite easily that quelqu'un is the subject of the sentence. Le sujet et le verbe, so the subject and the verb, and it's actually quite important when we start to learn French, just to know that in French, basically the subject will affect the verb, okay? So I just wanted to take a simple example first, because we will focus on the conjugation a bit later. So it's not the idea of this lesson, the idea of this lesson is just to show you that basically the relationship between the subject and the verb is quite close, because the verb will be affected by the subject. So the verb is marcher, marcher is to walk, okay? And let's take the example of il, okay? So it's he, and basically when you use il, you will have to conjugate the verb. So conjugate the verb means that for each form you will have a specific ending, okay? This is the basic form here, marcher, it's what we call the infinitive, all right? But then you don't reuse marcher just like that, you will have to conjugate it, so you will have to modify the ending according to the subject. In that case, il requires that you will put this final e here, so you will get il marche, all right? And then it will be exactly the same thing for the plural form of il, so they, il marche, and if you look carefully, the ending is different, okay? We will see everything covering the conjugation a bit later, it's just to show you that the subject is basically affecting quite much the verb, okay? And so when we're talking about this topic, basically it's quite good to have a general view of the conjugation of marcher, so how it will be modified according to the subject. So the first person, je, I, you will get je marche, tu marches, il, elle, okay? So tu is for you, the singular form, then il, he, elle, she, marche, nous, marchons, so it's we, the plural form, vous, you, the plural form, marcher, and then il, oops sorry, elle, and the plural, marche. So you can see that basically the forms are different, and it's one important thing that you get to keep in mind, and that can be a bit tricky or difficult at the beginning, but then once you get used, you will remember the endings, okay? So basically the subject will affect the verb, okay? And it was the topic of this video. Les lettres, so the letters, and basically it is quite important because of course when you learn a language, well you get to know the letters and you want to pronounce it correctly. So this is exactly what we'll try to do here, I will show you the letters, okay? So we'll divide them into two groups, the vowels and the consonants, and then I will pronounce them, okay? So let's first start with the vowels, and in French we have six vowels, six voyelles, and the first one is A, E, I, O, U, Y, okay? This one is quite tricky for some of you maybe, because maybe in your languages this Y is not a vowel but a consonant, in French it is a vowel, okay? A, E, I, O, U, Y, okay? And then let's see the consonants, and we've got 20 consonants, so 20 consonants, and the first one is B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z, okay? So it's B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z, okay? So it was just to present you these letters, so the six vowels and 20 consonants that we do have in French, don't worry in the coming videos we will focus on the pronunciation and we'll see how to combine them and how to pronounce them when we combine them, okay? But then keep them in mind and try to practice on your own, okay? Les modes et les temps, so basically when you translate it then directly we're talking about moods and tenses, so basically like in English, if you want to use a verb, and normally when you will use a verb you will have to basically decide whether you are using a certain mood and also whether you are using a certain tense for this verb, just because the moods and the tenses will be used in specific contexts or situations, okay? So let's see now les modes, okay? And basically in French we've got the first one that you will use and the first one that we will see together in the coming lessons will be l'indicatif, okay? And l'indicatif is used to express the reality, so what is really happening. Then we'll have le conditionnel, okay? So basically like in English we will use it to express what we call l'éventualité, something that might happen, okay? And then we'll have this impératif form as well, so impératif mood, sorry, just to express l'ordre, the order, or then le conseil, advice. And then we'll have this subjonctif which can be quite tricky, especially at the beginning because it doesn't exist really in English and it's to express what we call le sentiment, okay? So basically we'll have these main moods, so l'indicatif, le conditionnel, l'impératif and then le subjonctif. It does mean that in all these moods, dans toutes ces modes, you will have different tenses as well, okay? And that's what we are going to see next, because basically when we're talking about les temps, the tenses, well, I will make it simple, okay? And we'll see in the coming or in the next videos how it will work. But mainly you will express three things with these tenses, and the first one is le présent, okay? The present, then le futur, the future, and then le passé, the past. And we will see that for all these three options, we will have different ways of expressing them, so it does mean that we will have not only three tenses, but much more, okay? No stress about that, don't worry, we'll do it little by little, but just to keep in mind that when we're talking about the tenses, well, we express normally le présent, le futur, and then le passé, okay? So keep in mind that we've got les modes, okay? So le mode, and you get to decide what mode or what mood, sorry, you will have to use, indicatif, conditionnel, impératif, or then subjonctif, and the second thing that you have to choose is the correct tense, le temps, and then it's présent, futur, and passé, and keep in mind that, as I said, we've got quite many tenses, but we'll see that a bit later.