SOUNDS In comparison to American speech, the French language places much more emphasis on its vowels sounds. Americans tend to stress their consonants. There are 5 vowels and 21 consonants in French, using the same Latin alphabet as English, Spanish, and Italian. The French, even though they only have 5 vowel letters, pronounce nine vowel sounds in their language. The French language often leaves off the endings of words in pronunciation. For example, all -er verbs sound just like their past participle. Regarder and regardé produce the same sound; therefore context is necessary to distinguish betweent the two. The French have many nasal sounds, those produced by sounds in the nose. The combination of UO or IA can become nasal when followed by an M or an N. SOME ACTUAL FRENCH PRONUNCIATIONS   NOUNS Nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. There are no neuter nouns in the French language. Gender is assigned arbitrarily; there are no set of concrete rules that govern whether a noun should be masculine or feminine. There are also singular and plural forms of every noun. Nouns must take an article which matches the noun in number and gender: definite, indefinite, and partitive. These articles always precede the noun. The singular indefinite articles are un and une, masculine and feminine respectively. The plural indefinite article is des, used for either gender. The singular definite articles are le (masculine) and la (feminine); singular nouns beginning with a vowel are preceeded by an l', regardless of gender. The plural definite article is les, again for both genders. Partitive articles are used to express a part of a whole, roughly translated as the English "some." The singular partitive articles are du (masculine), de la (feminine), and de l' (masculine and feminine nouns beginning with a vowel). Des is the plural form, and de and d' are used when preceeded by a negated verb. Nouns usually precede adjectives which must match the noun in number and gender. For example, to say a blue cat, one would say "un chat bleu," chat being the noun. There is a rule in french which dictates that the adjective preceed the noun if the adjective falls into one of the following: beauty, age, goodness, size. Therefore, a pretty girl would be said in the following way: une fille jolie. PRONOUNS Pronouns, like in English, replace nouns in the French language. There are subject pronouns, broken into number and person. Singular Plural First Person Je Nous Second Person Tu Vous Third Person Il (masculine) Ils Elle (feminine) Elles On (one) The French differentiate between formal and informal uses of you. Tu is used informally and is singular; vous is used as a singular pronoun when formally addressing someone, and it is used as a plural form. Ils can encompass both males and females when referring to a group of people; one male with a group of females would still be Ils. Elles is strictly a feminine reference. Object pronouns precede the verb and are divided into direct and indirect objects. Direct Object Pronouns Singular Plural First Person Me M' Nous Second Person Te T' Vous Third Person Le La L' Les Indirect Object Pronouns Singular Plural First Person Me M' Nous Second Person Te T' Vous Third Person Lui Leur Y and En are also considered object pronouns. The direct object pronoun, Y, roughly translated as "there," indicates a place. En is an indirect object pronoun often translated as about+... VERBS Verbs in French are classified according to their infinitive form of whichthere are three gourps: verbs ending in -er, -ir,and all other verbs (some-ir,-re, and irregular verbs). Verbs are conjugated according to their infinitve ending, with different endings according to the person and number of its subject. -Er verbs are the most regular. Take the verb, regarder, to see, as an example. Singular Plural First Person Je regarde Nous regardons Second Person Tu regardes Vous regardez Third Person Il/Elle/On regarde Ils/Elles regardent Most -er verbs follow the same format. -Ir verbs follow a slightly different pattern. For example, the verb, finir, is conjugated in the following fashion: Singular Plural First Person Je finis Nous finissons Second Person Tu finis Vous finissez Third Person Il/Elle/On finit Ils/Elles finissent Four tenses exist in the french language; present, past, future, and conditional, and there are three moods: indicative, subjuntive, and imperative. The subjunctive is used to convey such emotions as desire, intention, and doubt. Imperative is used to express commands. Compound tenses require an auxiliary verb, either avoir (to have) or etre (to be) and a past participle. Avoir verbs tend to be more common, whereas etre verbs are mostly reflexive or express motion from one point to another. Past participles are generally formed by taking the root of the verb and adding an -é to the end. For avoir verbs, there is agreement in number and gender between the preceeding direct object pronoun and the past participle. Etre verbs require agreement in number and gender of the past participle with the subject of the verb. To negate verbs in French, ne...pas is used. Ne preceeds the verb; pas follows it. Therefore to say, I do not see, one would say: Je ne regarde pas. ADVERBS Adverbs, used to modify verbs, usually follow the verb. There is no agreement for adverbs. Thus, the same adverb can be used for any sentence. Many adverbs in are just adjectives with a -ment on the end. PREPOSITIONS Prepositions are used as well. They require objects, nouns, to form a complete thought. Indirect object pronouns are used when pronouns are necessary for the phrase. The object always follows the preposition. Some examples of preposition would be sur, de, sous, pres, dans.