NCEA L1 French flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

soixante-dix

French for seventy. It is built as sixty-ten, and the pattern continues soixante et onze (71), soixante-douze (72) up to soixante-dix-neuf (79).

quatre-vingts

French for eighty, literally four twenties. The -s is dropped when another number follows, as in quatre-vingt-un (81) and quatre-vingt-dix (90).

quatre-vingt-dix

French for ninety, literally four-twenty-ten. The teens are added on: quatre-vingt-onze (91), quatre-vingt-douze (92), through quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (99).

Liaison

Pronouncing a normally silent final consonant because the next word begins with a vowel or silent h, as in les amis (lezami) and un petit enfant. It changes where one word ends and the next begins.

Passé composé with être

A past tense formed with the present tense of être plus a past participle. Verbs of motion and change of state use it, and the participle agrees with the subject: elle est allée.

Aller plus infinitive

The near future: conjugate aller in the present and add an infinitive, as in je vais visiter or nous allons partir. It expresses plans and immediate future events without a separate future tense.

Inversion question form

A question made by swapping verb and subject pronoun and joining them with a hyphen: Aimes-tu le sport ? Parlez-vous français ? It is the most formal of the three question patterns.

Nasal vowels

Vowels produced partly through the nose, written with n or m: on in bon, an/en in grand, in/ain in vin, un in brun. They contrast with oral vowels and affect meaning.

Silent final consonants

Most French consonants at the end of a word are not pronounced, as in petit, grand, and vous. Exceptions include caReFuL endings: words ending in c, r, f, l often sound the consonant.

Actuellement

A false friend meaning currently or at present, not actually. A sentence like Il est actuellement à Paris means he is in Paris right now.

Librairie

A false friend meaning bookshop or bookstore, not library. The French for library is bibliothèque, which is a place for borrowing books rather than buying them.

Partitive article

du, de la, de l', des express an unspecified amount, as in du pain or des légumes. After a negative they usually reduce to de: je ne mange pas de viande.

Adjective agreement

French adjectives change form to match the noun's gender and number: petit, petite, petits, petites. Irregular pairs include beau/belle, vieux/vieille, bon/bonne, heureux/heureuse.

Le lundi versus lundi

Le lundi with a definite article means every Monday, a repeated habit. Lundi without an article means this Monday or the coming Monday, a single occasion.

Ne ... personne

A negative meaning nobody or not anyone. Unlike ne ... pas, the second element personne comes after the verb and may replace the object: Je ne vois personne.

Ne ... rien

A negative meaning nothing or not anything. Rien follows the verb, often in the past participle position: Je n'ai rien mangé (I ate nothing).

Connectives for range

Linking words that join ideas and raise the range of a written text: et, mais, parce que, donc, puis, ensuite, cependant, par contre, d'abord, enfin. Vary them instead of repeating et.

Regular -er present endings

Drop -er from the infinitive and add -e, -es, -e, -ons, -ez, -ent. Example with parler: je parle, tu parles, il parle, nous parlons, vous parlez, ils parlent.

Past participles: regular forms

Regular past participles take -é for -er verbs (parler, parlé), -i for -ir verbs (finir, fini), and -u for -re verbs (vendre, vendu). They follow avoir or être in the passé composé.

Irregular past participles

Common irregulars to memorise: fait (faire), dit (dire), écrit (écrire), pris (prendre), venu (venir), allé (aller), eu (avoir), été (être). They do not follow the regular -é, -i, -u pattern.

Formal letter opening

Monsieur or Madame, followed by Je vous écris pour ... or Je voudrais ... This register is used for businesses, schools, and people you do not know.

Formal letter closing

Cordialement is a neutral professional close. Je vous prie d'agréer mes salutations distinguées is the very formal close used when writing to someone in authority.

a versus à

The bare letter a is the verb avoir (il a, he has). The accented à is a preposition meaning at or to (à Paris, à huit heures). The accent changes the word's function.

ou versus où

ou without an accent means or, offering a choice. où with a grave accent means where, used in questions and relative clauses such as la ville où j'habite.

Cedilla in ça and garçon

The cedilla under c makes it sound like s before a, o, or u. Without it, c before those vowels sounds like k, as in carte and comme.

Tu versus vous

Tu addresses one friend, peer, or family member and takes its own verb forms. Vous addresses an adult, a stranger, or more than one person, and also signals formal politeness.

Je voudrais

A polite way to say I would like, softer than je veux (I want). It is standard for ordering, requesting, and formal writing, and is followed by a noun or infinitive.

Time markers and tense

Hier (yesterday) points to the passé composé, aujourd'hui (today) to the present, and demain (tomorrow) to the near future with aller plus infinitive. The marker signals which form to expect.

Question words

Où (where), quand (when), combien (how much or how many), qui (who), pourquoi (why), comment (how). The question word tells you which type of detail the answer must contain.

Negation frame ne ... pas

The basic French negative wraps the verb: je ne parle pas. In speech the ne is often dropped, so listening for pas is essential to catch that the statement is negative.

Sequencing words

D'abord (first), ensuite and puis (then), enfin (finally) order events in a text or a spoken account. They signal the structure and help you follow a narrative or set of instructions.

Gender from the article

The article before a noun reveals its gender: le and un are masculine, la and une are feminine, les and des are plural. Reuse that gender in any adjective or pronoun you write.