3 MINUTE FRENCH COURSE 1
RECAP NOTES
3 MINUTE FRENCH COURSE 1
WHAT ARE
RECAP NOTES?
In each course of the 3 Minute French series, you will learn lots of words
and phrases, but you’ll also learn some other parts of the language such as:
Grammar points
Pronunciation tips
Accent explanations
Whilst you’ll have plenty of opportunities to practise all of this throughout
the lessons, sometimes, it’s nice to be able to quickly come back and recap
some of the trickier aspects.
Rather than having to sit through the entire course again, you can use this
Recap Notes booklet to refresh your memory with a short recap. You’ll
find a booklet for each course in the series; this booklet is purely for the
language points made in 3 Minute French - Course 1 (lessons 1 to 9).
I hope you enjoy
Merci
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Table of
CONTENTS
01 The letter C
Consonants
02 é vs. è
est vs. et
The letters AI
Nasal Sound
Final Syllable
03 Indefinite articles
Definite articles
04 What’s a noun?
Possessive adjectives
05 ça c’est that is
pour moi I think
What’s an adjective?
Circumflex accent
06 Adjectival agreement
French adjectives table
3 MINUTE FRENCH COURSE 1
THE LETTER C CONSONANTS
There are two different ways to pronounce In French, you should never pronounce
the letter C in French. the consonant on the end of a word, and it
should remain silent. Look at the examples
1. Like the letter K below of words that end in a silent
2. Like the letter S consonant. I've put the pronunciation
guide in brackets after each word.
K pronunciation
The letter C is pronounced like a K when it mais meh
is in front of the letters A, O or U très treh
délicieux day-lee-SIEUGH
café kah-FAY
concombre kon-KOM-breugh However, there are four exceptions to this
curiosité koo-ree-oh-see-TAY consonant rule. The only four consonants
you are allowed to pronounce on the end
S pronunciation of French words are C, R, F, L. You can
The letter C is pronounced like an S when it remember them, because they’re the only
is in front of the letters E or I consonants in the word CAREFUL.
c'est seh
C R F L
cinéma see-neh-MAH
sac sak
The Ç cedilla
pour poor
If you put a cedilla (the little squiggle)
bœuf beughf
underneath the letter C, it will change it
normal noor-MAL
from a K sound to an S sound
ça sah
garçon gar-SON(g)
façade fah-SAD
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3 MINUTE FRENCH COURSE 1
É VS. È
The accent over the letter é is called an
acute accent. The accent over the letter è is
called a grave accent. You pronounce the
two letters in slightly different ways. NASAL SOUND
In Course 1, we learnt a few words that
è - like the e in the word “fed”
have something called a “nasal sound” at
é - like the vowel sound in the word “pay”
the end. For example, “bon“ is pronounced
like “bong”, but without the “g”. If you say
So, you pronounce délicieux and très like
“bong”, but stop just before you reach the
this:
“g” on the end, you’ll notice your throat
closes slightly - this is a nasal sound.
délicieux day-lee-SIEUGH
très treh
bon bon(g)
non non(g)
mon mon(g)
EST VS. ET un an(g)
You pronounce “est” (is) and “et” (and) in restaurant reh-stoh-RON(g)
slightly different ways.
et - like the a in the word “pay” FINAL SYLLABLE
est - like the e in the word “fed”
To really sound French, you should stress
the final syllable more than the rest. So,
instead of pronouncing “merci” like “MAIR-
THE LETTERS AI see”, you should say “mair-SEE”,
The way you pronounce “est” or the “è” in emphasising the last syllable.
“très” is also the same as the way we déliCIEUX
pronounce the letters “ai’. We pronounce parFAIT
“ai” like the “e” in “fed”. absoluMENT
parfait par-FEH
mais meh
je voudrais jsheugh voo-DREH
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3 MINUTE FRENCH COURSE 1
INDEFINITE ARTICLES DEFINITE ARTICLES
The words “a” and “an” are called The word “the” is called a DEFINITE
INDEFINITE ARTICLES and, in French, ARTICLE and, in French, there are three
there are two different words. There’s a different words. There’s a masculine
masculine and a feminine version. version, a feminine version and a plural
version.
Masculine un
Feminine une Masculine le
Feminine la
The version you use depends on whether
Plural les
the noun it goes in front of is a masculine
or a feminine noun. This is called the It’s the same as the indefinite articles in
gender of the noun. that the one you use is dependent on the
noun it goes in front of. If it’s a masculine
You always put the word “un” in front of noun you use “le”, a feminine noun uses
nouns that are masculine, and the word “la” and for plural nouns you use “les”.
“une” goes in front of nouns that are
feminine. The best way to know whether a MASCULINE NOUNS
noun is masculine or feminine is simply to le café the coffee
learn its gender when you first learn the le thé the tea
word; that way, you’ll always know that
restaurant is masculine, but table is FEMININE NOUNS
feminine in French. la table the table
la réservation the reservation
MASCULINE NOUNS PLURAL NOUNS
un café a coffee les tables the tables
un thé a tea les réservations the reservations
un restaurant a restaurant
un garçon a boy In front of a word that starts with a vowel
FEMININE NOUNS or the letter H, the words le and la shorten
une table a table to l’
une réservation a reservation l’addition the bill
une dinde a turkey l’hôtel the hotel
une fille a girl l’éléphant the elephant
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POSSESSIVE
ADJECTIVES
The word “my” is a POSSESSIVE
ADJECTIVE and, in French, there are three
different versions. There’s a masculine,
feminine and plural version.
Masculine mon
Feminine ma
Plural mes
The possessive adjective you use depends
WHAT’S A NOUN? on the noun. If it’s a singular noun you use
“mon” or “ma” and for plural nouns you
Generally speaking, a noun is a word that
use “mes”.
you can put “the” in front of. They can be
singular or plural:
MASCULINE NOUNS
singular plural
mon café my coffee
the hotel the hotels
mon thé my tea
the boy the boys
the idea the ideas FEMININE NOUNS
the possibility the possibilities ma table my table
In French, nouns are words you can put ma réservation my reservation
“le”, “la” or “les” in front of. They can be PLURAL NOUNS
masculine or feminine, singular or plural. mes tables my tables
You can usually make a noun plural by mes réservations my reservations
putting an “s” on the end.
masculine singular masculine plural
le poulet (the chicken) les poulets
If you have a feminine noun that starts
l’hôtel (the hotel) les hôtels
with a vowel or the letter H, you must use
le garçon (the boy) les garçons the word “mon” for “my” instead of “ma”.
le café (the coffee) les cafés This is simply because it makes it easier to
say:
feminine singular feminine plural
la dinde (the turkey) les dindes mon addition my bill
la carotte (the carrot) les carottes mon amie my friend
la fille (the girl) les filles mon histoire my story
la voiture (the car) les voitures
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3 MINUTE FRENCH COURSE 1
KEY WHAT’S AN
MASCULINE FEMININE
IN FRONT OF
VOWEL / H
PLURAL ADJECTIVE?
THE LE LA L’ LES
An adjective is a word that is used to
A / AN UN UNE UN / UNE /
MY MON MA MON MES
describe something. However, a simpler
explanation would be:
If you can put “it is” in front of a word, then
it’s most probably an adjective. So, in
ÇA C’EST THAT IS French, these would be words you can put
The phrase “ça c’est” literally means “that “c’est” in front of:
it is”, but it’s how you translate “that is” it is good - c’est bon
into French. Logically, “that is” should be it is fantastic - c’est fantastique
“ça est”, but the French don’t like that it is delicious - c’est délicieux
glottal stop in the middle of the two words. it is perfect - c’est parfait
it is bad - c’est mauvais
The phrase “ça c’est” simply flows better
and sounds nicer to French ears.
ça c’est - that is (literally: that it is)
CIRCUMFLEX
This is also the reason why we say “ça ce
n’est pas” for “that isn’t”, rather than “ça
ACCENT
n’est pas”. A circumflex accent is like a little hat that
appears on top of a vowel: â ê î ô û
ça ce n’est pas - that isn’t (literally: that it isn’t)
It doesn’t change the pronunciation at all;
it’s simply there to show you that, in the
POUR MOI past, the letter used to be followed by an
“s”
The phrase “pour moi” literally means “for
me”, but you can also use it as a way of forêt forest (forest)
giving your opinion. You can use it to mean côte coste (coast)
“in my opinion” or “I think” hôpital hospital (hospital)
pâté paste (pâté)
pour moi, c’est bon - I think it’s good île isle (island)
pour moi, c’est terrible - I think it’s terrible
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3 MINUTE FRENCH COURSE 1
Adjectives describe nouns and in French, ADJECTIVAL
nouns can be either singular or plural, and
masculine or feminine. The adjective has AGREEMENT
to change its ending slightly depending on Below is an example of how the adjective
the type of noun it’s describing. This is PARFAIT changes depending on the noun
called “agreeing the adjective” it’s describing
MASCULINE SINGULAR NOUN MASCULINE SINGULAR
adjective doesn’t change le poulet est parfait
MASCULINE PLURAL NOUN MASCULINE PLURAL
add an S to the end of the adjective les poulets sont parfaits
FEMININE SINGULAR NOUN FEMININE SINGULAR
add an E to the end of the adjective la dinde est parfaite
FEMININE PLURAL NOUN FEMININE PLURAL
add an ES to the end of the adjective les dindes sont parfaites
FRENCH ADJECTIVES
In the table below are the different forms of the adjectives we covered in course 1. This
will help you to get used to seeing the endings you need to add when agreeing the
adjective, and it will also help you to familiarise yourself with the irregular adjectives.
MASCULINE MASCULINE FEMININE FEMININE
ENGLISH
SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL
GOOD bon bons bonne bonnes
DELICIOUS délicieux délicieux délicieuse délicieuses
FANTASTIC fantastique fantastiques fantastique fantastiques
BEAUTIFUL beau beaux belle belles
EXTRAORDINARY extraordinaire extraordinaires extraordinaire extraordinaires
PERFECT parfait parfaits parfaite parfaites
BAD mauvais mauvais mauvaise mauvaises
TERRIBLE terrible terribles terrible terribles
NICE sympa sympa sympa sympa
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