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French Grammar Charts

French grammar made visual — chalkboard lessons with clear tables, the classic anglophone pitfalls, audio examples and practice.

📘 A sensible grammar path

  • 1. Articles — French puts a little word before almost every noun; master le/la/les, un/une/des and the partitives du/de la.
  • 2. Questions — three ways to ask, from casual intonation to formal inversion.
  • 3. Negation — ne… pas and its friends (jamais, rien, personne), plus the pas de rule.
  • 4. The past tenses — the passé composé vs imparfait choice is THE classic intermediate hurdle; our movie trick makes it click.

🧱 The articles

🧩 Sentence mechanics

Les mots interrogatifsasking questionsLa négationne… pas, jamais, rienL’accord des adjectifsgender, number, positionPronoms COD & COIle, la, lui, leur, en, yPronoms toniquesmoi, toi, lui, euxCause & conséquenceparce que, grâce à, doncMise en reliefc’est moi qui…Pronoms possessifsle mien, le tienDoubles pronomsme le, le lui, y enExprimer le butpour que + subjonctifAdjectifs indéfinischaque, plusieurs, aucunOpposition & concessionbien que, malgré, pourtantConditionnel passéj’aurais faitRelatifs composéslequel, auquel, duquelExprimer le tempsquand, avant que, dès queLa nominalisationverbes → nomsPronoms démonstratifscelui, celle, ceuxSubjonctif passéque j’aie faitParticipe présent-ant: verbe ou adjectifObligation & conseilil faut, devoir, tu devraisPlace de l’adjectifbefore/after + meaningPronoms indéfinisquelqu’un, personne, rienConcordance des tempsreported speech tensesTournures impersonnellesil y a, il faut, il s’agitComparaison progressiveplus… plus, de plus en plusLettre & emailhow to write correspondenceHomophonesa/à, et/est, ces/sesPonctuationspaces, guillemets, capitalsLe « ne » explétifthe ne that isn’t negativePoser des questionsthe 3 ways to askVerbes + à / dewhich preposition?Accords : cas particuliersleur, tout, demiPrépositions de lieusur, sous, dans, chezLe pronom « on »we, one, peopleSubjonctif ou indicatif ?the decision guideLe genre des nomsle or la?Le pluriel des nomsone → manyManière & moyenavec, en, à, parNe… que (only)the restrictionAdverbes de fréquencetoujours, souvent, jamaisAccord & désaccordmoi aussi, moi non plusExprimer ses goûtsj’aime, j’adore, je détesteAdjectifs de couleurmarron, bleu clairParticipes pronominauxs’est lavée ou lavéY et ENthe two magic pronounsPrépositions à & deplaces, possession, verbsComparatifsplus, moins, aussi… queC’est vs il estthe determiner rulePronoms relatifsqui, que, où, dontDémonstratifs & possessifsce, cette · mon, saL’impératifcommands & requestsLes adverbes-ment formation

⏳ The past tenses

🇬🇧 How to use these grammar charts (and the order that saves you months)

French grammar has a reputation it only half deserves. Most of its rules are honest — gender flows into articles (le/la/les), articles into adjective endings, adjectives into agreement everywhere — so learning in the right order means each chart pays for the next. Start with the articles (the le/la/les system English lacks), then noun-adjective agreement and position, then the pronoun ladder. Only then take on the past tenses: passé composé for events, imparfait for backgrounds — the pair that runs every French story — and note that the literary passé simple can wait until you read novels. Verb conjugation lives in its own chart library; grammar charts here handle everything around the verb: word order, negation, questions, prepositions.

Two honest warnings about French grammar rules. First, every rule ships with an exception shortlist — bon becomes meilleur, the h in haricot blocks liaison, some adjectives change meaning by position (un grand homme vs un homme grand) — and the charts flag these rather than hide them. Each chart pairs the rule with examples and the moving parts named plainly — noun, adjective, adverb (the -ment family), past participle, the compound tenses built on avoir/être — because grammar vocabulary is itself vocabulary, and you can’t fix an agreement error you can’t name. Second, spoken and written French diverge: the ne of negation drops in speech (je sais pas), est-ce que replaces inversion, and on replaces nous — so each chart notes what the exam wants AND what the street says. Work one chart at a time, build three example sentences of your own per rule, and test yourself with the exercises linked in each guide: grammar sticks by production, not recognition.

FAQ

What French grammar should a beginner learn first?

Articles and gender, present tense of être/avoir/aller/faire, basic adjective agreement, negation with ne…pas, and question-making. That kit builds real sentences from week one.

What’s the difference between passé composé and imparfait?

Passé composé narrates events (what happened); imparfait paints backgrounds and habits (what was going on). « Je dormais quand tu as appelé » uses both, correctly, in one sentence.

Is French grammar hard to learn?

It’s front-loaded: gender, agreement and conjugation feel heavy in month one, then the system’s consistency takes over. English speakers get thousands of shared words as compensation.

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