How To Learn French - The 3 Most Important Aspects   by Jeremy Winters

in Education / Languages    (submitted 2012-01-17)

French is a popular choice among foreign language students. It sounds very romantic and can be utilized in different countries like France, Belgium, Canada, the Maldives, Africa, Tunisia, and Morocco. This means that you have more chances of using it when you travel. Most students want to know how to learn French fast and easily only to later realize that it is not so effective. In order to be efficient when studying French you have to cover the basics: vocabulary, grammar and the conjugations.

Increase Vocabulary

The first step in learning any language is to obtain an extensive vocabulary. Most language teachers claim that to speak a language, you have to know at least 1,000 words. While this rule is not finite, it helps to know basic words that would help you comprehend the sentence. If you have to constantly ask what a word means, then you would never be able to carry on with the conversation. Just a tip though, French is composed of a lot of idioms, therefore it is not advisable to translate the sentence word for word but rather by phrases.

Also, it is not enough to know what the words are called, you also have to know how they are spelled and pronounced. The pronunciation is quite different from the way the words are spelled. Hence, in French they even skip the last letter of words. However, do not get discouraged as soon enough you will see the pattern when it comes to pronunciation.

Basic Grammar

Like with English, French follows some basic rules like subject-verb agreement, nouns and pronouns and so on. Although it is important to take note that French sentence structure has a different order from the English sentence. For example the direct object usually comes before the verb which is the opposite in English. Another difference is that French words are categorized into male and female gender. Therefore articles and certain adjectives are based on whether the word is feminine or masculine. It may take you some time to get used to this.

Subject Verb Conjugations

Now another thing that makes learning French a bit complicated is the conjugations. In English, the verb agrees with the subject and its quantity; in French, each pronoun requires a different verb, therefore spelling and pronunciation changes from one tense to the other. Luckily, one can notice a certain pattern among regular French verbs. However, they also have different rules for special and reflexive verbs.

These three aspects are keys to your success. If you know them, you can already start communicating with other Francophones. You do not need to master the language before you can start speaking it. It is best to start with the correct usage and basic rules and develop your skill from there. Now that you know how to learn French effectively, you do not have to worry that you will forget what you have learned. After all, what we learn often resurfaces just when we need it.

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