All the French 2 lessons on one page, chapter by chapter: each lesson explains the grammar and vocabulary in English, with examples in French. Back to the French 2 overview.
French 2 lessons by chapter
French 2 Lessons
Clear grammar and vocabulary lessons in English, every French example translated.
Telling what happened with avoir
The passé composé with avoir tells what happened and is finished. Build it with the present tense of avoir plus a past participle: j'ai mangé, tu…
Coming, going and staying with être
Sixteen verbs, mostly verbs of motion and change such as aller, venir, arriver and partir, form the passé composé with être instead of avoir. The past…
Describing your morning routine in French
A reflexive verb has a pronoun that matches the subject: je me lève, tu te laves, elle s'habille. The pronoun goes before the verb, and ne…
Remembering the past with the imparfait
The imparfait is the French past tense for habits, descriptions and background scenes. To form it, take the nous form of the present tense, remove -ons,…
Telling a story: event or background?
Use the passé composé for events that happened and ended: they move a story forward. Use the imparfait for the background: weather, descriptions, feelings, habits and…
Replacing nouns: le, la, les and friends
A direct object pronoun replaces a noun that receives the action of the verb without a preposition. The forms are me, te, le, la, l', nous,…
Talking to someone: lui, leur, me, te
French indirect object pronouns (me, te, lui, nous, vous, leur) replace a person introduced by à, as in parler à, téléphoner à or donner à. They…
Replacing places and quantities with y and en
In French, y replaces a place or à + a thing (J'y vais, J'y pense), and en replaces de + a noun, a partitive (du, de…
Verbs that change their spelling
Stem-changing verbs are regular -er verbs whose stem changes spelling in the je, tu, il/elle and ils/elles forms, but not in nous and vous. Acheter becomes…
Want, can and must: three key verbs
Vouloir (to want), pouvoir (can, may) and devoir (must, have to) are irregular French verbs. Each one is followed directly by an infinitive: Je veux jouer,…
Coming, returning and just happened
Venir means to come, and revenir, devenir and tenir follow the same pattern: je viens, nous venons, ils viennent. Use venir de plus an infinitive for…
More, less and as much as
To compare in French, use plus … que (more than), moins … que (less than) and aussi … que (as … as) with adjectives and adverbs.…
The best, the most, the least: superlatives
French forms the superlative with the definite article, plus or moins, and the adjective: le plus grand, la moins chère. Article and adjective agree with the…
Building -ment adverbs and placing them
Most French adverbs of manner end in -ment, the equivalent of English -ly. Add -ment to the feminine adjective (lente, lentement) or to a masculine adjective…
Leaving, sleeping, opening: irregular -ir verbs
Partir, sortir, dormir, servir and sentir are irregular -ir verbs: they drop the final consonant in the singular (je pars, tu pars, il part) and bring…
Rooms, furniture and who does the chores
To talk about your home in French, name the room with le or la, place objects with prepositions like sur, sous and à côté de, and…
Getting around by train, plane and foot
In French you travel en train, en voiture, en avion (enclosed vehicles) but à pied, à vélo, à moto (on foot or astride). For places, use…
My head hurts: body, doctor and advice
To say something hurts in French, use avoir mal à plus the body part with its article: j'ai mal à la tête, j'ai mal au dos,…
Which one? asking with quel and lequel
Quel, quelle, quels and quelles mean which or what before a noun and agree with it. Lequel, laquelle, lesquels and lesquelles replace that noun so it…
Never, nothing, nobody: saying no in French
French negation wraps the verb in ne plus a second word: jamais (never), plus (no longer), rien (nothing), personne (nobody) or pas encore (not yet). In…