[Originally posted on 12/10/18 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by CommeuneTexane]
Nouns and Adjectives
Most plural forms of nouns and adjectives can be formed by appending an -s to the singular, but remember that this -s is usually silent.
- Le chat noir — The black cat ⇒ Les chats noirs — The black cats
- Un chat noir — A black cat ⇒ Des chats noirs — (Some) black cats
Note: If the noun is preceded by an adjective, des becomes de.
- Un petit chat — A little cat ⇒ De petits chats
Articles
Articles must agree with the nouns they modify, so plural nouns require either les or des. This is a great way to tell if a noun is plural. If you hear les or des (which sound like [le] and [de]), then the noun is plural. If not, it’s probably singular.
Conjugations
Remember that verbs change conjugation to agree with their subjects in both grammatical person and number.
| Subject | Être (“to be”) | Parler (“to speak”) |
|---|---|---|
| je | suis | parle |
| tu | es | parles |
| il/elle/on | est | parle |
| nous | sommes | parlons |
| vous | êtes | parlez |
| ils/elles | sont | parlent |
Punctuation
There are no quotation marks in French. Instead, the French use guillemets (« »). Exclamation marks (!), question marks (?), colons (:), semicolons (;) and guillemets need to have a space on either side.
- Incorrect: “Ça va?”
- Correct: « Ça va ? »
When writing numbers in French, commas are decimal points, while spaces mark thousands places.
- Incorrect: 1,235.8
- Correct: 1 235,8
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