Any time you start learning a new language, you’re going to make mistakes. And when you’re studying French, these are the most likely things you’re going to get wrong early on.
- Gender. This is one of the hardest concepts for English speakers to understand. In French, every noun is either masculine or feminine, and you have to use it accordingly, as the meaning of some words can change along with its gender. Masculine and feminine nouns exist in English, too (such as actor and actress, host and hostess), so you can use those as starting point to wrap your head around the idea. There’s no neutral in French — all nouns fall in one gender or the other.
- To be. The verb “to be” has three equivalents in French: être (the literal translation), avoir (to have) and fair (to do). Make sure you study all three and learn the right context in which to use them.
- Accents. When writing in French, accents are crucial. They are required, not optional, so learn how to both write and type them.
- Contractions. In English, contractions are optional (and, many times, ill-advised). In French, they are required whenever a short word (je, te, la) is followed by a word that begins with a vowel.
- The letter H. There are two varieties of the letter H in French, called aspiré and muet, respectively. Both are pronounced silently, although one acts as a consonant and the other acts as a vowel. As such, they follow the rules of grammar relating to their classified use.
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