Your Guide to Mastering French Grammar Rules for Everyday Use

The French language is rich with rules, patterns, and exceptions. As you master basic French words and phrases and develop a deeper understanding of the structure of the language, you’ll be able to comprehend French in greater detail and communicate with clarity. French grammar rules, as with any language, are like blueprints. They set a standard for how the word categories work (parts of speech) together. 

We’ve put together this helpful guide to help you navigate grammar rules in the French language so you can speak French with confidence. Learning French grammar rules is a good support alongside Rosetta Stone’s immersive lessons. Our engaging activities help you practice what you’ve learned and prepare you for real-life conversations.

Are French grammar rules different from English? 

The short answer is that, yes, there are significant differences in both the vocabulary and grammatical structure of the two languages, but you’ll also notice patterns and rules that are similar to English. 

Sometimes the structure is similar to a word-by-word translation of English:

• Le chat a mangé le poisson. = The cat ate the fish. (The cat has eaten the fish). 

And other times it really isn’t! 

• Le chat ne l’a-t-il pas mangé ? = Didn’t the cat eat it?  (The cat not it had “t” he not eaten?) 

A good rule to follow is to think of a sentence in French and learn patterns or “recipes” for your French idea, rather than trying to translate word-by-word to or from English. Following the most common structures and patterns in French becomes increasingly easier as you uncover some of the rules and begin to acquire these patterns naturally. 

Parts of speech in French

Les parties du discours (parts of speech in French) are categories of words based on how they function in a sentence. Knowing which category to use and how they connect together can help you build a sentence that expresses your idea clearly and also sounds correct. 

Use this handy chart as we will refer to the parts of speech in the sections below. 

Grammar rules for nouns in French

A noun refers to a person, place, thing, or idea. Common nouns in French share these features: 

• They have grammatical gender (masculine or feminine) which does not change.
• They can be singular or plural.
• They are usually preceded by a determiner, such as an article or a demonstrative or possessive adjective (some, this, my), which can give you important information about the noun.

Gender of nouns

Since French descended from Latin, all nouns in French have grammatical gender. They are either masculine or feminine and non-variable. This means that adjectives and articles will change to match or agree with the gender of the noun, not the other way around. 

Whether a noun is assigned to the category of masculine or feminine does not correspond to the gender of the human that uses, owns, or is associated with the noun. The gender comes from the noun itself. Sometimes you will see a noun has a different meaning based on the masculine or feminine article assigned to it.

• le livre (the book) vs la livre (the pound)
• le voile (the veil) vs la voile (the sail) 
• le mode (the way/the manner) vs la mode (fashion/the style)

French gender rules apply not only to nouns but also articles, adjectives, and some verb agreements. 

Singular and plural nouns

There are some rules to pluralization, but of course, there are always exceptions! In order to make most nouns plural, it is sufficient to add “s” to the singular form, but here are a few other helpful patterns just as we have in English.

>> Using French pronouns can make your conversations more natural!

How to use articles in French

Articles are used with nouns to give important information about the noun such as the gender, number, and whether the noun is specifically identified or general. 

• Definite articles are equivalent to the English word “the.”  
• Indefinite articles are equivalent to “a” or “some” when the noun is countable, like strawberries or carrots.  
• Partitive articles are equivalent to “some” or “any” when the noun is uncountable, like sugar or water.

When are French articles different from English? 

The definite article is used more often than in English. You’ll see it used with

• abstract nouns: 
  • L’amitié est plus importante que l’argent. = Friendship is more important than money. 
• academic subjects:
  • J’étudie l’algèbre. = I study algebra.
• countries:
  • Un jour, je vais visiter la France. = One day, I am going to visit France. 
• date:
  • Aujourd’hui est le 5 septembre.= Today is September 5th. 
• days (to mean “every” or “on”):
  • Je joue au tennis le lundi. = I play tennis on Mondays.   
• ge