Feminine, or masculine? That is the question you often ask yourself as a French learner. After hours trying to figure out why féminisme (feminism) is masculine and masculinité (masculinity) is feminine, you’ve come to the most logical conclusion: the gender of French nouns was randomly chosen by a bunch of sadistic linguists. Actually, this is … Read More
On the surface, the French verb voler is simple and straightforward. It’s a regular verb that doesn’t bend the rules in any way. But when it comes to what it means, that’s when you discover that there’s more to it than you think. Voler means “to fly” – but it also means “to steal”. It … Read More
At a glance, the French verb créer looks pretty creative, with its little accent like a beret jauntily perched on an artist’s head. This may make it seem complex and complicated. But while créer can be used to talk about complex projects and works of art, it’s actually a pretty easygoing verb! Let’s get to … Read More
Avoir is the French verb that means “to have”. But it has so much more than that going for it! For one thing, as you probably know already, avoir is the most common auxiliary (helping) verb in French. It’s used to conjugate most other French verbs in the passé composé and other compound tenses. That … Read More
Être (to be) is the most common verb in the French language. But that probably doesn’t surprise you. From the time you start learning French, you see, hear, and learn to use and conjugate it. Of course, like most frequently-used verbs, être comes with a lot of exceptional rules and even unexpected uses. Some of … Read More
Sortir (to get out) is a verb full of exceptions. It’s irregular, and it can have either être or avoir as an auxiliary verb, depending on the meaning you want to convey. Like that one friend we all know, it may be complicated, but it’s also really helpful. So, let’s take a closer look at … Read More