French glossary

Craindre means to fear, be afraid or be scared of. It is irregular, and you need to remember that the plural forms …

Avoir, meaning ‘to have’, is one of the most common French verbs, and it is irregular in most tenses. Here’s how to use it.

Quel is an adjective used in questions to mean ‘which’ or ‘that’. It has to agree with the noun that it precedes. This is how you use it.

The French verb boire is an irregular verb that is a little tricky to learn. It usually means to drink, but it can also mean to absorb or soak up.

The French verb envoyer means ‘to send’. Here’s how to use it in the different tenses.

The French verb voir is irregular in the present, perfect and future tenses and therefore needs careful study.

This article looks at ‘en’ as a preposition – in other words when it is followed by a noun.

The verb battre means ‘to hit’ or ‘to beat’ (in sport, at a game, or to beat eggs for example). Here’s how to use it in a sentence.

In French, when ‘en’ is used as a pronoun it means ‘some’ or ‘of it’ and can therefore replace a phrase beginning with ‘de’ (or ‘du’, or ‘des’). Here’s how to use it in a sentence.

The French verb mettre is a common but irregular verb meaning ‘to put’. Here’s how to use it in a sentence.

The pronoun ‘y’ is French for ‘there’, so it can replace any phrase that concerns a place. This is how to use it in a sentence.

The French verb dire is irregular, but not very difficult to learn. It is obviously a common verb and therefore important to learn.

How to use indirect object pronouns

The French verb connaître means ‘to know’ in the sense of being acquainted with a person or place. It is an irregular verb mostly used in the present tense.

Pronouns are words that we use to replace nouns, for example it, him, her, us, you them. This is how to use them in French.

The French verb falloir is an unusual verb as it exists in the third person singular only, with ‘il’, meaning it. The general meaning would be ‘it is necessary’, but sometimes we can translate it as ‘we must’. It is an irregular verb.

The preposition ‘à’ can mean ‘to’, ‘at’ or ‘in’ a place, town or country. This is how to use it.

Although the French verb passer is regular, it has many different meanings.

Savoir is a very useful but irregular verb. It is important to distinguish between savoir and connaître: savoir means to know a fact, or to know how to do …

The French verb pouvoir means ‘can’, or ‘to be able to’ – another very common verb and yes, you’ve guessed it, it is irregular. Here’s how to use it.

The French verb venir is common but irregular, so needs to be learned thoroughly.

Être is a very common and, unfortunately, very irregular French verb, that is worth learning thoroughly. Here are its most common uses.