French Key Linguistic Features You Know Need to Understand.

Considering learning French? Prior to that, you should know that French is quite different Wafrom English and needs a lot of time, dedication and practice to master. In this blog, we will discuss the key linguistic features of French before you start your course in this exotic language.

French Genders

Originally derived from Vulgar Latin, French is closely related to Spanish, Portuguese and other Romance languages. And just like other Romance languages, in French every noun has a gender, they are either masculine or feminine.

When we refer to people it’s quite easy and follows a pattern. The grammatical gender is as same as the person. For example,

• a man is un homme (masculine)
• a woman is une femme (feminine).

But when it comes to objects it becomes a little complicated as there is no logical pattern to follow. For example, bus and wine are masculine so they are called-

•  un bus
•  un vin

But when talking about cars and beer it becomes une voiture and une bière as they are feminine.

• Une voiture
• Une bière

However, sometimes some words in French are counter intuitive, such as masculinity (la masculinité) and virility (la virilité) are both feminine nouns.

French Verb Conjugations

In French, verbs change their forms depending on when is the action is performed and who is doing it. This process in French is called French Verb Conjugation.

For instance, the verb ‘travailler’ (to work) will change as follows in present tense:

• je                     travaille
• tu                     travailles
• il/elle/on           travaille
• nous                travailleon
• vous                travaillez
• ils                     travaillent

When talking about the past tense, French has majorly two types-

1. An event that took place at a single point in time.
2. An event that occurred for a long duration of time or occurs regularly.

One point that has to be noted here is in French use of the subjunctive is common.

Pronunciation 

People often say that French pronunciations are very difficult. But with practice you can overcome all these hurdles. There are only a few sounds that the English speaking may find difficult.

The sound that may trouble you the most is ‘r’ in the French. This is because of its difference in English phonology. The ‘r’ in French is pronounced from the back of the throat partially closed. It sounds somewhat like the sound of someone clearing their throat, just a little delicately.

Another difficult sound for the English speaking ones are the pronunciation of u and ou, as the French distinguish both these sounds (like tu and vous).

French Spellings

French words agave lots of silent letters or letters that are not pronounced. Let us take the verb ‘travailler’ for example. il travaille and ils travaillent are written in quite a different manner but pronounced exactly the same:

• il travaille (he works)
• ils travaillent (they work)

These are some points that you should keep in mind during the period when you learn French and it won’t take your herculean efforts to master this language.

Practice will Make You Perfect

With regular practice, you can grasp the linguistic features of the language. If you feel that you need professional assistance, then ESYLANG is there to help you kick start your French learning journey. Our trainers walk you through from the basics to the expert level of the language complying with the most effective strategies and make you aware of all the bits of French in a short span. Sounds good? So, wait no more and get in touch with us to get started.