No need for long learning sessions to make progress in French. 10 minutes a day are enough to assimilate new things without saturating the brain. And learning a foreign language is more effective if it is practiced a little every day rather than once in a while.
With our serie “French in 10 minutes a day”, you learn the basics of French by increasing difficulty. You will find vocabulary, grammar or even typical French expressions for all situations.
As soon as you have 10 minutes of free time in your day, start a new lesson!

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This lesson is part of Chapter 1: Expressing ideas and feelings
Level: Easy

Greetings are made (in Lesson #1: Greetings), now you have to be able to converse. For that, let’s learn to conjugate French verbs in the present tense. In French, you must learn the subject pronouns before you can begin forming sentences, as verb forms change depending on the subject. So let’s start with the personal pronouns.

Subject pronouns in French

Singular		Plural
Je	I	Nous	We
Tu	You	Vous	You
Il	He / it (m)	Ils	They (m)
Elle	She / it (f)	Elles	They (f)
On	One

Now, listen to the pronunciation of the French subject pronouns and repeat aloud several times, trying to imitate what you hear:

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Je or J’ ?

The first personal singular pronoun je contracts to j’ when used in front of a vowel or a silent h. For example:

• Je vais bien. I’m fine.
• J’aime courir. I like to run.
• J’habite en France. I live in France.

Now, listen to the pronunciation of these examples and repeat aloud several times, trying to imitate what you hear:

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Tu or Vous?

Tu and vous both express you, but have difference uses.

• Tu is the familiar you and should be used when speaking to one person who is a friend, a peer, or a child.
• Vous is the formal you and should be used when speaking to someone you don’t know well or someone to whom you want to show respect.
• Vous is also the plural you and should be used when talking to multiple people, no matter who they are.

Il and Elle

Il and elle represent he and she respectively when talking about people, but can both be used as it when referring to other nouns. All French nouns have gender (to be discussed in a coming lesson), so il is used when replacing masculine nouns, and elle is used when replacing feminine nouns. For example:

• Il mange trois fois par jour. He eats three times a day.
• Elle chante sous la douche. She sings in the shower.
• Je ne peux pas utiliser ma voiture parce qu’elle est en panne. I can’t drive my car because it broke down.
• Je ne peux pas utiliser mon vélo parce qu’il est cassé. I can’t ride my bike because it is broken.

Note that voiture is feminine, so we use elle.
Note that vélo is masculine, so we use il.

Now, listen to the pronunciation of these examples and repeat aloud several times, trying to imitate what you hear:

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On

On literally means one. It is used as colloquially for we or for people in general. And it can also be used to form the passive voice. For example:

• On pourrait dire ça. One could say that.
• On va à la plage. We are going to the beach.
• On m’a volé mon porte-monnaie. Someone has stolen my purse. / My purse has been stolen.
  

Now, listen to the pronunciation of these examples and repeat them louder several times and repeat aloud several times, trying to imitate what you hear:

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Did you enjoy this second lesson? Have you any questions? I look forward to reading your comments!

See you soon for Lesson #3 on French verb conjugation!