There’s no getting around it—to speak French, you’ll need to learn some French words! Lots of them, in fact. Here’s a list of the vocabulary words we’ll be using in the first module. The pictures should make each word’s meaning clear, but to see the English translation, place your mouse pointer on the word. You can use this section in whatever way seems best to you as a student: either skip it for now, learning the vocabulary as you go through the next section, and use it later as a reference or test preparation tool; read through it and do a few exercises; or concentrate on this section first, doing all the exercises until you have memorized all the words. NOUNS are people, places or things. People: un professeur une personne un homme une femme un ami / une amie une famille un frère une soeur un père une mère un étudiant / une étudiante un artiste / une artiste Monsieur Madame Mademoiselle   Places: une université une école une maison une ville Paris, Dijon, Pittsburgh, Détroit, Montréal, Londres, Berlin, Dakar, Alger, Rome, Moscou, Séoul un pays la France, les Etats-Unis, le Canada, le Mexique, le Sénégal, l’Algérie, l’Italie, la Russie, le Japon, le Taïwan une région les Antilles, le sud-ouest, la Bourgogne, l'Amérique latine un appartement une plage Things: un film une couleur un ordinateur une disquette une leçon un jour aujourd'hui demain lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi,samedi, dimanche une semaine un weekend une voiture un train un chat un chien la musique un livre   VERBS are action words. Since some of these are hard to picture, you can just look at their translation by placing your mouse pointer on them. Click on each verb to go to its description and examples in the "Outils" pages. être aller s’appeller ADJECTIVES, or description words, describe nouns. They have a masculine form and a feminie one to match the nouns they're describing; often, the feminine ends in "e" and the masculine doesn't. For more adjectives and explanations on how to use them, click on adjectives to go to Module 2 (check it out if you're curious, but it's probably a good idea to finish module 1 first). Later in Module 1, you’ll learn some nationality adjectives (américain, français, and so on). Click on nationality to go straight to that section. excellent/excellente favori/favorite intelligent/intelligente intéressant/intéressante Les couleurs: le rouge le bleu le jaune le vert le violet l'orange le blanc le noir PREPOSITIONS are words that tell you where something is located or, if it’s moving, what direction it’s going in. Some prepositions are invariable-they're always the same, and you can use them with any word. "De" and "à" are like that (see examples below). Other prepositions only go with certain kinds of words-only masculine ones or only feminine ones. If this sounds a little complicated, don't worry-this is actually the most complicated part! The new prepositions you'll be learning in later modules are all much simpler than this. de—of : Je suis la mère de Jacques. Il est l’ami d’Anne. from : Je suis de Paris. Elle est de New York. For cities: à—in: je suis à Paris. to: je vais à Dijon. For feminine countries and regions: en—in: je suis en France. to: je vais en Angleterre. For masculine countries and regions: au—in: je suis au Canada. to: je vais au Japon. For countries and regions whose name is plural: aux—in: je suis aux Etats-Unis. to: je vais aux Antilles. OTHER WORDS: This section includes some basic words and expressions and the numbers 0-10. BASICS: Oui Yes Non No Merci Thank you/Thanks GREETINGS/GOODBYES: Bonjour! Hello Salut! Hi Ça va? Are things fine? Oui, ça va. Yes, things are fine. Ça va, merci. Fine, thanks. Je vous présente Aïcha. I introduce you to Aïcha. See tu/vous. Enchanté (said by men). Enchantée (said by women). Pleased to meet you. Au revoir! Goodbye A demain! See you/talk to you tomorrow QUESTION WORDS enable you to ask questions. Most of the words in the list below can be used either all by themselves or within a sentence. The three that can only be used within a sentence have an ellipsis (…) after them. All the others can be used both independently and in sentences. One or more sample sentences are given so you can see how these question words can be used. These aren’t dialogues—each sample sentence should be read independently. Est-ce que…?—Is/are…? Est-ce que tu es mexicain? Est-ce qu’elle va aux Antilles? Qui—Who? Qui va à Paris? Quel/Quelle/Quels…—Which, what…? (masculine, feminine, plural) Quel est ton pays favori? Quelle est ta musique favorite? Quels trains vont à Paris? Pourquoi—Why? Pourquoi êtes-vous à Paris? Où—Where? Où es-tu? Elle va où? Quand—When? Tu vas à Rome quand? Quand est-ce que tu vas à Rome? Comment?—How? What? Comment tu t’appelles? Comment allez-vous? Elle va comment à Paris? THE NUMBERS one through ten will look familiar to you if you’ve ever studied a Romance language (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and so on). In French, numbers don’t have masculine and feminine forms—except the number one, "un/une." For all the others, you just have one form to remember. 0 zéro 1 un une 2 deux 3 trois 4 quatre 5 cinq 6 six 7 sept 8 huit 9 neuf 10 dix