A negative sentence (une phrase négative) allows us to negate a statement, express disagreement, make contradictions or deny the occurrence of an event or action. The most common negative construction in French is ne + verb + pas, although there are also other phrases we can use.

The French definite articles (articles définis) are le in the masculine singular, la in the feminine singular, l’ for singular nouns that start with a vowel, and les in the plural (both genders). They correspond to the English article the.

In French, the indefinite articles (articles indéfinis) are un (masculine singular), une (feminine singular) and des (plural for both genders). In English they are the articles a or an.

The "zero article" is the classification for phantom articles, when nouns are used with no article at all.

The partitive article refers to an unspecified quantity of food, liquid, or some other uncountable noun. English has no equivalent article – the partitive is usually translated by the adjectives “some” or “any,” or may be left out entirely. Think countable vs uncountable nouns.

An adjective is an important element to any language. These words tell the listener or the reader what something looks, feels, smells or sounds like. Adjectives are known as descriptive words.

The first group of adjectives in French that most students learn are called BAGS adjectives. BAGS is an acronym that stands for Beauty, Age, Goodness and Size. The key thing to understand about these adjectives is that they must come before the noun they modify. 

One thing English speakers who are learning French struggle with is learning how to conjugate all the different verbs. Most French verbs typically end in -er, -re, or -ir. The biggest group is verbs that end in -er. Verbs that fall into this group that follow the same conjugation pattern are called regular -er verbs.

Possessive adjectives are the words used in place of articles to indicate to whom or to what something belongs. French possessive adjectives are used in similar ways to English possessive adjectives.

There are several hundred regular French verbs that end in -ir. To conjugate regular -ir French verbs, it's best to run through an example, step by step. 

In French whatever possession adjective is used is determined by the gender of the possessed noun. A possessive adjective in French explains the ownership attribute of the noun it is referring to. The adjectives indicate the owner of the noun they are describing.

The verb form that ends in -RE is called the infinitive (in English, the infinitive is the verb preceded by the word "to"), and -RE is the infinitive ending. The verb with the infinitive ending removed is called the stem or radical.

The French verb faire means to do or to make, although it is also used in many idiomatic expressions with various different meanings. Faire is an irregular verb, and it is one of the few verbs that is irregular in the vous form of the present indicative (vous faites) as well as in the ils form (ils font).

In French, the word for weather is “le temps”. To talk about the weather, say, “Il fait” plus the specific weather vocabulary word. For example, “Il fait du soleil” (It’s sunny out), “Il fait froid” (It’s cold out), “Il fait du vent” (It’s windy out) and “Il pleut” (It’s raining out).

Learning the numbers to 100 in French can be done systematically. It is very important to master the numbers 1-20 because you will see these numbers used again and again.

Saying the date in French can be confusing for beginners. The French use a different format where the order of the day and month are reversed. For example, Dec. 25 (12/25), for example, would be written (25/12). 

Telling time in French is just a matter of knowing the French numbers and a few formulas and rules. It's different than we use in English but that doesn't mean it is more difficult. 

The French expression il y a, which can mean "there is" or "there are," is one of the most important expressions in the French language.

The French verb aller means to go and is one of the most common verbs in the French language. The conjugation of aller in the present tense is: Je vais (I go), Tu vas (You go, familiar), Il, elle va (He, she goes), Nous allons (We go), Vous allez (You go, plural and formal), Ils, elles vont (They go).

Use the near future and the simple future tenses to talk about what will happen in the future. The futur proche (near future) tense describes what is going to happen with certainty.

The French phrase "il est nécessaire" means "it is necessary," and it's used quite often.

In French, things get a little trickier. As in English, French, demonstrative adjectives must agree in number with the noun they modify, but they must also agree in gender. Once you've determined the number and gender of a noun in French, you can choose the correct demonstrative adjective form to use.

French possessive pronouns are used in place of nouns to indicate belonging. Instead of repeating “my bag”, and” my bag”, all the time, we can actually replace my bag and occasionally use “mine” instead.

The French verb mettre is a common but irregular verb which needs to be studied carefully. It means ‘to put’ but can also be used for dropping someone off somewhere, laying the table, taking time to do something, laying a carpet.