6 mistakes learners make with french grammar, each one named and explained.
Gender, agreement and verb endings all have to match the words they belong to.
Un petit maison, or elle est content, with the adjective left unchanged.
English adjectives never change, so agreement is an extra step with nothing to remind you of it.
Question. Complete: elle est ____ (content).
A common answer. elle est content
The answer. elle est contente
Why. An adjective agrees with what it describes. A feminine subject takes the feminine form, usually adding -e.
Check the gender and number of the noun before writing the adjective.
Une rouge voiture, with the adjective in front as in English.
Word order is so automatic in your first language that it transfers without being noticed.
Question. How do you say a red car?
A common answer. une rouge voiture
The answer. une voiture rouge
Why. Most French adjectives follow the noun. A few common ones go before it, and those have to be learned.
Put the colour or description after the noun unless it is one of the short common ones.
Le is used with a feminine noun, or la with a masculine one.
English has one word for the, so gender has to be carried with each noun rather than worked out.
Question. Which article goes with table?
A common answer. le table
The answer. la table
Why. Table is feminine in French, so it takes la. The gender belongs to the noun and has to be learned with it.
Learn every noun with its article attached, never on its own.
Il parlent or nous parle, where the ending belongs to a different person.
English changes the verb hardly at all, so the habit of matching the ending to the person has to be built.
Question. Complete: nous ____ (parler).
A common answer. nous parle
The answer. nous parlons
Why. Each person has its own ending. Nous takes -ons for an -er verb.
Say the subject, then choose the ending that belongs to it.
J'ai alle instead of je suis alle.
Avoir works for most verbs, so it becomes the default and the small group that take etre gets missed.
Question. Complete: je ____ alle au marche.
A common answer. j'ai alle
The answer. je suis alle
Why. A group of verbs of movement and change take etre in the perfect tense, and their past participle then agrees.
Check whether the verb is in the etre group before choosing.
A past event is written in the present, or a future one in the past.
The time marker sits elsewhere in the sentence and the verb gets chosen before it is read.
Question. Hier, je ____ au cinema.
A common answer. je vais
The answer. je suis alle
Why. Hier means yesterday, so the verb has to be in the past. The time word tells you which tense to use.
Find the time word first, then choose the tense.
WAJD spots these patterns in your child's answers and names the one behind their wrong answers, instead of just marking them wrong.