The Focus of This Lesson Is the Verb "to Be," Être.
Tu es amoureux?
"You're in love?"

In French, the verb "to be" is être. It's probably the most common French verb, so it's important to learn it right from the beginning; unfortunately, it's also the most irregular. We will look at the present tense conjugation of the verb. Make sure you also learn all of the personal pronouns.

Pronunciation: Although the verb has a different form for every person, tu es and il est sound the same. Note also how we pronounce the silent s of vous as a [-z] in front of êtes. You may know this phenomenon as liaison, when a silent consonant is pronounced before a vowel.

Usage: We use être in pretty much the same way we use "to be" in English. One notable exception is that people don't introduce themselves by saying je suis and their name. They use the expression je m'appelle, which we will introduce in the next lesson. Following are some examples of how you can use être.

For Example:

1. Jacques est devant moi.
   "Jacques is in front of me."
2. Vous êtes belle.
   "You are beautiful." (formal singular, feminine)
3. Ils sont seuls.
   "They are alone."

Pronunciation: Subject pronouns, like je, tu, and il, are stuck to the verb, and there should be no pause between the two. You should pronounce il est as if it were a single two-syllable word: i-lè.

The adjective that follows the verb "to be" agrees in number and gender with the subject. That's why we have vous êtes belle, where belle is feminine singular because vous refers to a woman. We say ils sont seuls where seuls is masculine plural like the subject.

Toi, Moi

In the lesson, Marcel says comme toi, "like you," and Jacques says moi, je suis amoureux, "I'm in love." We call moi and toi strong pronouns. They have the same meaning as je and tu, except that we use them away from the verb, such as with a preposition (devant toi, "in front of you"). Also, to put emphasis on the subject, English will stress the pronoun ("I am alone"); to achieve this in French, we add a strong pronoun: moi, je suis seul. That's why you might sometimes hear French speakers say "Me, I'm...".

For Example:

1. Moi, je suis seul.
   "I'm alone."
2. Toi, tu es belle.
   "You are pretty."
3. Elle est devant moi.
   "She is in front of me."

Seul

Seul (an adjective) has a lot of different meanings in French. Jacques est seul can mean that Jacques is "alone," "single," or "lonely. The meaning is usually clear from the context.

Seul is a typical French adjective: to make the feminine form, simply add -e at the end of the word. However, we do not pronounce this -e; basically, we distinguish the masculine and feminine forms in writing only.

For Example:

1. Il est seul.
   "He is single."
2. Elle est seule.
   "She is single."

Beau

Beau (an adjective) means "good-looking" or "handsome." Jacques est beau means "Jacques is handsome." It has an irregular feminine form, belle, which we translate as "pretty" or "beautiful," so "Mireille is beautiful" becomes Mireille est belle. English borrowed these words as the nouns "beau" and "belle"; they can be nouns in French too, but they are almost always adjectives.

Vraiment

Vraiment (an adverb) means "really" or "truly." We construct English adverbs by adding "-ly" to adjectives; in French, we add -ment. Vraiment is built from vrai, "true," and -ment. You can turn other adjectives into adverbs; for instance, if you take seul, you can make seulement, meaning "only." Don't forget: adverbs go after the verb in French, not before!

For Example:

1. Elle est vraiment belle!
   "She is really pretty!"

Cognates

There is no doubt that learning a second language is a difficult endeavor, but English speakers learning French have one major advantage: cognates. These are words that are similar in both languages, either because one language borrowed it from the other or because they both borrowed it from the same source. At the beginning of the previous millennium, a large number of French words entered the English language. Although the words have evolved separately for over 1,000 years, many words are still easily recognizable. In this lesson, we had seul ("sole"), amoureux ("amorous"), and more recent borrowings like beau, belle and déjà as in déjà-vu ("already seen" or "seen before"). While you need to pay attention to the French pronunciation of these words, you should definitely use these cognates to your advantage!