French grammar, A1 to A2, in the order it is taught.
These are the 62 grammar points the Parcours track teaches between absolute beginner and a measured A2. Each one has a conjugation table, the pattern written out, and worked examples with English glosses. All of it is free to read and none of it is behind an account.
The sequence is the part that matters. Every point lists what it assumes you already know and what it unlocks next, so you can read one entry and see where it sits rather than guessing whether you were ready for it.
A1 — the machinery
The two irregular verbs everything else hangs off, the article system, the present tense, and enough negation and question form to hold a conversation about yourself.
- A1Être ("to be") in the present tenseÊtre means "to be". It is irregular, so its six forms must be memorized — they do not follow a pattern like most French verbs.
- A1S'appeler — saying your nameS'appeler literally means "to call oneself", and it is how French speakers say their name.
- A1Subject pronouns (je, tu, il...)Every French sentence with a conjugated verb needs a subject pronoun, the word that says who is doing the action — like English "I", "you", "he".
- A1Tu vs. vous — informal and formal "you"French has two words for "you", and choosing the right one matters. teacher, someone older), or more than one person, no matter how well you know them.
- A1Avoir ("to have") in the present tenseAvoir means "to have". Like être, it is irregular and must be memorized. It is also used in the fixed expression for age: "j'ai ... ans" (I am ...
- A1Definite articles (le, la, les)French nouns are either masculine or feminine, and the article ("the") shows which. You must learn each noun with its article.
- A1Indefinite articles (un, une, des)Use an indefinite article ("a", "an", "some") when you mean any example of a thing, not one specific, already-known thing.
- A1Possessive adjectives (mon, ma, mes...)Possessive adjectives ("my", "your", "his/her") agree with the noun they describe, not with the owner.
- A1Regular -er verbs in the present tenseMost French verbs end in -er in the dictionary (the infinitive), like parler (to speak) or manger (to eat).
- A1Aller ("to go") in the present tenseAller means "to go". It is irregular in the present tense, even though it ends in -er. Aller is followed by à (to/at) or chez (to someone's place).
- A1Telling the timeTo ask the time, say "Quelle heure est-il ?" (What time is it?). To answer, use "Il est ..." (It is ...).
- A1Il y a — "there is / there are"Il y a is a fixed expression that never changes form, no matter what follows it — it works for both singular and plural.
- A1Prepositions of placePrepositions of place tell you where something is located. More examples: "La chambre est à côté du salon." (The bedroom is next to the living room.) ·…
- A1Adjective agreementFrench adjectives change spelling to match the gender and number of the noun they describe.
- A1Ne … pas — making a sentence negativeFrench negation takes two words wrapped around the verb: ne before it, pas after it. ne becomes n' before a vowel or a silent h — n'est, n'ai, n'habite.
- A1Prendre — an irregular verb you need dailyPrendre means "to take", and French uses it where English often would not: you take a coffee, take the bus, take the train.
- A1Vouloir and pouvoir — wanting and being ableBoth are followed directly by an infinitive — no word in between. Je voudrais is the polite form of je veux, and it is the one to use when ordering or…
- A1Faire — to do, to make, and the weatherFaire is irregular and extremely common. It covers "do" and "make", and it is also how French talks about the weather.
- A1Saying what you like doingTo say you like doing something, put the second verb in the infinitive. English uses "-ing"; French does not.
- A1Three ways to ask a questionFrench has three registers for the same question, and you should recognise all three even if you only produce the first two. 1.
- A1Du, de la, des — some of somethingWhen you eat or buy part of something rather than a whole countable thing, French requires the partitive article.
- A1Combien and expressions of quantityCombien asks "how much / how many": "Combien ça coûte ?" (How much does it cost?) · "Combien de frères as-tu ?" (How many brothers do you have?) After any…
- A1Ce, cet, cette, ces — this and thatUse these to point at something. French does not distinguish "this" from "that" in everyday speech — one word covers both.
- A1The imperative — giving directions and instructionsTo tell someone to do something, use the present tense without the subject pronoun. Only three forms exist.
- A1Avoir mal à — saying what hurtsFrench does not say "my head hurts". It says I have pain at the head — avoir mal à + the definite article.
- A1Devoir — must, and the obligation verbsDevoir means must / to have to. Like vouloir and pouvoir, it is followed straight by an infinitive with nothing in between.
- A1Reflexive verbs — se lever, se sentir, se reposerSome French verbs carry a pronoun that refers back to the subject. You have been using two since module 3 (se lever, se coucher) without naming them.
- A1The passé composé with avoir — talking about yesterdayThe past tense you will use most. It is built from two pieces: avoir in the present + the past participle "J'ai mangé une pizza." — I ate / I have eaten a…
- A1Irregular past participlesThe regular endings cover most verbs. The verbs you use most often are, as usual, the exceptions — and they must simply be learned.
- A1The futur proche — what is about to happenTo talk about what is going to happen, use aller in the present + an infinitive. Nothing else changes.
A2 — under load
Both past tenses and the choice between them, the object pronouns, the future and the conditional, and the reported speech an administrative life runs on.
- A2The passé composé with êtreMost verbs form the passé composé with avoir. A small group uses être instead, and you have to know which — there is no way to hear the difference.
- A2Agreement of the past participleWhen the auxiliary is être, the past participle agrees with the subject — like an adjective.
- A2déjà, jamais, pas encoreThree adverbs that say where an event sits relative to now. They go between the auxiliary and the participle, not at the end.
- A2depuis, pendant, il y aThree ways to put a duration on an event. Choosing between them is about whether the situation is finished.
- A2Negating and questioning the passé composéNegation wraps the auxiliary, never the participle. Say it once and it becomes automatic.
- A2Direct object pronouns (le, la, les)A direct object pronoun replaces a noun that follows the verb with no preposition — so you do not repeat it.
- A2Regular -ir verbsThe second big regular family. Finir, choisir and réussir are already familiar; this is the pattern behind them.
- A2Indirect object pronouns (lui, leur)An indirect object pronoun replaces à + a person. The test is whether the verb needs à before the person. Only two forms are new: lui and leur.
- A2Comparing thingsThree words do all the work, and they sit around the adjective: The adjective still agrees with what it describes: Cette pièce est plus grande que la…
- A2The superlative (le plus, le moins)The comparative with a definite article in front of it. That is the whole rule.
- A2Polite forms for an office or a counterAt a counter the difference between getting helped and getting nowhere is a handful of fixed phrases.
- A2Stressed pronouns (moi, toi, lui, eux)A third set of pronouns, and the one that stands alone. Weeks 13 and 14 gave the pronouns that attach to a verb; these are the ones that do not.
- A2Forming the imperfectA second past tense, and the easiest French tense to build: one set of endings, one stem rule, one irregular verb in the entire language.
- A2Impersonal expressions (il faut, il est important de)Advice and obligation without naming who is obliged. The subject is always il, and it refers to nothing at all — the same empty il as il pleut.
- A2Using the imperfectWeek 16 built the forms. This is what they are for. The imperfect answers "what was it like?" — never "what happened?".
- A2Adverbs of frequencyHow often something happened. These pair with the imperfect constantly, because habit is what the imperfect describes.
- A2Passé composé or imperfect?The hardest single thing at A2, and the reason the two tenses were taught weeks apart. The choice is not about when something happened. Both are past.
- A2Narrative connectorsA story is not a list of sentences. These are the words that turn one into the other, and an examiner listens for them.
- A2The simple futureA second future, and the written one. Week 10 gave je vais partir; this gives je partirai.
- A2Si + present, futureHow to say what will happen if something else happens. French fixes the tenses in a way English does not, and the rule is absolute.
- A2Relative pronouns (qui, que)Two short words that join two sentences into one. They are what lets you say more than one thing about a noun, and an examiner hears their absence.
- A2Giving an opinionThe phrases that introduce what you think, and the ones that place it against someone else's.
- A2ce qui, ce queLast week's relative pronouns with nothing in front of them. Qui and que point back to a noun; ce qui and ce que point at a whole idea, where English says…
- A2The gérondif (en + -ant)One form, three jobs, and it is built from a stem you already know. Formation: the nous form of the present minus -ons, plus -ant, with en in front.
- A2The pronoun yOne letter, and it replaces a whole place. > Tu vas au marché ? — Oui, j'y vais. > Elle habite à Lyon ? — Oui, elle y habite depuis dix ans.
- A2The pronoun enThe partner of y, and the one English has no equivalent for at all — which is why it gets left out.
- A2The present conditionalYou have been using this tense since week 15 without being told: behind those four phrases. Formation: the future stem plus the imperfect endings.
- A2Si + imperfect, conditionalThe second si pattern. Week 19 gave the one for things that may happen; this is the one for things that are not true.
- A2Reporting what someone saidPassing on what another person said, without quoting them. French does this with que and a shift of tense, and the shift is mechanical.
- A2Reporting a questionReporting a question rather than a statement. The tense rules are last lesson's; what changes is the word that joins the two halves, and the word order.
- A2The present subjunctiveA mood rather than a tense, and at A2 you need it for a short list of triggers rather than for a theory. Learn the forms, then learn what pulls them.
- A2il faut que + subjunctiveWeek 16 gave il faut + infinitive, which tells everybody what to do. This gives il faut que + subjunctive, which tells one person what to do — and that…
Reading a grammar point is not the same as being able to use it under time pressure, which is what an exam measures. The track puts each of these behind marked production and a module test that can refuse to advance you.