Être, "to be", is French’s most-used verb, and its three singular forms carry most beginner sentences: je suis, tu es, il est / elle est. This lesson pairs each form with words you can truthfully say about yourself — content, grand, petit — and about the people around you.
| French | English | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| je suis | I am | zhuh SWEE |
| tu es | you are (friend-form) | tew EH |
| il est | he is | ee-LEH |
| elle est | she is | eh-LEH |
| content / contente | happy | koh(n)-TAH(n) / koh(n)-TAH(n)T |
| grand / grande | tall, big | grah(n) / grah(n)d |
| petit / petite | small | puh-TEE / puh-TEET |
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
je = I, tu = you (friend), il/elle = he/she. Say the trio as a chant — zhuh SWEE, tew EH, ee-LEH — until the sound pattern locks. The plural forms (nous, vous, ils) arrive with Module 2 of the series.
Each describing word above shows two forms: use the first for masculine (or yourself if male), the second for feminine. Speak whichever is true of you — Je suis grande, says a tall woman.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.
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