The learning path
All 130 grammar topics in the order in which they support one another — numbered from 1 to 130.
Your progress at a glance
Your progress at a glanceEach petal is a category: easy topics on the inside, hard ones on the outside. Tap a petal to see only its topics.
Where are you right now?
- A1Introducing yourself, asking questions, saying everyday things.
- The alphabetThe same 26 letters as English, with different names.
- VowelsA u is not an “oo”, and two letters are often one sound.
- Nasal vowelsBefore n or m the vowel goes through the nose, and the n disappears.
- Consonants: ch, j, qu, rFamiliar letters, a few unfamiliar sounds — and h is always silent.
- StressThe stress falls on the last syllable you can hear.
- Present tense: -er verbsThe largest set, and almost without exceptions.
- être — to beName, origin, job, quality, place.
- Definite article: le, la, lesThe definite article — and what it tells you about the word.
- Negation: ne … pasTwo words, with the verb in between — and no «do».
- The silent endingsIn English silent letters are accidents; here they carry the grammar.
- Passé composé with avoirThe shape of «I have spoken», the job of «I spoke».
- Masculine or feminineA category English simply does not have.
- Adjective agreementAn -e for the feminine, an -s for the plural.
- Present tense: -ir verbsThe group with -iss- in the plural.
- avoir — to havePossession, age, and everything that happens to you.
- Indefinite article: un, uneAnd the plural of «a», which English does not have.
- Present tense: -re verbsThe smallest group — and the verbs in it take no preposition.
- Near future: aller + infinitive«Going to», with the same verb and the same emptiness.
- Imperative: the three formsOne English form becomes three, and one of them is «let’s».
- pouvoir and vouloir: can, wantOrdinary verbs where English has defective ones.
- Possessives: mon, ma, mesIt agrees with the thing, so «his» and «her» become one word.
- Prepositions à and deTwo words that fuse, where English never fuses anything.
- Asking with est-ce queA fixed phrase in front, doing the job English gives to «do».
- Elision: l’, j’, qu’An apostrophe means the opposite of what it means in English.
- Expressions with avoirWhere English says «be», French says «have».
- Partitive article: du, de laIn front of anything you cannot count.
- Irregular verbs in the presentThe verbs that follow no rule — and you need them most.
- Irregular past participlesYou already know how to learn a list like this.
- The pluralThe same -s as in English, except that nobody says it.
- Where the adjective goesAfter is the rule, and the exception is a short list.
- The question words«What» splits into three, and one of them is an adjective.
- Accents: é, è, êThe circumflex marks a lost s — and English usually still has it.
- il y a — there is, there areOne form for the singular and the plural.
- Contractions: au, du, aux, desTwo prepositions that fuse with le and les.
- Reflexive verbs: se laver, s'appelerThe pronoun changes with the person — and goes before the verb.
- A2Talking about what happened and saying what comes next.
- Demonstratives: celui, celleOne word for both distances — and «the one» always needs a tail.
- Stem-changing verbsRegular endings, but the stem moves.
- Irregular imperatives: sois, aieFour forms to memorise, and a swap between «be» and «have».
- Must: devoir and il faut«must» and «have to», with the same split you already make.
- Gender from the endingNot a law, but a bet worth taking.
- Irregular adjectives: beau, vieuxThree adjectives with a fourth form before a vowel.
- Passé composé with êtreA second auxiliary English got rid of, and an agreement with it.
- Countries, cities, directionsThe gender of the country picks the preposition.
- Negatives: jamais, rienThe same bracket, and the double negative is compulsory.
- Object pronouns: le, luiBefore the verb — and English uses one word where French uses two.
- More irregular verbs: partir, voir, boireA short stem in the singular, a long stem in the plural.
- Present for future plansYou have three present futures; French has two.
- First conditional: si + presentPresent after si, future in the other half — exactly as in English.
- c’est or il estAn article after it means c’est in front of it.
- Pronouns with the imperativeEnglish objects never move; here they move twice.
- To know: savoir or connaître«Know» is two verbs, and so is «can».
- on instead of the passiveOne word for «one», «you», «they», the passive — and «we».
- Infinitive without prepositionWhere English says to or -ing, French often says nothing.
- Leaving out the articleThe few places where the noun stands on its own.
- Quantities: beaucoup deAfter a quantity, de stands alone.
- Comparisons: plus, moins, aussiplus, moins, aussi — and the adjective itself is left alone.
- Relative pronouns: qui, queEnglish asks whether it is a person; French asks whether it is the subject.
- Liaison: linking wordsOne of the few places the plural can be heard at all.
- Punctuation and capitalsNo capital on Monday, March, French or German.
- The pronouns y and enTwo words English has to answer without.
- Imperfect (imparfait)«used to» and «was —ing» in a single form.
- Prepositions of place and timechez is your possessive of place, in one word.
- Questions by inversionThe main verb itself moves, which English never does.
- In progress: être en train deThere is no continuous form, and it is rarely missed.
- Asking without the imperativeOn a sign French uses the infinitive, not the -ing form.
- Asking politely«I would like», «could you», «may I» — three for three.
- Possession with deThe owner goes last, with de in front of them.
- Adverbs in -ment-ment hangs on the feminine, not on the plain form.
- Stressed pronouns: moi, toiA second set of words where English reuses the first.
- B1Explaining how things connect, giving reasons, reporting.
- Verb + à + infinitiveThe verbs of starting, learning and managing.
- Simple future (futur simple)Six endings where English has one word.
- Modals in the past«Must» has no past in English; here it has two.
- Gender that changes meaningOne word, two articles, two different things.
- Participle agreement with avoirIf the direct object comes before the verb, the participle agrees.
- Subjunctive: the forms«that he be» is the one English survivor — and it is the whole idea.
- Reported statementsEnglish that is optional; French que never is.
- c'est and il est: the borderline casesWhere the basic rule stops helping: verdicts, the time, written style.
- Degree words: trop, assez, si«enough» moves to the front, and the sentence wants to continue.
- Verbs with prepositions«to» is not de, and often it is nothing at all.
- Relative pronouns: dont, oùThe preposition goes first, and whose comes back with an article.
- Verb + de + infinitiveLargely the group English marks with -ing.
- The conditional«Would», built out of two things you have already learnt.
- Mustn’t and needn’t«mustn’t» and «needn’t» — you already make this distinction.
- Compound nounsTwo nouns, with à or de deciding between them.
- Passé composé or imparfait?Nearly the same choice English makes, with one shifted edge.
- Second conditional: si + imparfaitPast after si, «would» in the other half.
- When to use the subjunctiveHere the conjunction carries the mood; in English it carries nothing.
- Passive with êtreThe participle agrees — and «he was told» cannot be built.
- The gérondif: en parlantEnglish -ing does five jobs; en plus -ant does one.
- Order of two pronounsA fixed order, and no ear to check it against.
- Reported questionsOne English what becomes two French words.
- tout and même: all, sameOne word for all, every and whole — and it agrees.
- Future after quandOne of your two habits is right here, and they look identical.
- Guessing with devoir«must have» puts the past on the wrong verb here.
- Collective nounsCollective nouns take the singular, and gens has no singular.
- Verbs that take both à and deThe same verb, two prepositions, two meanings — as with an English particle.
- The adjective without its nounNo «one» and no «ones» — and quelque chose wants a de.
- Adjectives + prepositionYou already learn «proud of»; the lists simply differ.
- Conjunctions: bien que, parce queEnglish lost its subjunctive, so the French list has to be learnt as a list.
- Pluperfect (plus-que-parfait)«had eaten», almost word for word.
- Avoiding the subjunctiveHere the conjunction changes shape, not the verb.
- Reported orders and requestsAlmost the English construction — and then demander asks for à.
- Spoken French: dropped neThe word that falls away is the negation itself.
- Choosing a future formThree against three, and the connotations line up.
- Advising and recommending«should» and «you’d better», with the same threat inside.
- Jobs in the feminineFour patterns, and a group that does not move.
- Adjective + à/de + infinitiveeasy to read and it is easy to read look the same in English and differ here.
- B2Getting exact: stance, degree, subordinate clause.
- Third conditional: si + pluperfect«had known» and «would have come», built with two auxiliaries.
- Future perfect (futur antérieur)«Will have finished» — and «when I have finished» too.
- Passive with se and se faire«get your wallet stolen» and «have your hair cut», in one verb.
- faire and laisser + infinitivemake, have and get are all one verb here.
- lequel after a prepositionEnglish hides these by stranding the preposition; French cannot.
- Tense shift in reported speechEnglish backshifts too — but it lets you skip it, and French does not.
- Conditions without si«in case it rains» becomes a conditional here.
- Passé simple: reading the narrative tenseNobody speaks it, but you have to be able to read it.
- The future used for a guess«That’ll be the postman» — the same trick, the same words.
- The subjunctive in the pastOne letter apart from the ordinary perfect, and inaudible.
- Emphasis: c'est … quiEnglish can just say it louder; French has to build the cleft.
- Mixed conditionsThe same mixing English does, with the same signal words.
- The agent: par or de«covered with» is already de; «loved by» is not par.
- Past infinitive: après avoirAfter eating is exactly the mistake here.
- Shortened relative clausesThe shortening English does most often is the one French forbids.
- The reporting verbsprétendre is not pretend, and the gap between them is wide.
- Future in the past«was going to» and «would», exactly as you already say them.
- Wishes and regrets«I wish» has no verb here: it is a si with nothing after it.
- C1The fine grain: tone, register, rare forms.
- Inversion outside a questionYou already do this after hardly and never — the French list is different.
- Conditions with a reservation: pour peu que, quand bien mêmeThe written connectors that narrow a condition or cast doubt on it.
- Rules and signsThree registers of «forbidden», and one word English has no sign for.
- The nominal styleEnglish keeps this for contracts; French uses it in the newspaper.
- Softening and hedgingThe hedges map one to one — except quite, which does not exist here.
The finish: the whole grammar
130 topics, from the first sentences to the finishing touches.
How to read the path. Every dot is a grammar topic; a click opens it. The colour of a dot is its category, the colour of the path is the difficulty — green and easy at the top, berry red and hard at the bottom. Within a level the categories follow one another, but you need not take them in order: you can work on a tense and on a topic from another category side by side.
On every topic page you can note how well it has sunk in — understood or not sure yet. The path shows it here and highlights the next open topic.
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