When you begin learning French, there are a lot of new things to learn and remember. It can be a difficult language, but an enjoyable one if you take your time and learn to do things correctly. Verb conjugations, spellings, pronunciations can be easy things to get wrong. The sooner you learn to do these things correctly, the easier it will be in the long run! This article is going to discuss five of the most common mistakes beginners to French make.

Number One: Gender

In just about every language other than English, all nouns have a gender. If your native language is not English, this might not be as difficult for you as for English speakers, who are unaccustomed to having “male” and “female” words. Some words have different meanings depending on their gender, so learning the word with either a definite or indefinite article will help you learn and remember the gender.

Number Two: Accents

Accents are not optional and are not there for decoration. They indicate the correct pronunciation of a word. You need to know what they mean, what words have them and which do not (and though they may be spelled the same, they can have totally different meanings, much like homophones in English), and how to type them. (Note in particular that ç never precedes e or i).

Number Three: To Be

Shakespeare once said “ To be or not to be, that is the question.” Perhaps Voltaire once thought “être ou avoir”. The literal equivalent to the English “to be” is être although many French Expressions use avoir (to have) instead. Memorize and practice these expressions and their uses, so you learn their correct usage.

Number Four: Contractions

Unlike English, where Contractions are optional and not required, in French, they are required. Whenever a short word like je, me, te, le or la are followed by a word that begins with a vowel, the short word drops the the final vowel and replaces it with an apostrophe, to attach itself to the final word ( ie: j'aime, l'ami). Contractions never occur in front of a consonant in French, with the exception H muet.

Number Five: H

The French H comes in two varieties: aspiré and muet. Although both are silent, one acts as a consonant and one acts as a vowel. The H aspiré (aspirated H) behaves like a consonant, in that it does not allow contractions or liaisons. However, The H muet (mute H) is the opposite: it requires contractions and liaisons. Making vocabulary lists will help you to remember which H is which.