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Pick what trips you up in French

Each one is a ten-minute round: first you try it, then comes the rule, and a mini-test at the end. No sign-up and no ads.

edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.

CEFR A1 part 1

• Accents and the cedilla

  Placing é, è, ê and ç correctly, and knowing that in French an accent changes the sound, not the stress.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Gender that does not match your language

  Choosing le or la for nouns whose gender does not match your own language.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Present tense of -er verbs, with its subject

  Conjugating the present tense and never dropping the subject pronoun.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Negating with ne … pas

  Placing both halves of the negation around the verb, and not doubling it.

  A17 min40 exercises

• Être and avoir, and telling your age

  Conjugating être and avoir in the present, and using avoir where French requires it: age, hunger, cold, fear.

  A19 min49 exercises

• The plural you cannot hear

  Marking the plural where it shows —the article and the written -s— even though you cannot hear it, and the -x plurals: journaux, animaux, cheveux.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Numbers from 70 to 99

  Reading and writing the numbers from 70 to 99, which French builds by adding: 70 = 60+10, 80 = 4×20, 90 = 4×20+10.

  A18 min42 exercises

CEFR A1 part 2

• The partitive: du, de la, des

  Using du, de la or des before uncountable things, and switching to de after a negative.

  A18 min42 exercises

• à and de with the article: au, aux, du, des

  Contracting à + le into au, à + les into aux, de + le into du and de + les into des, always.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Adjectives: before or after the noun

  Placing the adjective correctly and making it agree, including irregular feminine forms.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Passé composé: avoir or être?

  Choosing the auxiliary, forming the participle and agreeing when required.

  A18 min42 exercises

• Son, sa, ses: they agree with the thing

  Choosing the possessive by the gender and number of the thing owned, not the owner; and telling son/sa/ses from leur/leurs.

  A18 min42 exercises

• C'est or il est

  Using c'est to introduce or identify —with an article after— and il/elle est to describe a job or nationality, with no article.

  A18 min42 exercises

• The three ways of asking a question

  Asking the same question three ways and knowing which each situation calls for: intonation when speaking, est-ce que in between, inversion in writing.

  A18 min42 exercises

CEFR A2 part 1

• le, la, les or lui, leur

  Deciding whether the verb takes a direct or an indirect object, and placing the pronoun before the verb.

  A28 min42 exercises

• The pronouns en and y

  Replacing de + something with en, and à + place or thing with y.

  A28 min42 exercises

• Imparfait or passé composé

  Choosing the tense by what it does: setting the scene, or moving the story forward.

  A28 min42 exercises

• French false friends

  Spotting words that look like yours but mean something else, and using the right one instead.

  A28 min42 exercises

• The imperative and its pronouns

  Forming the imperative in its three persons, placing the pronoun after in the affirmative and before in the negative, and adding the -s of Vas-y.

  A28 min42 exercises

• The verbs that are not -er verbs

  Conjugating in the present the -ir verbs with -iss- and the frequent irregulars: prendre, venir, partir, sortir, faire, aller.

  A28 min44 exercises

• Savoir or connaître

  Choosing between savoir and connaître: a fact, a clause or a skill need savoir; a person, a place or a work need connaître.

  A28 min42 exercises

• Ce, cet, cette, ces

  Choosing the demonstrative by the noun's gender and first letter, and marking distance with -ci and -là only when it really matters.

  A28 min42 exercises

CEFR A2 part 2

• Futur proche or futur simple

  Choosing between the two futures and forming the simple one, with its irregular stems and the polite conditional.

  A28 min42 exercises

• qui, que, où, dont

  Choosing the relative by its role, and using dont when the verb or noun takes de.

  A28 min42 exercises

• meilleur or mieux

  Comparing with plus, moins and aussi, and choosing between meilleur, an adjective, and mieux, an adverb.

  A27 min40 exercises

• Verbs with à, with de and with nothing

  Knowing which preposition each verb takes, including the ones that take none.

  A28 min42 exercises

• Quantities: beaucoup de, trop de, assez de

  Putting bare de after any quantity, and knowing when the article does come back.

  A28 min42 exercises

• Adverbs and where they go

  Building the adverb from the feminine adjective and placing it after the conjugated verb.

  A28 min42 exercises

• Have just and am doing

  Using venir de + infinitive for the just-past and être en train de for what is happening now.

  A28 min42 exercises

• The -er verbs that change stem

  Changing the stem in the four persons that need it and returning it to the infinitive's in nous and vous.

  A28 min42 exercises

CEFR B1 part 1

• When French needs the subjunctive (and when it does not)

  Forming the present subjunctive and, above all, knowing when it is not used even though it feels like it should be.

  B18 min44 exercises

• Past participle agreement

  Agreeing the participle with être always, and with avoir only when the direct object comes first.

  B17 min40 exercises

• Reporting what someone said

  Turning a sentence into reported speech, changing tense, person and time or place markers.

  B17 min40 exercises

• Connectors that are not synonyms

  Choosing the connector that says what you mean, knowing that ones from the same list are not interchangeable.

  B18 min42 exercises

• Obligation and prohibition

  Saying that something is compulsory, forbidden, or simply not necessary.

  B18 min44 exercises

• The adjective that changes meaning

  Placing six adjectives before or after depending on the meaning, and reading correctly the ones others write.

  B18 min42 exercises

• tout, chaque, quelque, plusieurs

  Choosing the right form of tout, and not pluralising what is always singular.

  B18 min42 exercises

• Comparing quantities

  Comparing how much there is of something, with de before the noun and que before the second term.

  B18 min42 exercises

CEFR B1 part 2

• on, the French way to be impersonal

  Using on where your language uses a passive, and building the être passive only when it is really needed.

  B17 min40 exercises

• After a preposition, the infinitive

  Using en + present participle for simultaneity, and an infinitive after any preposition.

  B18 min42 exercises

• After si, never the future

  Building all three conditional types, and never putting a future or conditional after si.

  B17 min40 exercises

• Spoken French and written French

  Recognising what is normal in speech but not in writing, and switching register without mixing the two.

  B18 min43 exercises

• celui, celle, ceux, celles

  Replacing the noun without repeating it, and always following the pronoun with de, qui, que or -ci/-là.

  B17 min40 exercises

• en France, au Portugal, à Paris

  Choosing the preposition by the gender and number of the place, for going and for coming.

  B18 min44 exercises

• le mien, le tien, le sien

  Answering «whose is it?» without repeating the noun, with the article in front and agreement with the thing owned.

  B17 min40 exercises

• The future perfect and the order of events

  Building the future perfect and using it after quand, dès que and après que, where your language uses a subjunctive.

  B18 min42 exercises

CEFR B2 part 1

• The past before the past: le plus-que-parfait

  Forming the plus-que-parfait with the imperfect of the auxiliary, and using it for what had already happened before another past event.

  B28 min42 exercises

• Compound relatives: lequel, auquel, ce dont

  Choosing the relative when a preposition comes first, contracting with à and de, and using the neutral ce qui, ce que and ce dont.

  B28 min44 exercises

• Negation beyond ne… pas

  Choosing the second half of the negation, placing it correctly with infinitives and the passé composé, and recognising that ne… que does not negate: it restricts.

  B28 min42 exercises

• Present participle, gérondif and verbal adjective

  Telling apart the three -ant forms: the gérondif with en, the present participle that replaces a relative clause, and the verbal adjective, which agrees.

  B27 min40 exercises

• Depuis, pendant, il y a, dans, en

  Choosing among the five depending on whether you mean a starting point, a finished stretch, a moment in the past, a future deadline, or how long something takes.

  B28 min41 exercises

• Stressed pronouns and pronoun order

  Using moi, toi, lui, eux after prepositions, in comparisons and for emphasis; and putting two pronouns together in the order French requires.

  B28 min42 exercises

CEFR B2 part 2

• The past subjunctive and sequence of tenses

  Forming the past subjunctive and choosing between present and past depending on whether the event comes after or before the one in the main clause.

  B28 min42 exercises

• Reflexive verbs and their agreement

  Conjugating reflexive verbs with être and deciding whether the participle agrees, depending on whether the pronoun is a direct or an indirect object.

  B28 min42 exercises

• The conditional for unconfirmed information

  Recognising the conditional French journalism uses for unconfirmed information, and not mistaking it for a hypothesis or for politeness.

  B27 min40 exercises

• Nominalisation in written French

  Turning a verb into a noun with French suffixes, and rewriting a spoken sentence the way a written text needs it.

  B28 min42 exercises

• Faire, prendre, mettre and avoir beau

  Learning French fixed combinations whole, instead of translating them word by word.

  B28 min42 exercises

CEFR C1

• The passé simple: for reading, not speaking

  Recognising passé simple forms when reading and knowing which infinitive they belong to, without having to use them in speech or writing.

  C18 min44 exercises

• Inversion after a fronted adverb

  Inverting the subject after the adverbs that require it, adding the linking -t- where needed, and recognising the pattern when reading without taking it for a question.

  C18 min44 exercises

• Cleft sentences: c'est… qui, ce qui… c'est

  Highlighting an element with c'est… qui, c'est… que and the ce qui / ce que / ce dont patterns, choosing the piece according to its function.

  C17 min40 exercises

• Connectors for formal argument

  Using the connectors that carry a French argumentative text, and telling them apart from their false lookalikes, starting with «or», which is not «or».

  C18 min44 exercises

• The imperfect subjunctive, for reading

  Recognising the forms when reading and knowing which spoken tense they match, without using them in writing.

  C18 min42 exercises

• The impersonal constructions of formal French

  Opening the sentence with impersonal il and giving each phrase its preposition and mood.

  C18 min42 exercises

We're writing the rest. New rounds go up every week.