Talking about yourself
🎯 Say where you are from, how old you are, and what you are learning.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- Je suis indien / indienne. 🔊 zhuh swee an-DYAN / an-DYEN I am Indian. A boy says indien, a girl says indienne. Almost every describing word in French changes like this.
- J'habite à Pune. 🔊 zha-BEET ah POON I live in Pune. Habite begins with a silent h — so je + habite runs together into j'habite.
- J'ai quatorze ans. 🔊 zhay ka-TORZ on I am fourteen years old. French does not 'be' an age, it 'has' one: literally 'I have fourteen years'.
- J'apprends le français. 🔊 zha-PRON luh fron-SAY I am learning French. One verb form covers both 'I learn' and 'I am learning'. One less tense to worry about.
- Je parle un peu. 🔊 zhuh PARL un PUH I speak a little. The most honest and most useful sentence a beginner owns.
- Tu viens d'où ? 🔊 tew vyan DOO Where do you come from? Answer: Je viens d'Inde (zhuh vyan DAND) — I come from India.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 Two verbs carry half the language
être (to be) and avoir (to have) appear everywhere, and French uses avoir where English uses 'be' — for age, for hunger, for fear.
- je suis = I am · tu es = you are · il/elle est = he/she is
- j'ai = I have · tu as = you have · il/elle a = he/she has
- J'ai faim = I am hungry (literally 'I have hunger'). J'ai froid = I am cold.
🌍 Among the people
France has more Indian students each year than ever before, and many public universities charge a small fee even to foreign students. The language is the entry ticket.
🔁 Practise today
- Write your own six-line introduction using every phrase above, then say it aloud until you need no paper.
- Say your real age in French. Then your mother's, your father's, your best friend's.
- Collect three more 'j'ai' feelings from a dictionary: j'ai soif, j'ai peur, j'ai sommeil. What do they mean?
