The French word for first name is “prenom” (prey–nom). You could say “Mon prénom est. . . ” (mon prey-nom ey) which means “my first name is. . . ” The French word for surname is “nom de famille” (nohm dhe fah-mee). In a professional or commercial transaction if someone asks for your “nom” be sure to provide your last name rather than your first.
Consult a dictionary to find pronunciations of specific numbers. You can also describe your age group more generally using the phrase “je suis” (zhe swee) followed by an adjective. “Jeune” (zhuhn) means young. “Vieux” (vee-euh) indicates an elderly man, while “vieille” (vee-ay) indicates an elderly woman. “Je suis jeune” means “I am young. ”
You can also say “my hair is. . . ” followed by a color. The phrase for this is “Mes cheveux sont. . . ” (meh chuh-vuh son). Consult a dictionary for the appropriate color. The same construction works to describe your eye color. You would say “Mes yeux sont . . . ” (mehz-yuh son) which means “my eyes are. . . " Note that in this case you pronounce the s at the end of “mes” because the next word begins with a vowel.
“Fort” (for) means strong, while “faible” (febl) means weak. “Petit” (petee) for men or “petite” (peteet) for women means small or short. “Grand” (grahn) for men or “grande” (grahnd) for women means large or tall.
Content (cohn-tahn) means happy, while triste (treest) means sad. You would say “je suis triste” to convey “I am sad. " Fatigué (fah-tee-gay) means tired. You would say “je suis fatigué” to convey “I am tired. "
Male occupations that end with “eur” (euhr) often change to “euse” (euhz) for women. For example, a massage therapist would be either a masseur or a masseuse. Male occupations that end in “ier” (ee-ay) often add an extra e to become ière (ee-ehr) for women. A farmer would be either a fermier or a fermière. Male occupations that end in a consonant may add an extra e to become feminine. For example, a male student is an “étudiant” (ay-tood-eeon) while a female student is an “étudiante” (ay-tood-eeont). Note that the final consonant is pronounced only in the female form. Many occupations have only one form, regardless of gender, such as “professeur” which means teacher.
“I like” is “j’aime” (zhehm). “I love” is “j’adore” (zha-dor). “J’aime lire” (zhehm leer) means “I like to read. ” The words “ne” and “pas” on either side of the verb negate the phrase, indicating dislike. “I do not like” is “je n’aime pas” (zhe nem pah). “Je n’aime pas chanter” (zhe nem pas chan-tay) means “I do not like to sing. ”
Mon (mohn) or ma (mah) are used as possessives, when you wish to indicate that you like something that belongs to you. Mes (meh) indicates a possessive plural. [5] X Research source Mon is used when the noun is masculine, indicated in the dictionary by the letter m. “J’aime mon chat” means “I like my cat. " Note that it does not matter if you are male, it matters that cat (chat) is a masculine noun. Ma is used when the noun is feminine, indicated in the dictionary by the letter f. “J’aime ma tante” means “I like my aunt. " Again, it matters that aunt is a feminine noun, not that you are a man or a woman. Mes indicates a possessive plural noun, such as “my aunts” or “my cats. ” You would say “j’aime mes tantes” or “j’aime mes chats. ” [6] X Research source
If this is too challenging it may be easier to use the above recommendations for sharing hobbies, simply saying “I like sports” or “j’aime les sports. ” This construction also works to describe personality traits. For example gentil/gentille (zhantee/zhanteel) means nice. You would say “je suis gentil” if you are a man or “je suis gentille” for a woman.
