How to Learn French Grammar Quickly ?

French grammar is the reason many French learners give up. We’ll show you how to approach learning French grammar and not be one of the quitters.

It is all about starting the right way and knowing a few key rules.

Oftentimes, french learners put grammar on a pedestal, subordinating everything else to it, believing that’s the most crucial aspect of a language. They start by learning tons of grammar rules only to discover that in theory, it works fine but in a real situation, they fail to apply what they learned.

When learning French, grammar shouldn’t be the first thing on your plate. Think of a child, who learns a language first by saying the words, and then combining the words in simple sentences. That’s you, in another language.

How to Approach Learning French Grammar

What should l learn first?

You opened up a grammar book and pretty much you have no clue what to learn first. You find yourself jumping from verbs to nouns, spending too much time on learning, but knowing too little at the end of the day.

We’ll help you get there with a minimum of effort.

Have you ever heard about the 80/20 rule?

The 80-20 rule, known as the Pareto Principle, states that 80% of outcomes result from 20% of all causes for any given situation. In terms of French grammar, it means that learning 20% of French grammar covers 80 % of daily French communication. The same applies to vocabulary.

To cover 80% of French communication, you need to focus on the high-frequency words and phrases in French.

By covering the top 20% of any language, you’ll be able to participate in almost any social setting. In short, you can learn a new language without constantly memorizing or covering lessons you’ll never use. Sounds neat, right?

Here, we offer you 4 tips to learn French grammar effectively and not excessively.

TIP #1   Learn the Most Used Grammar Sequence – Pronouns

TIP #2 How to Master French Gender Rules in a Nutshell

TIP #3   Most Useful Order of Learning French Tenses

There are over 20 French tenses. Luckily, you don’t need all of them. Do you still remember the cycle method of learning? Great. We’ll apply the same principle for learning French tenses.

To be able to get by in daily conversations, first, you’ll need Present Simple, Futur, and Past Simple to start with.

After you’ve mastered those 3 tenses, you can nuance your expression by adding two very simple tenses, Passé Recent and Future Proche. They both have a simple formula and are frequently used in daily conversations.

Passé Recent expresses a completed action that happened shortly before the moment of speaking. The same goes for Future Proche, except for it expresses an action that will be done after the moment of speaking. Both tenses come very handily in day-to-day conversations and as we mentioned are extremely easy for learning.

As you know, there are so many French verbs that if you start with an idea to learn all of them, you could spend a tremendous amount of time learning present simple only. Stop, right there. We recommend you create a list of the most used French verbs and learn only those, in different tenses. You can easily expand the list.

The third cycle of learning would include modes. French grammar uses moods, to indicate how the speaker feels about the action. For example, a speaker who wants to express a possibility would use the conditional while someone who wants to give a command would use the imperative.

You get the idea. Start off learning the most used verbs in the most used tenses and you’ll quickly progress.

TIP #4    Learn French Grammar From the Context

Your new vocabulary gains meaning when you place words in context. Meaning is the key to getting words into your long-term memory.

By learning grammar in context, you’ll be able to see how rules can be used in sentences, and what ways of saying are appropriate for the given situation. According to Thornbury “The absence of context makes it very difficult to correctly interpret a single word or phrase” (Thornbury, 1999, p. 69).

The best French practice is the one when you get to engage. If possible, you should avoid learning from random lists, phrasebooks, and vocabulary drills. There is no point in spending time on it! Learn what makes sense for you, and learn it by engaging.

Remember

There is never a wrong way to learn a language, and grammar definitely has its place in the learning journey. Perhaps, not on the first day of learning, but once you reach that point where you start wondering “Why does it mean? Why am I getting this wrong?”, we recommend you grab a grammar book.

Learning grammar can seem overwhelming, if you learn smart and in cycles, you’ll be able to make quick progress and not get bored along the way.

After each focused grammar learning, make sure to actively use the knowledge you gained. Whether in making a sentence, leading a conversation, active listening. The method will help the information to stick.

The end goal of learning grammar is to be able to apply grammar rules in the moment of need and develop a sense of correctness whenever you hear something in French. 

If you want to develop the intuition that tells you when something sounds right or wrong in French, you need to immerse yourself in the language and learn from the context. A combination of immersion with focused grammar study is a recipe for success. 

When you regularly get exposed to French, your brain will learn to recognize patterns. You’ll quickly be able to distinguish whether a sentence is correct or not.