On étudie !

When someone asks how you are, you may want to say more than bien or ça va. You may want to tell them how you feel. When describing someone’s mood, use être or se sentir and and the adjective must agree with the person’s gender.

How are Émilie and Juan feeling today?

• You can listen and practice their dialogue.

Juan : Comment vas-tu ? (How are you?)

Émilie : Je suis fatiguée. Et toi ? Comment tu te sens ? (I’m tired. And you? How do you feel?)

Juan : Moi, je suis nerveux parce que j’ai un examen de français aujourd’hui. (I’m nervous because I have a French exam today.)

You will learn how to use reflexive verbs like se sentir later. For now, you can stick to être.

Adjectifs d’émotion

Here are some adjectives you can use to describe how you feel:

[Insert Audio]

Adjectives of emotion, feeling and mood

On approfondit !

Exercice 1 : adjectifs

Exercice 2 : adjectifs

Structure – Verbes et sujets

On étudie !

It is nearly impossible to talk without using verbs, so understanding how they work is key. Let’s take a closer look.

(a) A verb (verbe) is almost always used to describe an action, for example: “to laugh”, “to drink”, “to wonder” and “to write”.

I “laugh”.

Marie “sings” songs.

They “wonder” about their friends.

Jean “writes” a lot.

(b) A subject (sujet) performs the action conveyed by the verb. In the examples above, the subjects are: “I”, “Marie”, “They”, and “Jean”.

(c) Some verbs are called “linking verbs” (e.g., “to be”) because they “link” a subject to a noun or adjective:

Subject + verb + noun => That woman “is” a professor.

Subject + verb + adjective(s) => That woman “is” tall and brunette.

Compare, for example, “You eat tacos” (eat = action verb) to “You are a nice person” (are = linking verb).

(d) A subject (s.) can be simple or complex:

simple s. verb => “The dog” eats steak.

complex s. verb => “The only thing I need to get the job done” is a computer.