Grammar patterns across languages
Compare a new language's grammar patterns with English, including noun gender where used, taught verb forms and word order; use these patterns to build new sentences.
What a learner can do afterwards
- In a language with noun gender, use a taught article pattern with familiar nouns, such as French 'le chat' and 'la table'.
- Use taught verb forms to match the subject, such as French 'je joue' and 'nous jouons'.
- Compare a taught word-order pattern with English, such as the adjective after the noun in 'une voiture rouge'.
1 · Read
Grammar patterns help you put words together. Compare familiar phrases and try a pattern in another sentence. Check your idea with a teacher or reference. A pattern in one language may work differently in another.
French nouns have grammatical gender. For the singular nouns here, use 'le' before a masculine noun and 'la' before a feminine noun. The article comes before the noun. 'Chat' is masculine: 'le chat'. 'Table' is feminine: 'la table'. Nouns for things have gender too; gender does not tell you whether the thing is male or female.
Marco learns that 'chien', dog, is masculine, so he writes 'le chien'. He learns that 'maison', house, is feminine, so he writes 'la maison'. He records each noun with its article.
For jouer (to play) and chanter (to sing), remove -er and add -e with je (I), or -ons with nous (we). For example, jouer gives je joue and nous jouons. These are written endings; some verb forms sound alike. Other French verbs may follow different patterns.
Compare where a describing word sits. In French 'une voiture rouge', 'rouge' means red and follows 'voiture', car. English says 'a red car', with red before car. Many French adjectives follow nouns, but some go before them. Check the phrase you are using.
Learn nouns with articles, verbs with subjects and words in their usual places. Check which pattern fits the language and phrase.
Original grammar-pattern lessons, French and Spanish examples, questions and cards written for this dataset.
Three original grammar activities and six grammar cards written for this dataset.
More to read
Check a pattern you notice
Choose two familiar phrases. Mark the part that stays the same and the part that changes. Explain your idea about the pattern.
Try another example with your teacher. If it does not fit, keep that example and ask what rule applies. A few examples can suggest a pattern without proving that it works everywhere.
Find the colour word
Write une voiture rouge and a red car on separate lines. Find the car word in each line, then find the red word.
In the French phrase, the colour word follows the car word. In the English phrase, it comes before it. Explain this difference using both phrases. Keep each phrase together when you practise its word order.
Keep an example with your note
Make a grammar note with examples. For French noun gender, record le chat and la table. For jouer, record je joue and nous jouons.
When writing, choose the note that fits your task. The noun note helps with an article. The verb note helps with a subject and verb form. Check a new word's pattern before using it.
2 · Watch
به انگلیسیTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Optional connections
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.