Familiar actions in French: parler and travailler

Level A1

Familiar actions in French: parler and travailler

You can say where someone is; now say what they do. Use two familiar actions to say who speaks French and where people work. You will hear how the subject changes even when the verb sounds the same.

Start with the person

Je means I, tu addresses one person informally, and il and elle mean he and she in these examples about people. With être (be), you have je suis, tu es and il/elle est; ici means here and là means there in the examples below. Listen to Je suis ici (I'm here) and Elle est là (She's there). Keep the subject before the verb when you change from a location to an action.

Two actions and a language

Parler means speak; travailler means work, and français here means the French language. Parler and travailler are infinitives: the forms used to name the actions in a dictionary. To say who does them, use a present form after je, tu, il or elle. Listen to the infinitives here, then compare them with the sentences below; their written -er ending sounds different from the present endings.

Parler becomes parle or parles

Listen to Je parle français: I speak French. For these four subjects, remove -er from parler and add -e with je, -es with tu, and -e with il or elle: je parle, tu parles, il parle, elle parle. In these forms, the written endings -e and -es are silent: parle and parles sound the same, so listen to the subject to identify the person.

English puts an -s on he speaks; French writes the extra -s here with tu parles, not il parle. It is not a plural ending. In this combination, say parle français without an article before français. Listen to all four statements, then repeat them, changing the person.

je / tu / il / elle parle / parles français

Travailler follows the same pattern

Remove -er from travailler: the remaining letters are travaill-. The four forms are je travaille, tu travailles, il travaille and elle travaille; here too, -e and -es add no sound. Compare Je suis ici (I'm here: a location) with Je travaille ici (I work here: an action in that place).

Learn à la maison as a whole phrase meaning at home; maison is home, but keep all three words together in this expression. Je travaille à la maison means I work at home, even if home is a flat rather than a house. Depending on the situation, Je travaille ici can also mean I'm working here: French can use this present form for an action in progress, without adding suis. The tu lines address one person informally; this lesson practises these four subjects, not the full set of verb forms.

je / tu / il / elle travaille / travailles ici / à la maison

Just recognize: cuisiner

Cuisiner means cook, in the sense of preparing food. With the model Je cuisine à la maison, recognize I cook at home: je identifies the speaker and à la maison gives the place. Here -er becomes -e, as in je parle; you only need to understand this supported example, not produce a new set of forms.

Your turn: say who does what

Try three statements before reading the answers: say that you work at home; tell a friend that they speak French; say that Ana works here, using elle for Ana. Use only the words already shown, and keep the subject in each statement. Then listen to the three answers below in that order and check the written -s with tu.

The subject tells you who

With parler and travailler, these present forms use -e after je, -es after tu, and -e after il or elle. The endings look different but do not distinguish the sound of the verb: compare Tu travailles ici and Il parle français with the other subjects above. Keep the subject, and use ici or the whole phrase à la maison to say where someone works.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons