Talking and feeling verbs in French

Level A1

Talking and feeling verbs in French

This lesson introduces everyday French verbs for talking, feelings, and music. English often uses a direct object after “answer,” but French uses répondre à for answering a person or question. Tu addresses one familiar person; vous addresses one person politely or several people. The notes explain the question forms and other differences shown here.

Words for talking and feeling

Talking to someone and answering

Use parler à for talking to someone and parler de for talking about something. Répondre also takes à before a person or question: “Elle répond à la question.” English “answer” usually takes its object directly, so remember the French à.

parler à une personne / de quelque chose ; répondre à une question / à une personne.

Saying that you love someone or something

Aimer can mean “like” or “love,” depending on context; with music or a song, it usually means “like.” French does not add an equivalent of English do to form these questions. “Vous aimez la musique ?” and “Tu aimes cette chanson ?” keep statement word order and use questioning intonation; another option is “Est-ce que vous aimez la musique ?”

aimer : Est-ce que tu/vous aimes/aimez une personne ou une chose ?

Describing a condition or physical sensation

For a general condition, use se sentir with a reflexive pronoun that matches the subject: “je me sens,” “tu te sens,” “vous vous sentez.” For cold hands, French uses avoir: “J’ai les mains froides.” English feel does not always translate as se sentir.

se sentir une condition générale ; avoir une sensation physique.

Laughing, crying, smiling, and singing

“Pourquoi souriez-vous ?” and “Pourquoi souris-tu comme ça ?” put the subject pronoun after the verb, joined by a hyphen. This inversion is characteristic of careful or formal phrasing, even with familiar tu. The tu example describes an informal relationship with the listener; ordinary statements such as “Le bébé rit” are not inherently formal or informal. Super bien is casual.

sujet rire, pleurer / sourire / chanter complément facultatif.

Present forms of se sentir and rire

Subjectse sentirrire
Sujetse sentirrire
jeme sensris
tute sensris
ilse sentrit
ellese sentrit
onse sentrit
nousnous sentonsrions
vousvous sentezriez
ils / ellesse sententrient

A conversation about music

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