French: Talking about yourself

If you want to say something about yourself in French, you use the word for ‘I’ – Je.

So if you want to say ‘I am called’, you say Je m’appelle:

Je m’appelle Aimée – I am called Aimée

Je m’appelle Anil – I am called Anil

Here appelle means ‘call' so it's like saying ‘I myself call’.

‘What are you called?’ in French

If you want to ask someone else’s name, you use the word tu (you) and the question word comment (how):

Comment t’appelles-tu ? – What are you called?

Did you notice that the word for ‘call’ is before the word for ‘you’? Sometimes the order of the words is different in French. So it is like saying ‘how do you call yourself?’.

In English, you use the verb ‘to be’ to say how old you are but in French, you use the verb ‘to have’ – avoir:

J’ai _____ ans

J’ai huit ans – I am eight years old

So it is like saying ‘I have eight years’ rather than ‘I am eight years old’ as we do in English.

Did you notice that the word for ‘I’ has changed from Je to J’? This is because it appears in front of a vowel.

Here are some useful phrases to practise saying how old you are:

‘How old are you?’ in French

To ask someone how old they are, you first need a question phrase quel âge (what age).

Then use the word for ‘you’ – tu with ‘have’ – as.

Quel âge as-tu ? – How old are you?

So it is like saying ‘What age do you have?’.

How to ask ‘When’s your birthday?’

If you want to ask someone when their birthday is, you say:

Quelle est la date de ton anniversaire ?

Let’s break the question down into smaller parts:

Quelle est la date – What is the date

de ton anniversaire ? – of your birthday?

To answer, you use the phrase C’est + le + day + month

C’est le deux mai – It’s the second of May

C’est le trois mai – It’s the third of May

C’est le quatre mai – It’s the fourth of May

Unlike in English, you don't say the date as an ordinal number, such as the second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. You just use cardinal numbers, such as two, three, four, five. The only time you use the ordinal number is for the first of the month.

C’est le premier mai – It’s the first of May

Numbers one to eleven in French

Numbers are very useful in French when talking about your age or your birthday. Here are numbers one to eleven to get you started:

Numbers twelve to thirty-one in French

Here are more numbers and months of the year so you can work out how to say when your birthday is.

To tell someone where you live, you use the verb habiter (to live).

As habiter starts with a silent h, when you put je (I) in front of it, it changes to j’ to make it easier to say:

Je + habite = J’habite – I live

Then you add à which means ‘in’ when you are talking about a town or city.

J’habite à

Try using the phrases below to say where you live or add your own town at the end.

To talk about the country where you live, most of the time, you use the word en for ‘in’ when talking about a country.

J’habite en Angleterre – I live in England

J’habite en Écosse – I live in Scotland

J’habite en Irlande du Nord – I live in Northern Ireland

J’habite en France – I live in France

Note this exception where you use au instead of en:

J’habite au pays de Galles – I live in Wales

Say where you come from

To say where you come from, you use part of the verb venir (to come) followed by de (from).

Je viens de – I come from

The spelling of de changes depending on which country it comes before. De changes to d’ when the country starts with a vowel:

Je viens d’Angleterre – I come from England

Je viens d’Écosse – I come from Scotland

Je viens d’Irlande du Nord – I come from Northern Ireland

De changes to du when it appears before a country that is a masculine noun, like le pays de Galles:

Je viens du pays de Galles – I come from Wales

You can learn more about masculine and feminine nouns in Indefinite and definite articles.

Below are the names of some other countries in French. Try using them to say where you come from.

Notice that in French you use the definite article le, la or l’ (the) in front of the country.

Below are some important French sounds that you have heard in this topic. Try practising them yourself out loud.

e

When the letter e is followed by two consonants in French, it makes the sound like e in ‘egg’.

Don't forget that the e at the end of the word is silent.

Je m’appelle

eu

This is not an English sound.

Imagine that your have seen something unpleasant, open your mouth a little and sound disgusted!

neuf

j

The letter j always makes the sound like s in the English word ‘television’.

Je