How to master French grammar the easy way

Do you like French grammar? You’re allowed to say no.

When I ask my new students how they feel about grammar, their reaction ranges from “ugh” to “do I have to”. Very few people love it.

In this article, my intention is to help you see grammar not as something you have to deal with even though you don’t want to, but rather as something quirky and interesting that you can be curious about.

And then I’ll share two ways to learn French grammar, and how you can combine them for best results.

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What is grammar?

A dictionary would tell you something like “grammar is the whole system and structure of a language”, meaning a whole bunch of rules for you to learn.

I prefer to look at it as some sort of world-view that the speakers of a language have agreed upon.

English speakers have a way to look at things, and French speakers also have a way to look at things, that’s sometimes similar and sometimes different than the English way.

Let’s take genders as an example:

In English, we have masculine and feminine for men and women.

In French, we also use masculine and feminine for men and women. Except we extend this to everything. We see everything as either masculine or feminine.

In English, most objects are referred to as a third gender, with “it” pronouns” - except for boats and sometimes machines which English speakers like to refer to as “she”.

Other languages have completely different gender system, or even no gender system at all.

It’s not right or wrong, it’s just a different worldview.

We can choose to see it as some interesting quirks and seek to learn it and see the world a little bit more like French speakers while we are speaking French. This is what mastering grammar means.

Now concretely how do we do it?

The hard way (plus, it often doesn’t work)

Whenever, I start working with a new client, I ask them “how do you feel about grammar?” I typically get one of two answers:

“Ugh. Is that really necessary?” (translation: I hate grammar, I hope you won’t make me deal with it too much)
“ I think grammar is really important.” (translation: I need to understand how the language work, so I hope we’ll do some grammar)

Take a note of which “camp” you’re in, because this will determine the best way to learn grammar (and French in general) for you.

What’s fascinating about these answers is that they both are the result of the school approach to grammar. At school we typically get the message that grammar is boring but necessary. Then, different students focus on either boring or necessary, resulting in those two answers.

At school (and in many French methods for adults too) we learn grammar with exercises, and drills and learning lists of rules and exceptions. Quite frankly, that’s the hard way. And very often it’s not even efficient. Think about it: if it had already worked for you, you wouldn’t be researching it right now, would you?

Good news: there’s an easier way. Two actually.

2. The easy way (although it’s a bit hit or miss too).

Quick question: If English is your native language, how did you learn to speak it with good grammar?
You probably don’t remember if for yourself. However, if you’ve ever seen a toddler who’s learning English, you know that they haven’t done any grammar exercises. Instead they just sort of soak up the language and learn to speak correctly eventually.

Good news: as an adult, you still have this ability. You can learn French (and French grammar) via immersion, just like you did as a child.

However, two things get in the way:

You typically don’t get as much ‘immersion’ (ie: as much time with the new language) as the toddler does. So you need to arrange a French environment for yourself to tap into this natural ability. Immersion is a key aspect of the method I use with my student. In my programs, students listen to French everyday (often they do something else at the same time, or if they only have it in the background). We call this the “daily French bath”. Every student has a personalised list of resources that they’ll love, so it’s easy for them to tune in to French everyday.
As an adult, you tend to second-guess a lot more than toddlers do, and this gets in the way of your natural French learning abilities.

—> If you are already good at speaking even when you’re not sure that what you’re saying is correct, then this will be less of a problem for you. It’s likely that you are part of the first group mentioned above, the “huh, is it really necessary? I don’t like grammar” group. Immersion will work wonders for you. You will still benefit from using the method below, as this will make your French more fluent and more accurate.

—> However, if you tend to second guess a lot, get shy or freeze when you are about to speak French, then you’ll really need to use the method below. It’s likely that you are part of the second group mentioned above the “I think grammar is really important” group.

3. The easy-ish + efficient way (best of both worlds!)

This is the method that I use with my 1-1 clients. It takes advantage of both approaches mentioned above, and it will work well for you, whether you love grammar or hate it.

Immersion is compulsory. As I mentioned above, the “daily French bath” is a big part of my coaching programs. You get to watch any content you want in French (and French content is all over the internet). I promise you, whatever hobby or interest you have, some French native has made a YouTube channel about it. (I even found one about baseball, a sport that is hardly played in France at all). Watch stuff you like so it’s enjoyable. Also, your brain remembers better when you have fun, so that’s a win-win for your brain and your French goals.
➡️ Here’s a list of about 50 French Youtube channels to get you started, if you'd like some inspiration.
Whatever grammar you don’t learn through immersion, you can master through targeted exercises.

A coaching session with me is like the tip of the iceberg of your French study. This is the moment when I give you some guidance on how to move forward, and that includes checking your current level and finding out which grammar you have already mastered, and which particular aspects would benefit from a little boost.

Then, my approach depends a bit on the camp you’re in.

If you love to understand how things work, we’ll focus more on the grammar rules and the mechanics of the language. I’ll give you some exercises so you can systematise the new rules at home. I like to use the books Grammaire progressive du Français for that. They’re the best, in my professional opinion.

And then, something amazing happens: you start noticing these ways of speaking during your immersion practice. This is thanks to a natural brain feature known as “reticular activation system”. This system constantly filters your environment to decide which information to process and which to leave out (because there is way too much information in your environment for your brain capacity). Once your attention has been drawn to a particular rule or language pattern, suddenly your reticular activation system will make you see it or hear it again each time you come across a similar sentence. They were always here, but they just never made the cut before. So, this helps you assimilate the new patterns easily and with no effort needed.

If you study with me every week, we’ll also practice those skills in conversation to make sure that you have assimilated them.

If you are more of a grammar-averse person, I’ll find ways to have you practice the rules through targeted exercises that don’t really look like grammar exercises. For example, I will make you speak about your childhood do you can practice the past tenses and understand how they work, while still having a meaningful conversation. I’ll do my best to give you as little annoying grammar as possible, because I just know that when you’re annoyed, you don’t learn. So I’ll give you just enough to activate your reticular activation system so you benefit from the process I explained above as well.

This is the easiest and fastest way to learn French grammar and be able to actually use it in conversation.

For both camps, the takeaway is that you need awareness of what is working for you and what isn’t. It is good to assume that you will learn most of the grammar through immersion and you’ll only have to address very specific points which turn out to be harder.

Ask yourself this questions: which parts of the French language aren’t working for you? For example, it’s common for French learners to struggle with verbs. Go one step deeper. Do you struggle with all verbs and all tenses? Likely not. Which ones are hard for you? You’ll want to target these.

Your next steps

If you like this way of learning French, you will love to learn with me as a student or client. Please check out:

My 1-1 coaching program, The French Transformation, if you need to improve your French fast.
My group program, The French Fluency Accelerator, if you’d like to join a community of students from all over the world. We have weekly practice calls together and the best online video library to learn French.