This episode of French Connection will be pretty long, but I encourage you to keep reading. Today. I will be covering different forms of the word (this), in addition to vocabulary on clothing.
To start, there are several ways to say “this”, depending on the noun following it. For example, to say “this shirt” you would write “Cette chemise”.
This- Masculine Noun
When the noun that follows is masculine, (who knew that nouns had genders, right?) we use the form ce. An example of this would be ce pantalon, or this pair of pants. If you were in a clothing store, for instance, if you wanted a certain coat, you would say Je veux ce manteau.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand some of the clothing vocab- I’ll get to that later on.
This- Masculine; Noun Starts With Vowel
When a masculine noun starts with a vowel, we use the form cet to say “this”.
This form is rarely used, but can be used to say, for example, Je veux cet anorak. (I want this winter coat).
Don’t forget- all of these forms can be used for other things besides clothing, such as cet ordinateur (this computer).
This- Feminine
For the feminine version of the word, you use the form cette. For example, Je veux cette chemise (I want this shirt).
This- Plural Noun
For any noun that is more than one in quantity, you use the form ces. If you wanted to say that you loved these shoes, you would say J’adore ces chaussures!
These are the four forms of how you would say this ___.
Next, want to learn how to say what you are wearing, in french? Click “Read more”!
In addition, I would like to share some clothing vocabulary with you that would certainly be useful when shopping in a French clothing store. This time, I’ll be writing ‘un’ or ‘une’ or ‘des’ in front of each word, based on the gender of each word and plural nouns. You can use the terms I shared above, such as ‘this’, to talk about clothing. For example, Je voudrais ces lunettes du soleil means ‘I would like these sunglasses.’ You can also infer which form of ‘this’ you need to use based on the ‘un’ or ‘une’ in front of each noun.
un chemisier- a blouse
un jean- a pair of jeans
une jupe- a skirt
une veste- a jacket
une chemise- a shirt
une robe- a dress
un tailleur- a woman’s suit
un costume- a man’s suit
un anorak- a hooded winter coat
un pantalon- a pair of pants
un pull- a sweater
un mateau- a coat
un impermeable- a rain jacket.
Remember- ‘un’ means the noun is masculine and ‘une’ means the noun is feminine. Next up, here are some common accessories that you might wear:
des sandales (f.)- sandals
un chapeau- a hat
une casquette- a cap
des lunettes de soleil (f.)- sunglasses
une echarpe- a woolen scarf
un foulard- a dressy scarf-
des bottes (f.)- boots
une cravate- a tie
des chaussettes (f.)- socks
des chaussures (f.)- shoes
(Be careful not to mix up the last two words)
Finally, clothing can be made out of many different material, for example:
en coton- made of cotton
en laine- made of wool
en cuir- made of leather
en jean- made of denim
en lin- made of linen
en soie- made of silk
And of course, clothing can also feel very different. You may want to say that a piece of clothing is:
serre(e)/etroit(e)- tight
large (francais)- loose (enlish)
That is it for today’s lesson, but not for this vocabulary. Now is the time for me to start uploading to my Quizlet account. Everything you’ve learned in this episode is on a Quizlet study set for you to review and test yourself on. For the cette lesson, I recommend that you make sure that it gives you the ENGLISH FIRST. This is because I typed out explanations for each form- you only need to fill in the correct form, not the explanation. For the French vocabulary, you can use any of the options- whatever fits for you! Even better, you do not need a Quizlet account to access this set.
You can access today’s lesson review by clicking on the appropriate Quizlet icons below, or access my entire Quizlet account by going to the “Quizlet” page on my blog. Have fun studying!
Click the icons below to visit each study set:
Ce, Cet, Cette, & Ces
Clothing Vocabulary
Thanks so much for reading!
Gabe