By the end of this lesson you'll be able to say what you love, like and hate, ask someone else what they enjoy, and talk about activities as well as things.
Three verbs, one pattern
To talk about what you enjoy, you need three verbs. All of them are regular, so you already know how to use them from the lesson on regular -er verbs. Aimer and adorer start with a vowel, so je shortens: j'aime, j'adore. Détester starts with a consonant: je déteste.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| aimer | eh-MAY | to like, to love |
| aimer bien | eh-may BYAN | to like (quite a lot) |
| adorer | ah-doh-RAY | to love, to adore |
| détester | day-tes-TAY | to hate |
From strongest to weakest, you can rank them like this: j'adore, j'aime, j'aime bien. Je déteste sits at the far end, and it's strong, like "hate" in English.
Asking is simple. Turn the statement into a question with your voice, or a question mark when writing: Tu aimes le café ? You can then return the question with Et toi ? or Et vous ?
Liking things: use le, la, les
After these verbs, French nouns take a definite article, the le, la, l' or les that you learned in the lesson on le, la and les. It's there even when English has nothing at all.
When you're talking about something in general, this article carries the meaning "in general". J'aime le chocolat means you like chocolate as a thing, not one particular bar.
With things you can count, like animals or films, use the plural: J'adore les chiens.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| le café | luh kah-FAY | coffee |
| le thé | luh TAY | tea |
| le chocolat | luh shoh-koh-LAH | chocolate |
| la musique | lah mew-ZEEK | music |
| le sport | luh SPOR | sport |
| le cinéma | luh see-nay-MAH | cinema, films in general |
| la pizza | lah peed-ZAH | pizza |
| les chats | lay SHAH | cats |
| les chiens | lay SHYAN | dogs |
J'aime le cinéma.
I like films.
Tu aimes la pizza ?
Do you like pizza?
Je déteste les chiens.
I hate dogs.
Elles adorent le thé.
They love tea.
Liking activities: use the infinitive
To say you like doing something, put a second verb straight after. The first verb changes to match the subject, but the second one stays in the infinitive, the form ending in -er. English sometimes uses "-ing" here and sometimes "to". French has just this one way.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| danser | dahn-SAY | to dance |
| chanter | shahn-TAY | to sing |
| voyager | vwah-yah-ZHAY | to travel |
| cuisiner | kwee-zee-NAY | to cook |
Elle adore cuisiner.
She loves cooking.
Vous aimez voyager ?
Do you like travelling?
Je déteste travailler le soir.
I hate working in the evening.
So the first verb changes, and the second doesn't: J'aime danser, Nous aimons danser, Ils aiment danser. You also don't add any little word between them.
Putting it together
Here's a short exchange between two new friends. See how they move between things and activities.
- Tu aimes le sport ? (Do you like sport?)
- Non, je déteste le sport. J'adore la musique. Et toi ? (No, I hate sport. I love music. And you?)
- Moi, j'aime bien chanter, et j'adore voyager. (Me, I quite like singing, and I love travelling.)
There's one thing you can't say yet: "I don't like". That's coming straight away in the lesson on negation. Until then, je déteste will have to do, though it's rather strong.
What's next
Next, the lesson on negation teaches you to say what you don't like and don't do. After that, the lesson on -ir and -re verbs adds more verbs, and you'll use all of them in the review of this unit, describing your typical day and week.