LANGUAGE
From written signs to everyday conversation.
Mandarin Chinese / Taiwan
Bopomofo / Zhuyin
注音符號A set of phonetic symbols used to show Mandarin pronunciation. Syllables are assembled from an initial, a medial or final, and a tone.
The first version was created in 1913 and released in 1918. It remains a practical reading, dictionary, and keyboard tool in Taiwan.
- SYMBOLS
- 37
- TONES
- 5
- ALSO CALLED
- Zhuyin / Zhuyin Fuhao
Initials
21Medials
3Finals
13Tones
5FRENCH / FOUNDATIONS
Français
Start with the words you need.
Build your own sentences.
The words for everyday life.
Find a situation, read the phrase, or show the native text. Learn common replies as well as questions.
Pronunciation & how to use these phrases
Start with the writing charts, then listen to complete words. Device speech depends on installed voices and may use a different regional accent. Spelling and sound do not match one-to-one.
Toilettes is normally plural in this meaning. Spoken French may omit ne; listen for pas to catch a negative. Learning path: recognise words and phrases → build simple sentences → practise questions and replies → expand tense and connected speech → read and discuss longer texts. These foundation lessons are available now; later stages will grow with the collection.
24 phrases
Basics
Communication
Bathrooms
Food & ordering
Shops & payment
Taxi & transport
Airport
Help
Listen for
Reply
Hotels
FRENCH / GRAMMAR REFERENCE
8 chaptersForms, rules & structure
Standard French; spoken omissions are distinguished from written forms.
Grammar terminology
- Noun
- A word used to name or classify an entity: person, place, object, substance, idea.
- Adjective
- A word that describes a property; its form and position depend on the language.
- Pronoun
- A form used to refer to a participant or entity without repeating a full noun phrase.
- Determiner
- A word such as an article, demonstrative or possessive that helps specify a noun phrase.
- Verb
- A word heading a predicate, often describing an action, event or state.
- Conjugation
- A pattern of verb forms expressing grammatical distinctions such as person, tense or mood.
- Declension
- A pattern of noun, pronoun or adjective forms, often marking case, number and gender.
- Case
- A distinction marking a noun phrase’s grammatical role or its relationship to a governing word.
- Gender
- A grammatical classification of nouns; it need not match sex or have a transparent meaning.
- Agreement
- A form changes to match features of another expression, such as person, number, gender or case.
- Tense
- A grammatical way of locating a situation relative to a time of reference.
- Aspect
- How a situation is viewed: for example ongoing, habitual, completed or prior to a reference point.
- Mood
- A grammatical distinction associated with assertion, possibility, commands, wishes or other clause functions.
- Finite form
- A verb form that can serve as a clause’s main inflected verb, contrasting with infinitives and participles. The precise criteria vary by language.
- Participle
- A verb-derived form used in constructions such as modifiers, compound tenses or passives; its roles vary by language.
- Infinitive
- A nonfinite verb form in languages that have one; it is not automatically equivalent to English “to + verb”.
- Subject / object
- Grammatical relations in a clause, not universal synonyms for “doer” and “receiver”.
- Clitic
- A short grammatical form that depends phonologically on a neighboring word.
- Transitive
- Describes a verb construction that takes a direct object.
- Register
- A variety of expression associated with context, relationship or level of formality.
Nouns, gender, number & articles
- Nouns are masculine or feminine. Learn the gender with the noun; many ending-based predictions have exceptions. Regular plurals normally add written -s, often without a sound change.
- Definite le/la become l’ before a vowel sound or mute h; plural is les. Indefinite articles are un/une/des. Partitives du/de la/de l’ commonly introduce an unspecified amount.
| Type | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | le livre / un livre | les livres / des livres |
| feminine | la table / une table | les tables / des tables |
| elision | l’ami / l’amie | les amis / les amies |
| irregular plural | le journal | les journaux |
| partitive | du pain | some bread |
Worked examples
Je prends du pain et une pomme.
I am having some bread and an apple.
How it works: Du presents bread as an amount; une counts a single apple.
Requests
Je peux + infinitive means I can. A rising intonation makes a conversational question.
Je peux payer par carte ?Can I pay by card?
Read the model, complete the gap, then change one word and explain what changes.
Try it yourself
1 / 1 · 0 correctComplete the model using the rule.
Je peux ___ par carte ?
All words · vocabulary quiz
1 / 20 · 0 correctChoose the English meaning.
eau
eauwater
eauwater
nourriturefood
nourriturefood
laitmilk
laitmilk
painbread
painbread
cafécoffee
cafécoffee
thétea
thétea
rizrice
rizrice
toilettesbathroom
toilettesbathroom
aéroportairport
aéroportairport
garestation
garestation
billetticket
billetticket
sortieexit
sortieexit
gaucheleft
gaucheleft
droiteright
droiteright
aujourd’huitoday
aujourd’huitoday
demaintomorrow
demaintomorrow
unone
unone
deuxtwo
deuxtwo
troisthree
troisthree
aidehelp
aidehelp
Between the words
Bonjour before a shop request is a useful default. Bonsoir is an evening greeting. Use vous with an unfamiliar adult.
Bonjour.
Open with a greetingBonjour before a shop request is a useful default. Bonsoir is an evening greeting. Use vous with an unfamiliar adult.
Bonjour.
Toilettes is normally plural in this meaning. Spoken French may omit ne; listen for pas to catch a negative.
Read the situation
1 / 1 · 0 correctRecall the opening greeting from this collection.
Practice scores last for this visit.French audio is unavailable on this device. All exercises work without audio.