French: Animals and pets

If you want to say what pets you have, you need the verb avoir (to have).

First subject pronouns go before the verb to tell us who is doing the action, like ‘I’ in English:

Then add the correct form of the verb avoir. Can you spot how the spelling of avoir changes as the person doing the verb changes?

For example:‎

J’ai un chat – I have a cat

Tu as un lapin – You have a rabbit

Elle a une souris – She has a mouse

Now you try

Try using j’ai to make sentences with the lists of animals below.

Note that in French, nouns are grouped into either masculine or feminine nouns, so the word for ‘a’ in French is

un for masculine nouns

une for feminine nouns

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

To say you don’t have any pets, you need to use the negative form of the verb.

Look at the positive and negative statements below. Can you spot the differences?

Positive:J’ai un animal – I have a pet

Negative:Je n’ai pas d’animal – I don't have any pets

To turn a positive statement into a negative one, follow these three steps:

1. Add ne or n’ (before a vowel) in front of the verb avoir.
2. Add pas after the verb.
3. To say ‘any’, you replace the indefinite article (un / une) with de or d’ (before a vowel).

Try making your own negative statements with some of the animal words above. Here are some examples to get you started:

To ask what something is, you can say Qu’est-ce que c’est ? – What is it?

To answer, use c’est – it is.

C’est un singe ! – It’s a monkey!

C’est un lion ! – It’s a lion!

C’est une araignée ! – It’s a spider!

Ce is the word for ‘it’ and est is the word for ‘is’.

As ce ends with e and est also begins with a vowel, the e at the end of ce is replaced by an apostrophe to make it easier to say.

Ce + est = C’est

If you want to say ‘it’s not’, you use ce n’est pas.

Like before to form the negative, you add n’ before the verb (as the next letter is a vowel) and pas after the verb:

Ce n’est pas un singe – It’s not a monkey

Ce n’est pas un lion – It’s not a lion

Ce n’est pas une araignée – It’s not a spider

Try making your own phrases using c’est and ce n’est pas with the useful animal nouns below:

To talk about more than one animal, you usually add s at the end of the noun to make it plural.

To say ‘some’ instead of ‘a’, you replace un and une with des – some.

un chat (a cat) becomes des chats (some cats)

un chien (a dog) becomes des chiens (some dogs)

Remember

There are exceptions to look out for when talking about more than one animal in French.

If the word ends in -al, the ending changes to -aux.

un animal (an animal) becomes des animaux (some animals)

un cheval (a horse) becomes des chevaux (some horses)

If the word ends in u, you add x instead of s.

un oiseau (a bird) becomes des oiseaux (some birds)

If you want to say what an animal is when there is more than one, you say ce sont – they are.

Sont means ‘are’ and it is a form of the verb être (to be).

Ce sont des chiens – they are dogs

Ce sont des chats – they are cats

Ce sont des oiseaux – they are birds

Ce sont des chevaux – they are horses

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

gn

The letters gn make the sound similar to that in the middle of the English word ‘onion’. This sounds like n followed by y.

une araignée – spider

Remember that the e at the end of the word is silent.

il and ill after a vowel

When they appear after a vowel, the letters ill sound like the y sound in English.

une grenouille – a frog

Don’t forget that the e on the end of the word is silent.

ien

This makes two sounds: the French sound for i followed by the nasal sound for the letters in.

un chien – a dog