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Learn how to talk about yourself in French and ask others about themselves.

Join Scottish pupils as they give French a go!

Listen and guess what they are saying before trying yourself.

Tip: This video can be used as an interactive introduction to this topic or as a recap on key vocabulary and phrases already learnt.

Remember!

It doesn't matter if your pronunciation isn't perfect. Try your best and have fun!

If you want to say something about yourself in French, you use the word for 'I' – Je.

So if you want to say 'I am called', you say Je m'appelle:

• Je m'appelle Aimée - I am called Aimée
• Je m’appelle Anil - I am called Anil

Here appelle means 'call' so it's like saying 'I myself call'.

Asking someone's name

If you want to ask someone else's name, you use the word tu (you) and the question word comment (how):

• Comment t’appelles-tu ? - What are you called?

Did you notice that the word for 'call' is before the word for 'you'? Sometimes the order of the words is different in French. So it is like saying 'how do you call yourself?'.

In English, you use the verb 'to be' to say how old you are but in French, you use the verb 'to have' - avoir:

• J'ai __ ans

• J'ai sept ans - I am seven years old

So it is like saying 'I have seven years' rather than 'I am seven years old' as we do in English.

Did you notice that the word for 'I' has changed from Je to J'? This is because it appears in front of a vowel.

Here are some useful phrases to practise saying how old you are:

Asking someone's age

To ask someone how old they are, you first need a question phrase quel âge (what age).

Then use the word for 'you' – tu with 'have' – as.

• Quel âge as-tu ? – How old are you?

So it is like saying 'What age do you have?'.

You can explain how you are feeling by using the phrase Je suis ('I am') and adding an emotion:

• Je suis calme - I am calm

Here are some more emotion words. Some have different masculine and feminine versions:

To tell someone where you live, you use the verb habiter (to live).

As habiter starts with a silent h, when you put je (I) in front of it, it changes to j' to make it easier to say:

• Je + habite = J'habite - I live

Then you add à which means 'in' when you are talking about a town or city.

• J'habite à

Try using the phrases below to say where you live or add your own town at the end.

To talk about the country where you live, you use the word en for 'in' (most of the time):

• J'habite en É���Dz����� – I live in Scotland

• J'habite en Angleterre – I live in England

• J'habite en Irlande du Nord – I live in Northern Ireland

• J'habite en France – I live in France

The exception is where you use au instead of en:

• J'habite au pays de Galles – I live in Wales

To say where you come from, you use part of the verb venir ('to come') followed by de ('from').

Je viens de – I come from

The spelling of de changes depending on which country it comes before. De changes to d' when the country starts with a vowel:

• Je viens d'É���Dz����� – I come from Scotland

• Je viens d'Angleterre – I come from England

• Je viens d'Irlande du Nord – I come from Northern Ireland

De changes to du when it appears before a country that is a masculine noun, like le pays de Galles:

• Je viens du pays de Galles – I come from Wales

Below are the names of some other countries in French. Try using them to say where you come from.

Notice that in French you use the definite article le, la or l' (the) in front of the country.

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

1. e

When the letter e is followed by two consonants in French, it makes the sound like e in 'egg'.

Don't forget that the e at the end of the word is silent.

Je m'appelle

2. eu

This is not an English sound. Imagine that your have seen something unpleasant, open your mouth a little and sound disgusted.

neuf

3. j

The letter j always makes the sound like s in the English word 'television'.

Je