The mistakes learners keep making in French, and what actually makes them stop.
How to write numbers in French: hyphens and the 1990 spelling, et in vingt et un, when vingt and cent take an s, mille, and the spaces and commas in digits.
Capitalization in French for English speakers: days, months, languages and nationality adjectives stay lowercase. When to capitalize, and accents on capitals.
é, è, ê in French: how each accent changes the sound of e, the rules of thumb that hold for most words, how to type them, and words learners often misspell.
How to use tout in French: before a noun, as a pronoun, before an adjective and in set phrases. When it agrees, how to say tous, and why toute appears.
C'est vs s'est in French: swap in cela, or switch the subject to je. Two quick tests, the qu'est-ce qui s'est passé trap, and where ces and ses fit.
With avoir, a French past participle agrees only with a direct object placed before it. How to spot it: le, la, les, que, quel, and cases that never agree.
With être, the French past participle agrees with the subject. Which verbs take être, how agreement works, and the traps: on, polite vous, verbs that switch.
In French, a is the verb avoir and à is a preposition. The avait test that tells them apart, plus au and aux, à before an infinitive and the capital À.
In French the apostrophe marks elision, not possession. Which words drop their vowel, before which letters, the aspirated h, and the mistakes learners make.
Looking for one specific rule? The French grammar rules are explained one by one, with examples.