Describing yourself is an important skill either personally or professionally. You may want to meet or date someone, get to know a friend better or introduce yourself in a professional context. The rules for describing yourself in French are similar to the rules for describing yourself in English, but there are some differences to note. Using the instructions below, you can have a basic structure that can be developed to describe yourself more personally.
Step
Part 1 of 2: Describing Yourself Physically
Step 1. Introduce yourself
The standard form of introducing yourself in French is je m'appelle (zu mapel) which means "My name". For example, you could say je m'appelle Robert.
- First name meaning in French is prenom (pre-nom). You can say Mon prénom est… (mon pre-nom e) which means “My first name is…”
- The French last name means nom de famille (nom de fami). In a professional or commercial conversation, if someone asks about your number, then make sure to mention your last name instead of your first name.
Step 2. State your age
In English, you say age as it is, as in I am fifteen. However, in French you use the complementary verb avoir which means have. You can say J'ai … ans (zye … ong) which means I have … years.
- Look at how to pronounce certain numbers in a dictionary.
- You can also describe age groups more generally by using the phrase je suis (ze swi) followed by an adjective. Jeune (zyena) means young. Vieux (viyu) to denote an old man, while vieille (vi-eia) to denote an old woman. Je suis jeune which means "I am young".
Step 3. Describe your appearance
Many descriptive words in English are actually loanwords from French. The words Brunette and blonde have similar meanings to French, but refer to women only. The words brun or blond can be used for men – the last consonant in the two words is pronounced only slightly. Je suis blonde means “I am blonde”.
- You can also say “my hair…” followed by color. The phrase Mes cheveux sont… (me sye-vu son) is used to describe this. Look at the color vocabulary in the dictionary.
- The same phrase construction can also be used to describe eye color. You can say Mes yeux sont … (mes-yu son) which means “my eyes…” Note that you have to pronounce the “s” sound at the end of mes because the next word starts with a vowel.
Step 4. Describe your overall physical appearance
The word to describe beautiful/handsome is beau (bo) for men or belle (bell) for women. Use the phrase construction Je suis (ze swi) followed by an adjective. Je suis belle means “I am beautiful” if you are a woman.
- Fort (for) means strong, while fail (febl) means weak.
- Petit (crate) for men or petite (petit) for women means small or short.
- Grand (gran) for men or grande (gran-de) for women means big or tall.
Step 5. State your feelings
The phrase je suis (ze swi) followed by an adjective can indicate whether you are happy, sad or feeling other feelings. Look in your dictionary to find the most appropriate adjective.
- Content (kon-tang) means happy, while triste (triste) means sad. You can say je suis triste to say "I'm sad".
- Fatigué (fa-ti-ge) means tired. You can also say je suis fatigué to say "I'm tired".
Part 2 of 2: Describing Your Activity
Step 1. State your work
The phrase je suis (ze swi) means “I am”. Follow with proper job vocabulary. Note that the final suffix of a word can change depending on whether you are a man or a woman. You can identify proper endings with the help of a dictionary.
- Men's jobs ending in eur (eur) often change to euse (euz) for women. For example, a massage therapist can mean masseur or masseuse.
- Men's jobs that end in ier (ie) are often added to the suffix "e" to become ière (i-er) for women. Farmer can mean fermier or fermière.
- Men's jobs that end in a consonant can be added with the letter "e" to denote women's occupations. For example, male students mean étudiant (e-tud-ion) while female students mean étudiante (e-tud-iont). Note that final consonants are pronounced for female vocabulary only.
- Many jobs have only one form, regardless of gender, such as professeur which means teacher.
Step 2. Describe your hobby
As in English, a common construction in describing a hobby is to start with a conjugated phrase such as I like or I love and then follow it with an infinitive verb form (unconjugated), such as to read or to sing. (sing). Verbs usually end in –er, -ir, or –re. The dictionary will provide a list of verbs in the infinitive form.
- "I'm happy" means j'aime (zyem). "I like" means j'adore (za-dor). J'aime lire (zyem lir) means "I enjoy reading".
- The words ne and pas on both sides of the verb express negative phrases, namely expressing dislike. "I don't like" means je n'aime pas (ze nem pa). Je n'aime pas chanter (ze nem pa syan-te) means "I don't like singing".
Step 3. Describe the things you like
In English, when you describe something you like, you don't need to use an article. You can say I like cats. However, you need to use the article in French: J'aime les chats (zem le sya).
- Mon (mon) or ma (ma) are used to express ownership, when you want to express your love for something you have. Mes (me) expresses the plural possession.
- Mon is used when the noun in question is masculine, which in the dictionary is indicated by the letter m. J'aime mon chat means "I like my cat". Note that it doesn't matter if you're a man, cat vocabulary (chat) is a masculine noun.
- Ma is used to denote feminine nouns, which in the dictionary are marked with the letter f. J'aime ma tante means "I like my auntie". Again, note that the word “aunt” is a feminine noun, not depending on whether you are a man or a woman.
- Mes expresses plural possession nouns, such as “my aunties” or “my cats”. You can say j'aime mes tantes or j'aime mes chats.
Step 4. Use adjectives
The phrase je suis (ze swi) followed by an adjective can express a general quality of self. Note that the final suffix may change depending on whether you are a man or a woman. Dictionaries usually list the male version first and then the female version. Je suis sportive (sportive) for men or je suis sportive (sportiv) for women which means "I am agile".
- If this seems too difficult, it may be easier to use the recommendations above to express a hobby, by saying "I enjoy exercising" or j'aime les sports.
- This construction can also be used to describe personal characters. For example gentil / gentille (zanti / zantil) which means good. You can say je suis gentil if you are a man or je suis gentil for a woman.
