I can introduce myself in French

When introducing yourself, what do you need to know? As a matter of fact, you will need to say hello and then to tell your name, your age, your nationality, where you live and your profession.

Say hello!

The regular way to say hello in French is bonjour (which literally means good day). The informal way to say it, just like hi or hey, is salut. Coucou can also be used and is also quite informal, mostly used with people you know well (For your information, it is also the name of the cuckoo bird in French).

I must admit that hello (the English word) is used quite often nowadays (even by those who do not speak English)! Therefore, be careful, it is not because somebody is saying hello to you in English that you should start talking with this person in English 🙂

Your name

Although in English, we say my name is Sabrina, in French we have a verb for it and it is not an easy one as it is a pronominal verb : s’appeler ⇛ Pronominal means that the verb needs to be used with “s’ ” that could be translated as myself/yourself/… depending on the situation.

Je m’appelle Sabrina

Subject verb your name

Be careful! I remind you that you do not speak English in french, so please do not do any literal translation. Just to make it clear, the sentence “mon nom est Sabrina” is perfectly understandable, but this will sound unfrench. So please, follow my advise and always use je m’appelle to give your name.

Your age

That is a tricky one, so please please please, be careful with this one. While in most languages we are an age, in French, we have it! So we need to use the verb avoir.

J’ai 20 ans.

(If I cannot lie on my age on my own blog, where could I???)

I am 20 years old.

Do not forget to ALWAYS add “ans” after the number. I know in English, you don’t have to say years old, but in French you really do, otherwise, the interlocutor might not understand what you are trying to say.

Your nationality

Note that if you are a woman, you will need to add a “e” to your nationality if this one ends with a consonant. If it ends with a vowel, it is the same word for both men and women.

Je suis française.

I am French.

Other examples : Je suis russe (I am Russian) / Je suis espagnol(e) (I am Spanish) / Je suis japonais(e) (I am Japanese)

Did you notice a difference between French and English ? In French, we do not put a capital letter to nationalities. This is not a proper noun unlike in English.

Your country / your city

When you want to say in which country you live, you need to know if your country is a male or a female in French (yes, countries have a gender, so let’s organize a gender reveal party for your country 🙂 ). We will not use the same preposition whether it is a male or a female : For male countries, we use the preposition “au” before the name of the country / For female countries, we use the preposition “en” before the name of the country.

I can already hear you asking me : How do you find out the gender of my country ? Quick explanation :

If your country ends with the letter “e” in French, it will be a girl (Congratulations !), except for Cambodge (Cambodia), Mexique (Mexico), Mozambique and Zimbabwe (same words as in English), that are male. In Europe, only Danemark (Denmark), Luxembourg, Monténégro and Portugal (same words as in English) are male countries. All of the other European countries are female. Countries created in the XIXth Century are male countries, just like Canada or Angola for instance.

For the city, no gender needed : only the preposition “à” is used before the name of the city.

J’habite en France, à Paris.

I live in France, in Paris.

Other examples : J’habite au Costa Rica, à San Jose / J’habite aux Etats-Unis, à Washington (only country that is plural)

Your profession

In French, we do not use any article between the verb and the profession.

Je suis professeure de français.

(Professeur is normally written without a “e“, but this is my feminist action of the day!)

I am a French teacher.

Other examples : Je suis facteur/factrice (I am a postman/postwoman) / Je suis comptable (I am an accountant)

Get to know your interlocutor!

When you introduce yourself, and you also want to know more about your interlocutor, you can ask “et toi” after your sentence, and he/she will be glad to tell you more about himself/herself.

Je m’appelle Sabrina. J’ai 18 ans. Et toi ?

(Yes I rejuvenate throughout this article!)

My name is Sabrina. I am 18. What about you ?

Introduce yourself in French!

Bonjour! Je m’appelle Sabrina. J’ai 16 ans. Je suis française. J’habite en France, à Paris et je suis professeure de français. Et toi ?

=> Introduce yourself in French in the comments ! And if you think this article could help somebody, please share it and spread the Frenchness ! <=