It’s considered the “singing accent” or l’accent chantant, because people of the South are happy, bright and always sound like they’re singing. It used to be officially known as the Occitan language (yep, like the body lotion store L’Occitan), but is sometimes now referred to as provençal or langue d’oc.

Parisian French or Metropolitan French is the standard, and if you learn this form of the language you should be able to use it successfully in other regions of France, as well as in French-speaking countries in other parts of the world. Parisian French is the form spoken on mainstream French radio and TV stations.

five accents

The 5 French Accents are:

• Accent Aigu (é)
• Accent Grave (è)
• Accent Circonflexe (ê)
• “C” cédille (ç)
• Tréma (ë)

Un, deux, trois, c’est parti (one, two, three, here we go)!…

1. Un.
2. Deux.
3. Trois.
4. Quatre.
5. Cinq.
6. Six.
7. Sept.
8. Huit.

17 = 10 + 7, dix-sept. 18 = 10 + 8, dix-huit….Numbers in French: 1-20.

The most common colors in French

• red – rouge.
• yellow – jaune.
• blue – bleu/bleue.
• green – vert/verte.
• orange – orange.
• white – blanc/blanche.
• black – noir/noire.
• gray – gris/grise.

French numbers really are quite simple to learn, in fact you only need to learn 30 or so numbers/words and you’ll have mastered all French numbers!…French Numbers.

quarante

You’ll now see that for the numbers 20-59 all you have to do is say twenty plus the number, 30 plus the number, etc. For example, for twenty-five you say vingt (20) then cinq (5) or vingt-cinq….20-39.

16 — seize. 17 — dix-sept.