English to French: A1 patterns
Practice one useful pattern.
New pattern
French: greeting politely with “Bonjour…”
A friendly greeting can introduce a polite request.
Ready to start.
Greet a shopkeeper and say you would like a table.
How this works
Start with Bonjour to acknowledge the person. Je voudrais means “I would like”: learn it as a useful polite request. Add what you want, then s’il vous plaît. You do not need to conjugate a new verb when you change the item.
Build it piece by piece
- Bonjour
- Hello
- je voudrais
- I would like
- une table
- a table
- s’il vous plaît
- please
Keep the article with its noun: une table, but un café. French nouns have grammatical gender.
Worked example
Now greet café staff and say you would like a coffee.
Bonjour, je voudrais un café, s’il vous plaît.
Compare this with the model above. Notice what stayed the same and what changed. Read both aloud before continuing; this part is for learning, not scoring.
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