At B2 you stop learning vocabulary one word at a time. French is built from a small set of roots plus a very regular kit of prefixes and suffixes — and once you can read that kit, an unfamiliar word often decodes itself. This lesson gives you the kit, plus the traps: the words that look English and are not.
| Prefix | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| re- / ré- | again, back | refaire, revenir, réécrire, relire |
| dé- / dés- | un-, reversal | défaire, déranger, désordre, débrancher |
| in- / im- / il- / ir- | not | incapable, impossible, illisible, irrégulier |
| mé- / mal- | badly, wrongly | mécontent, méfiance, malheureux, maladroit |
| sur- | over, excess | surcharge, surestimer, surpeuplé |
| sous- | under, insufficient | sous-estimer, sous-titre, sous-payé |
| pré- | before | prévoir, préavis, préhistoire |
| co- / con- | with, joint | collaborer, coauteur, coexister |
| anti- | against | antivol, antigel, antirouille |
| entre- / inter- | between | entreprendre, s'entraider, international |
Two useful predictions. In- assimilates to the following consonant: im- before p, b, m; il- before l; ir- before r. And sur-/sous- pairs are reliable opposites, which doubles your yield: knowing sous-estimer gives you surestimer free.
This is the practical payoff: French suffixes tell you the gender of a noun with near-total reliability.
| Suffix | Gender | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| -tion / -sion | feminine | action / result | la création, la décision |
| -té / -ité | feminine | quality | la beauté, la liberté |
| -ure | feminine | result, process | la fermeture, l'ouverture |
| -ette | feminine | small | une maisonnette, une fillette |
| -ance / -ence | feminine | state | la patience, la confiance |
| -ment | masculine | action / result | le changement, le mouvement |
| -age | masculine | action / collection | le lavage, le feuillage |
| -isme | masculine | doctrine | le réalisme, le tourisme |
| -eur / -euse | m. / f. | the doer | un vendeur, une vendeuse |
| -able / -ible | adjective | can be done | faisable, lisible |
-ment does two jobs. On a noun it is masculine and means an action: le changement. On an adverb it means "-ly": rapidement. Tell them apart by what precedes: an article means noun, no article means adverb.
The engine of formal French. Nominalisation turns a verb into a noun, which compresses a whole clause into a phrase. It is what makes headlines terse and essays dense.
| Clause | Nominalised |
|---|---|
| Les prix ont augmenté. | l'augmentation des prix |
| L'usine a fermé. | la fermeture de l'usine |
| Le ministre est arrivé. | l'arrivée du ministre |
| On a supprimé des postes. | la suppression de postes |
| La loi a été votée. | le vote de la loi |
Write an essay with a couple of nominalisations and it immediately reads at a higher register. Overuse them and it reads like a government circular — which is a real risk, and a real stylistic criticism in French.
Sorted by how much damage they do.
| French | Pronunciation | Actually means | NOT |
|---|---|---|---|
| actuellement | ak-tü-el-MAHN | currently | actually (= en fait) |
| éventuellement | ay-vahn-tü-el-MAHN | possibly | eventually (= finalement) |
| sensible | sahn-SEEBL | sensitive | sensible (= raisonnable) |
| assister à | ah-sees-tay AH | to attend | to assist (= aider) |
| la monnaie | lah mo-NAY | change, currency | money (= l'argent) |
| une librairie | ün lee-bray-REE | a bookshop | a library (= une bibliothèque) |
| un préservatif | uhn pray-zair-vah-TEEF | a condom | a preservative (= un conservateur) |
| prétendre | pray-TAHNDR | to claim | to pretend (= faire semblant) |
| rester | res-TAY | to stay | to rest (= se reposer) |
| demander | duh-mahn-DAY | to ask | to demand (= exiger) |
| un délai | uhn day-LAY | a time limit | a delay (= un retard) |
| large | LARZH | wide | large (= grand) |
Two French words, one English word. These separate B1 from B2.
| Pair | Difference | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| savoir / connaître | a fact or a skill / be acquainted with | Je sais nager. · Je connais Paris. |
| amener / apporter | bring a person / bring a thing | Amène ton frère. · Apporte du pain. |
| emmener / emporter | take a person away / take a thing away | Je t'emmène. · J'emporte mon sac. |
| an / année | counted unit / the span as lived | trois ans · toute l'année |
| jour / journée | the date / the day's duration | trois jours · Bonne journée ! |
| entendre / écouter | perceive / pay attention | J'entends un bruit. · J'écoute la radio. |
| voir / regarder | perceive / look at deliberately | Je vois la mer. · Je regarde un film. |
| visiter / rendre visite à | a place / a person | visiter Paris · rendre visite à ma tante |
The an/année family follows one logic across all four pairs (an/année, jour/journée, matin/matinée, soir/soirée): the short form counts, the long form describes the experience of the time passing.
Pull one root and a dozen words come with it. This is the single most efficient way to expand vocabulary at B2.
| Root | Family |
|---|---|
| travail | travailler, un travailleur, travaillé, retravailler, les travaux |
| voir | la vue, la vision, prévoir, revoir, invisible, un voyant |
| écrire | l'écriture, un écrivain, décrire, la description, réécrire, un écrit |
| port(er) | apporter, emporter, supporter, exporter, un transport, portable |
| vivre | la vie, vivant, survivre, revivre, la survie, les vivres |
France borrows English words freely in speech — le week-end, un mail, le shopping, un job — even where the Académie has proposed a French alternative. Nominalisation is prized in formal writing and mocked as langue de bois when politicians overdo it.
Québec coins French replacements far more actively, and they stick: un courriel (email), clavardage (chat), baladodiffusion (podcasting), magasinage (shopping), stationnement (parking). The paradox is that spoken Québécois carries plenty of English structural calques (prendre une marche, c'est le fun) while its formal vocabulary is more purist than France's. Knowing both sets of words is a real B2 advantage.
What does the prefix add? Write the meaning in English.
Write le or la.
1. A noun ending in -tion is:
2. Éventuellement means:
3. What does nominalisation do to a sentence?