Top 3 Mnemonic technique to simplify French

Mnemonic is one of the best methods to learn anything. Do you guys know what Mnemonic means? A mnemonic is a system such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations which assists in remembering something or aiding or designed to aid the memory. I remember when I was learning English as a child, my English teacher taught us the best way to remember the colours in a Rainbow. We were told to learn the word VIBGYOR.

V – Violet

I – Indigo

B – Blue

G – Green

Y – Yellow 

O – Orange

R – Red

Mnemonics is such an interesting method to make your learning process easier. I know a few techniques to learn French using mnemonic. For instance, have you all heard this phrase “ les si n’aiment pas les rais” 

LES SI N’AIMENT PAS LES RAIS

The usage of the word “would” is quite different in French. In English, we can use “would” to express a sentence in both past tense and future tense. 

For example : 

1. I would go to the party tomorrow if my mom is free in the evening to drive me there.
2. I would have left early yesterday if I knew you wanted a ride back home. 

In French, the word would is synonymous to the ‘si’ clause. However, the conjugation is the challenging part here. This is where the mnemonic “Les ‘si’ n’aiment pas les ‘-rais’ comes handy. 

In French, the ‘si’ clause or also knows as the le conditionnel is used to express an action in future or a hypothetical situation. 

For example :

1. S’il neigeait, je ne sortirais pas.
2. Si j’étais riche, je m’achèterais un château.

In both of these sentences, ‘si’ should never be following directly by a verb with the ‘-rais’ sound ending. In the case of le conditionnel, the verbs are conjugated for je, te, il, elle, on, and ils and elles.

The first sentence, S’il neigeait, je ne sortirais pas cannot be written as s’il neigerais, je ne sortirais pas. Meaning, if it would rain, I would not go. This sentence is incorrect in French.

Another interesting method of learning French using mnemonic is BRAGS to learn the adjectives.

B – Beauty

R – Rank

A – Age

G – Goodness

S – Size

The adjectives describing these five words will always appear before the noun. Having said that, I am sure there might an exception or two!!

For example :

1. Une jolie fille.
2. Le premier roman d’Albert Camus est L’Etranger.
3. Un jeune garçon.
4. Un bon gâteau.
5. Une longe jupe. 

Last but not the least, the most famous mnemonic technique to learn Le Passé Composé that we all have come across. 

DR & MRS VAN DER TRAMP

I have dedicated more than one blog post to explain Le Passé Composé as it is one of the most important grammar topic in French. Le Passé Composé is used to describe an action in the past which happened in a specific time period. 

The verbs in this list are conjugated with être. Of course, there is an exception here. But we will keep that for the next time. Check out the verbs that are conjugated with être using this mnemonic technique. 

D – Devenir

R – Revenir

& 

M – Montrer

R – Retourner

S – Sortir

V – Venir

A – Aller

N – Nâitre

D – Decendre

E – Entrer

R – Rentrer

T – Tomber

R – Rester

A – Arriver

M – Mourir

P – Partir

Remember to use these interesting techniques to learn French and share it with your friends. Keep working hard and enjoy studying!