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A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing, whether concrete (e.g., chair, dog) or abstract (idea, happiness). In French, all nouns have a gender - they are either masculine or feminine. The gender of some nouns makes sense (homme [man] is masculine, femme [woman] is feminine) but others don't: the words personne [person] and victime [victim] are always feminine, even when the person or victim is a man.
It is very important to learn a noun's gender along with the noun itself because articles, adjectives, some pronouns, and some verbs have to agree with nouns; that is, they change depending on the gender of the noun they modify.
There is no easy way to determine the gender of every noun, and you have to remember the gender with each word. But a number of patterns in suffixes and word endings are helpful: some tend to indicate masculine or feminine nouns (be careful with the exceptions).
Please have a look at this comment on noun genders in French:
There are conjugation forms for each verb. When you want to know how to conjugate a verb, hover your mouse over it: click on the "conjugate " option, and you'll get a conjugation table.
Please also have a look at this comment on verb conjugations in French:
Those 2 words have a total different pronunciation:
"Tu" starts with a "T" like Thomas, and ends with a "U" (that has no real match in English, but it is close to the end of the word "you").
"Je" starts with a "J" which sounds like a "soft" version of the "J" in "John", and ends with an "E", that sounds like "uh".
The liaison here is optional (http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-o.htm - see VI. After verbs).
In French, there is no continuous tense (for example, we say: "Je mange", whether in a definite or indefinite period of time.).
You can use the idiomatic phrase "être en train de" to express the idea of continuity. (ex: "Je suis en train de manger." for "I am eating.")
If you hover over the English progressive tense (ex: "am eating"), you will get the hints for the French conjugated tense ("mange").
So, if the meaning of the sentence is "in general", then use the English present simple, for ex: "(In general) I eat apples."
If the meaning of the sentence is "in a definite moment", then use the English present continuous, for ex: "(Now) I am eating an apple."
It depends. These are some of the stuff I gathered online:
- If the verb is followed by a pronoun (including inversions) the liaison (when you do pronounce the consonant with the vowel) is obligatory (source: http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-r.htm - @ II. Verbal group)
- if the verb is NOT followed by a pronoun the liaison is optional but making a liaison in this case is considered high register (source: http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-o.htm - @ VI. After verbs)
- if the verb is followed by another verb (like the ones in compound tenses) the liaison is also optional (source: http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-o.htm - @ II. Between two-part verbal structures).
The verb "être" in present tense is classified as optional liaison in that website (http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-liaisons-o.htm - @ III. Present tense of être + noun, adjective, or adverb), but honestly I see it being done a lot, mostly after "est".
In the example you gave you could say either "Tu manges-Z-une pomme" or "Tu manges une pomme" because it falls into the "after verbs" category.
Sorry for the wall of text of rules but I hope they help you at least a little bit.