Intro: Welcome to the French Made Easy podcast, where I give you all the basics you need to speak French clearly and confidently. I'm your host, Mathilde, and I'm a French teacher, mumpreneur, and bread and cheese lover. Join me as I dive into all things French for beginners, and deliver to you bite-sized and easy-to-follow lessons every Tuesday. Let's get started, "on commence"!

Bonjour à tous! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast. This is episode number 114, numéro 114!

Today, we are learning 10 French verbs that often pair with the preposition ‘à’. So, as you can imagine, there are not just 10 verbs, and as you know, we are keeping lessons bite-sized over here, so we'll definitely have to do a few parts of this lesson with more verbs. 

In English, the preposition ‘à’ can translate into several words such as ‘to’, ‘at’, ‘in’, or ‘from’'', all depending on the context. And sometimes, it doesn't translate into anything; English just doesn't need a preposition in some cases where French does.

So prepositions are very small words, but they are quite important in French sentence construction, so it's a good idea to become familiar with these pairings. 

Anyway, prepositions in French can be a bit tricky, because their use can change a lot depending on the context. But don't stress too much about it—the more you practice with prepositions, the more you'll get the hang of it.

As always, make sure you have your lesson's cheat sheet handy, so you can see the words as you listen. And after you've listened to the lesson, head over to the FME Exercise Library to access today's exercises and practice your new vocabulary. You can find the links in the episode notes on your podcast platform.

Now, onto our list of 10 French verbs that are often followed by ‘à.’

• Arriver à (to manage to.) Il arrive à courir 10 kilomètres sans s'arrêter. (He manages to run 10 kilometers without stopping.)
• Commencer à (to begin to.) Nous commençons à comprendre le français. (We are beginning to understand French.) 
• Penser à (to think of.) Je pense souvent à mon voyage en France. (I often think about my trip to France.) 

Speaking of ‘penser à’, it reminds me of a question from last week's Q&A in my French Grammar Made Easy course. So in the program, students can ask me questions, and then I reply every week with Q&As videos. We discussed that "penser" (to think of) can sometimes be followed by ‘à’ and other times by ’de’, and what's important is that they are not interchangeable. So I'll actually create an episode for you too, so I can explain to you all the difference between the two. 

Back to our verbs. 

• Réussir à (to succeed in.) Tu réussiras à résoudre ce problème. (You will succeed in solving this problem.) 
• Apprendre à (to learn to.) J'apprends à parler français. (I am learning to speak French.) 
• Aider à (to help to.) Je peux t'aider à préparer le dîner. (I can help you to prepare dinner.) 
• S'habituer à (to get used to.) Il faut du temps pour s'habituer à une nouvelle ville. (It takes time to get used to a new city.)
• S'attendre à (to expect)  Je m'attends à avoir de bons résultats. (I expect to have good results.) 
• Consister à (to consist of.) Mon travail consiste à écrire des articles. (My job consists of writing articles.) 
• S'intéresser à (to be interested in.) Elle s'intéresse à la littérature française. (She is interested in French literature.)

Now let's do a quick recap of the verbs we covered today:

• Arriver à - to manage to
• Commencer à - to begin to. 
• Penser à - to think of. 
• Réussir à - to succeed in. 
• Apprendre à - to learn to. 
• Aider à - to help to. 
• S'habituer à - to get used to. 
• S'attendre à - to expect.
• Consister à - to consist of. 
• S'intéresser à - to be interested in.

And voilà! We've reached the end of today's episode. Make sure you head to the French Made Easy Library for additional practice.

À bientôt!