Three Step French - Learn #8 - Saying What You Want in French - Grammar
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Let's look at the sentence pattern. This pattern is the structure that most of our examples will follow. Je voudrais plus noun phrase plus adjective. I would like plus noun phrase plus adjective. Let's look at je voudrais first. Je means I and voudrais means would like. Together, je voudrais means I would like.

"This phrase stays the same no matter what you would like." After that is the noun phrase, "the things that you want." And last is the adjective, the word that describes the noun. In French, the adjectives usually comes after the noun, not before it like in English. So the whole pattern is "je voudrais" plus noun plus adjective or "I would like"

+ noun + adjective. Let's see how a line from the dialogue follows this pattern. Je voudrais une peinture originale. "I would like an original painting." In this sentence, "je voudrais" means "I would like." Une peinture is a noun phrase meaning "painting." Une is an article for feminine nouns, and peinture is feminine meaning "painting."

"Original" is the adjective meaning "original". It comes after the noun following the French word "ordre". So "Je voudrais une peinture originale" translates to "I would like an original painting". Now you can use this structure to ask for anything in French politely. In French, adjectives usually follow the noun, but not always. It depends on the adjective.

Some adjectives come before nouns just like in English. This is common with certain short or frequently used adjectives like petit meaning "small", grand meaning "big" or beau which means "beautiful". In these cases, the pattern becomes je voudrais + article + adjective + noun. I would like + article + adjective + noun.

We'll see some examples later. Let's talk about the difference between voudrais and veux. Both are conjugated form of the French verb vouloir, which means "to want". Voudrais means "would like" and it's the polite way to ask for something. You'll hear it often in café, stores or anytime someone wants to make a request in a respectful and courteous way.

On the other hand, "veut" means "want" and it's a lot more direct. In some situations, it can sound too strong or even impolite. When speaking to waiters, strangers or in formal situations, "voudrais" is a better choice to keep your tone polite and friendly. Now let's look at some speaking examples.

Je voudrais une belle maison. "I would like a beautiful house." Can you see how the second pattern applies here? Let's break it down. Here, "je voudrais" means "I would like." "Une" means "e". It is the article. "Belle" means "beautiful" and it is the adjective. "Maison" means "house" which is the noun. In French, adjectives like "belle"

souvent viennent avant le nom, surtout pour la beauté, l'âge, la bonheur et la taille, appelés adjectifs de sac. C'est pourquoi "belle maison" est correcte. Et la phrase se suit de "je voudrais + article + adjectif + nom". Voici un autre exemple : Je voudrais un sandwich chaud.

"I would like a warm sandwich." Je voudrais un sandwich chaud. "I would like a warm sandwich." Let's try one more. Je veux une grande pizza. "I want a big pizza." Another one. Je voudrais un café fort. "I would like a strong coffee." One last example. Je veux un petit chien.

"I want a small dog."