What is the word order in french

Do you ever get this feeling when speaking French? You have all the words you need to make the perfect sentence, but they just don’t fit together. This is what happens when you’re not comfortable with the word order and need to learn about the specifics of the correct French sentence structures.

It may seem confusing at first, but bear with me for a moment and I trust that you’ll find it to be quite simple. Except for a few tricky exceptions, the structures are always the same and are often very similar to English. With all the tips and tricks from this article and a bit of practice, it will come naturally in no time!

In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about the French sentence structure, from basic sentences for beginners to impressive complex statements for sophisticated talkers.

Table of Contents

1. Ordering Words in French
2. Simple Sentences with Subject, Verb, and Object
3. How to Build Complex Sentences
4. Asking Questions
5. Negative Sentences
6. Practical Cases
7. Le Mot De La Fin

1. Ordering Words in French

Rule #1: French is SVO

Like many other languages throughout the world, French is what we call an SVO language. This means that the default word order is: Subject – Verb – Object.

• {Je mange une pomme.} (“I eat an apple.”)

Rule #2: Don’t Skip the Subject

And unlike similarly rooted languages, such as Spanish or Italian, we don’t usually drop the subject of the sentence, even when it’s a pronoun.

• I speak French.
• (Yo) hablo Frances. (Spanish)
• (Io) parlo Francese. (Italian)
• Je parle Français.

Rule #3: Rules are Meant to be Broken

These are mainly the French word order rules of simple declarative sentences, but as soon as we enter imperative, interrogative, or negative sentences territory, it gets a bit wilder. I mean…it’s French we’re talking about.

And one more thing: Master Yoda is allowed to use OSV sentences and still sound cool, but it’s forbidden to the rest of us.

Le Français je parle. (“French I speak.”)

2. Simple Sentences with Subject, Verb, and Object

In the following sections, we’ll work with the most common type of sentences: declaratives.

A declarative sentence is used to make a statement. It declares or states something, and ends with a period. We can’t use declarative sentences to ask questions or give orders.

Let’s get back to our basic declarative sentence: Je parle Français. (“I speak French.”)

In this sentence, I’m stating that I speak French.

Like we mentioned before, there are mainly two things you need to know about declarative sentences and their basic word order in French:

1. The word order is Subject + Verb + Object.
2. We don’t drop the subject, even when it’s a pronoun.

To these basic rules, I would also add:

1. Verbs are conjugated. Their ending depends on the subject.

• Ils parlent Français. (“They speak French.”)
• Nous parlons Français. (“We speak French.”)

→ You can learn more about conjugation in our Complete Guide on French Conjugation. It’s freely available on FrenchPod101.com.

1. Objects must agree with the subject. Their ending also varies.

• Il est Américain. (“He is American.”)
• Elle est Américaine. (“She is American.”)

/! The main exception to the S+V+O rule is the imperative mood, where the structure becomes: V+O.

• Vous parlez Français. (“You speak French.”) → Parlez Français. (“Speak French.”)
• Nous mangeons des pommes. (“We eat apples.”) → Mangeons des pommes. (“Let’s eat apples.”)

Elle mange des pommes. (“She eats apples.”)

3. How to Build Complex Sentences

Now that we have the basics covered, it’s time to add more ingredients into the mix and spice it up with adverbs, adjectives, and pronouns to gradually make our sentence more exciting!

1 – Adding Adjectives:

Adjectives describe nouns to make them more interesting. Let’s see where to place them in a sentence.

According to French word order, adjectives usually go AFTER the noun they describe.

• Une pomme verte (“A green apple”)

However, some of the most common adjectives go BEFORE the noun.

• Une grosse pomme (“A big apple”)

Put in a sentence, it looks like this:

• Il mange une pomme verte. (“He’s eating a green apple.”)

→ Learn more about adjectives with our full guide and massive list of the Top 100 French Adjectives.

2 – Adding Adverbs:

Adverbs work together with and describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs to modify their meaning or make a sentence more precise.

When the adverb modifies a verb, it usually comes AFTER this verb. The word order is: S + V + Adv.

• Je parle lentement. (“I speak slowly.”)

Then, if we have an object, it would be: S + V + O + Adv.

• Je parle Français couramment. (“I speak French fluently.”)

When the adverb modifies an adverb or adjective, it usually comes AFTER the verb and BEFORE the adverb or adjective. The word order is: S + V + Adv + Adv.

• Je parle très lentement. (“I speak very slowly.”)

When we get to this level of complexity, things start becoming a bit more flexible.

For instance, both sentences are correct:

• Je parle Français couramment. (“I speak French fluently.”)
• Je parle couramment Français. (“I speak French fluently.”)

However, it comes with exceptions, such as the very common bien (“well”) which is placed BEFORE the object.

• Je parle bien Français. (“I speak French well.”)
• Je parle vraiment bien Français. (“I speak French very well.”)
• Je parle Français bien.

→ Everything you need to know about adverbs you’ll find in our Complete Guide on French Adverbs, with a list of the most common adverbs you should know.

Not too confused with the colors, are you?

3 – Adding Pronouns

Brace yourself, this is where French language word order gets tough. Understanding the word order of pronouns in French isn’t always a walk in the park, and we’ll really just scratch the surface here. 

Subject pronouns don’t move:

• Nicolas mange une pomme. (“Nicolas eats an apple.”)
• Il mange une pomme. (“He eats an apple.”)

Same thing for stressed pronouns:

• Il mange une pomme avec ses amis. (“He eats an apple with his friends.”)
• Il mange une pomme avec eux. (“He eats an apple with them.”)

However, direct and indirect pronouns are not as well-behaved.

• Nicolas donne une pomme. (“He gives an apple.”)
• Nicolas la donne. (“He gives it.”)

• Il donne une pomme à ses amis. (“He gives an apple to his friends.”)
• Il leur donne une pomme. (“He gives them an apple.”)
• Il la leur donne. (“He gives it to them.”)

→ For more information about pronouns, you can go through our Extensive Guide on French Pronouns, with lots of examples and grammar points.

And what happens when we put everything together?

• Je leur parle Français très lentement. (“I speak French with them very slowly.”)
• Il leur donne gentiment une pomme verte. (“He gently gives them a green apple.”)

4 – Adding Prepositions

Prepositions are words that usually precede a noun or pronoun and express a relationship to another element of the sentence. Prepositional phrases often answer questions such as:

• Where? Il mange une pomme dans la cuisine. (“He eats an apple in the kitchen.”)
• When? Il mange une pomme après le dîner. (“He eats an apple after dinner.”)
• How?
  • Il mange une pomme avec eux. (“He eats an apple with them.”)
  • Il mange une pomme sans se presser. (“He eats an apple without rushing.”)
  • Il mange une pomme avec soin. (“He eats an apple with care.”)

Prepositions can be placed BEFORE or AFTER the verb. In some cases, you can freely choose, and in other situations, only one option will make sense.

• Après le dîner, je mange une pomme. (“After dinner, I eat an apple.”)
• Je mange une pomme après le dîner. (“I eat an apple after dinner.”)

• Il mange une pomme sans se presser. (“He eats an apple without rushing.”)
• Sans se presser, il mange une pomme. (“Without rushing, he eats an apple.”)

In these two examples, both versions are correct.

But sometimes, you need to know the verb for the preposition to be relevant:

• Je rentre à la maison. (“I go back home.”)

You would not say “Home, I go back,” and it would sound equally awkward in French.

• Je donne une pomme à mon ami. (“I give an apple to my friend.”)

Similarly, it wouldn’t make sense to mention the recipient before the action is stated.

To combine prepositions, you can simply apply the same logic when choosing where to place them:

• Après le dîner, je rentre à la maison sans me presser. (“After dinner, I go back home without rushing.”)
• Sans me presser, je mange une pomme avec eux dans la cuisine. (“Without rushing, I eat an apple with them in the kitchen.”)

These are not the words I ordered!

4. Asking Questions

The word order in French questions isn’t always SVO.

Questions can take several different forms in French, depending on whether you’re talking or writing, as well as how formal you want to be.

Let’s go back to our apple-eating example: Tu manges une pomme.

Here’s how to say: “Do you eat an apple?”

1. Tu manges une pomme ? (SVO)

2. Est-ce que tu manges une pomme ? (Est-ce que + SVO)

3. Manges–tu une pomme ? (VSO)

Now I guess the last one is confusing: Why do we suddenly invert the subject and verb?

This form is used only in writing or in very formal speech. Among friends, with random strangers, or in most business settings, you would stick to one of the first two options. I’d say both are equally common.

Now, what if we add some interrogative pronouns and adverbs?

Let’s see how to use words like: Quand (“When”), Qui (“Who”), Comment (“How”), Où (“Where?”).

“Where do you eat?”

1. Tu manges où ?

2. Où est-ce que tu manges ?

3. Où manges–tu ?

“When do you eat?”

1. Tu manges quand ?

2. Quand est-ce que tu manges ?

3. Quand manges–tu ?

5.  Negative Sentences

Luckily, this is the last case, because I’m seriously running out of colors!

In this section, we’ll have a look at the word order in negative sentences.

Negative structures are placed around the verb and before the preposition or object.

• Je ne mange pas de pommes. (“I don’t eat an apple.”)
• Je ne mange pas dans la cuisine. (“I don’t eat in the kitchen.”)
• Je ne mange pas vite. (“I don’t eat fast.”)

The same thing goes for other negative structures:

• Je ne mange plus dans la cuisine. (“I don’t eat in the kitchen anymore.”)
• Je ne mange jamais dans la cuisine. (“I never eat in the kitchen.”)

That’s how I learned negative sentences!

6. Practical Cases

Now, it’s time to practice everything we’ve been learning today! We’ll take it slow and do it step-by-step. At any time, feel free to go back through the article if you’re having doubts. 

Try to come up with the French translations for these sentences. You can use a conjugation table if you’re not sure how to deal with parler (“to speak”).

1. “We speak.” – _________________

2. “We speak French.” – _________________

3. “We speak French slowly.” – _________________

4. “We speak French slowly with her.” – _________________

5. “We speak with her in the kitchen.” – _________________

6. “After dinner, we speak with her in the kitchen.” – _________________

7. “We never speak with her in the kitchen.” – _________________

8. “Do you speak with her in the kitchen?” – _________________

“Where do I put these verbs again?”

“Where do I put these verbs again?”

[SPOILER] And here are the translations:

1. “We speak.” – Nous parlons
2. “We speak French.” – Nous parlons Français.
3. “We speak French slowly.” – Nous parlons Français lentement.
4. “We speak French slowly with her.” – Nous parlons Français lentement avec elle.
5. “We speak with her in the kitchen.” – Nous parlons Français avec elle dans la cuisine.
6. “After dinner, we speak with her in the kitchen.” – Après dîner, nous parlons avec dans la cuisine.
7. “We never speak with her in the kitchen.” – Nous ne parlons jamais avec elle dans la cuisine.
8. “Do you speak with her in the kitchen?” – Est-ce que tu parles avec elle dans la cuisine ?

7. Le Mot De La Fin

In this guide, you’ve learned a lot about French word order and the correct French sentence structures, from the basics to the most advanced parts such as French pronoun order.

Did we forget any important structure you would like to learn about? Do you feel ready to assemble ambitious sentences, using everything you’ve learned today?

As we’ve seen with the exercises, a good way to practice French word order is to start easy and slowly build up to complex sentences, one piece at a time.

Make sure to explore FrenchPod101.com, as we have plenty of free resources for you to practice your grammar and learn new words. Our vocabulary lists are also a great way to review the words and learn their pronunciation.
Remember that you can also use our Premium PLUS service, MyTeacher, to get personal one-on-one coaching. Practice talking about word order in French with your private teacher so they can give you personalized feedback and advice, and help you with the pronunciation.

About the Author: Born and bred in the rainy north of France, Cyril Danon has been bouncing off various jobs before he left everything behind to wander around the wonders of the World. Now, after quenching his wanderlust for the last few years, he’s eager to share his passion for languages.

What is the word order in French?

French basic word order is thus subject–verb–object (Je lisais un livre: I was reading a book) although, if the object is a clitic pronoun, it precedes the verb (Je le lisais: I was reading it). Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders, in particular inversion of the subject and verb.

Does word order matter in French?

The first “vous” is the subject pronoun (the person or thing taking the action) and the second is the object pronoun (the person or thing which the action is affecting). I think word order is pretty important but there does seem to be quite a few cases where it doesn’t matter.

How do you order a sentence in French?

When you learn a language, you start with basic sentences with the most common word order. In French, this is SVO – Subject + Verb + Object.

How are French sentences arranged?

In French, this is SVO – Subject + Verb + Object. As for most Romance languages – and, indeed, English – the subject (who is doing the action?) generally comes at the beginning of the sentence. There follows the verb, and then the direct object (what is he/she doing?).

Is French SOV?

Like English, French is a SVO language, or Subject-Verb-Object. Unlike other romance languages, French does not drop the subject in most cases.

What is L Imparfait in French?

L’imparfait (the imperfect) is a French past tense. L’imparfait is used to tell stories and report on past actions, mostly in written contexts. We conjugate the imperfect by adding the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez and -aient to the root of the present tense nous form of the verb.

How do you know when to use Imparfait in French?

Whenever you talk about a specific time in the past in which your narrative takes place, or describe how old you were when something happened, use the imparfait. C’était le 1er janvier et je prenais mes résolutions du nouvel an. It was the first of January and I was making my New Year’s resolutions.

What is Conditionnel French?

Le conditionnel (the conditional) can be used in French as a tense and as a mood. As a tense, le conditionnel expresses the future seen from a past point of view. As a mood, the conditional allows us to talk about a hypothetical or imagined reality that can only occur under certain circumstances.

How do you use Conditionnel in French?

The conditional is used to refer to hypothetical events. It occurs in polite requests and most frequently with if clauses. In French, it is called le conditionnel and is most often translated by would in English. The stem used to form the conditional is the same as the stem of the future (usually the infinitive).

What is the subjunctive in French?

The French subjunctive is a special verb form, called a mood, that is used in dependent clauses to indicate some sort of subjectivity, uncertainty, or unreality in the mind of the speaker. In French, feelings like doubt and desire require the subjunctive, as do expressions of necessity, possibility, and judgment.

What is the perfect subjunctive in French?

Plus-que-parfait du subjonctif The rarest French verb form is the pluperfect subjunctive (aka past perfect subjunctive). It’s a literary tense, meaning that it’s reserved for formal, written French – mainly literature, but also history and journalism.

How do you avoid the subjunctive in French?

Change negative to affirmative For structures that require the subjunctive only when used negatively, you can avoid the subjunctive by inverting the negative and affirmative. Je ne crois pas qu’il soit là.

Is the subjunctive used a lot in French?

The subjunctive is a grammatical mood which is found in different languages including English and French. When it comes to frequency of usage, however, it is so much more widely used in French than in English.

Is J espere que subjunctive?

Espérer may require the subjunctive, depending on whether it is used affirmatively, negatively, or interrogatively. Espérer in the affirmative = no subjunctive. J’espère que sa mère viendra. Espérer in the negative or interrogative = subjunctive.

What is the subjunctive present?

The present (or present simple) is the most basic tense in the subjunctive mood. For most verbs, the present subjunctive is formed by dropping the -o ending from the first person singular yo of the present indicative and adding the present subjunctive endings.

How do you use the present subjunctive?

The present subjunctive mood is normally used when speaking about a thought, belief, expectation or assumption – and despite the name, this form can be used to speak about a future action (as well as a present action). For example: I hope you are fine – Espero que estés bien (present)

What is an example of a subjunctive?

If I were in the program, I would sing the song. I suggest that Lisa write the article. I propose that Suzan be asked to perform in the program.

What words are followed by subjunctive?

Use of base subjunctive

• advise, ask, command, demand, desire, insist, order, prefer, propose, recommend, request, suggest.
• command, demand, order, proposal, recommendation, request, suggestion.

Is were a subjunctive verb?

The Subjunctive Mood with “Be” and “Were” And the past subjunctive form of be is consistently were, even when was would otherwise be the form. They have the name they do only because the subjunctive forms look like ordinary past and present forms.

How many types of subjunctive mood are there?

6 Forms

Speaking French is more than just learning vocabulary words from flash cards. Words are just atoms, the building blocks of a language. They have to be put into context and strung together to form a sentence that is imparted with meaning.

Your French classes will teach you a lot about how to conjugate a verb, have your nouns and adjectives agree and what words and phrases will help you find the bathroom. What they might not teach you (but should) is sentence structure.

How are sentences put together in French? Does one use the dative, nominative, accusative and interrogative cases the same way as in English?

Setting aside that pesky grammatical gender agreement required to speak French properly, where and how do adjectives and adverbial phrases fit in a properly constructed sentence?

As an overview of these topics, Superprof presents this chart, one that you might consider printing and clipping and carrying with you to your French lessons or your French tutoring sessions.

Type of Sentence	Form	Sample	Translation
Simple Declarative	S+V+O	La professeur aime ses éleves.	The teacher loves her students.
Negation	S+’ne’+V+’pas’+O	Je ne veux pas aller au cinéma.	I don’t want to go to the cinema.
Interrogative sentences	1. Preface sentence with ‘est-ce-que’ 2. Reverse: V+S+O (formal)	Est-ce-que tu as fait tes devoirs? Pourrez-vous me dire ou est la bibliothèque?	Have you done your homework? Could you tell me where the library is?
Imperative sentence	V+O	Ouvre(z) la porte!	Open the door!
Simple declarative with adjective	S+V+Adj (adj must ‘agree’ with subject!)	La fille est belle. Le chien est beau.	The girl is pretty. The dog is pretty.
Adverbial pronoun	S+’y’+V	On y va!	Let’s go!
Relative clauses	‘que’ for objects ‘qui’ for people	Le livre que tu m’as donné… L’homme qui chante…	The book you gave me… The man who is singing…

Now, let’s examine each of these constructions in-depth…

But before you dive in, we’ve added a French playlist to enhance your reading experience while learning about French sentence structure. The playlist features a variety of French music, ranging from classic chansons to modern pop hits. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced French learner, immersing yourself in the language through music can be a great way to improve your listening skills and vocabulary. So sit back, relax, and let the music transport you to the streets of Paris as you dive into the fascinating world of the French language.

French Sentence Structure: Understanding the Basics

French is a beautiful language, but it can be challenging to master its sentence structure, especially if you are a beginner. However, understanding the rules for forming proper sentences is essential for effective communication in French. In this article, we’ll explore the basics of French sentence structure and provide some useful tips to help you improve your French language skills.

Basic French Sentences and Word Order

In French, as in English, a sentence consists of a subject, verb, and object. The basic word order in French sentences is subject-verb-object (SVO). For example, «Je mange une pomme» means «I am eating an apple.» The subject «je» (I) comes first, followed by the verb «mange» (am eating), and then the object «une pomme» (an apple).

French Sentence Starters and Construction

To construct sentences in French, it’s essential to have a good grasp of sentence starters and construction. Some common sentence starters in French include «Je suis» (I am), «Il y a» (There is), «C’est» (It is), and «Il faut» (It’s necessary).

When constructing sentences, it’s important to pay attention to gender and number agreement. For example, if you want to say «I like the cat,» you would say «J’aime le chat» (not «J’aime la chat»). Similarly, if you want to say «I like the cats,» you would say «J’aime les chats» (not «J’aime le chats»).

French Time Phrases and Directional Words

Time phrases and directional words are also essential components of French sentence structure. Some common time phrases in French include «aujourd’hui» (today), «demain» (tomorrow), and «hier» (yesterday). Directional words such as «à droite» (to the right) and «à gauche» (to the left) are also important for giving directions.

Other Important French Sentence Structure Elements

French also has several conjunctions that are important for linking ideas and constructing more complex sentences. Some common French conjunctions include «et» (and), «mais» (but), and «ou» (or).

Si clauses are another important element of French sentence structure. These clauses are used to express hypothetical situations and typically begin with «si» (if). For example, «Si j’avais de l’argent, j’achèterais une voiture» means «If I had money, I would buy a car.»

With french sentence structure, remember to pay attention to gender and number agreement, use common sentence starters, and include directional words and time phrases to enhance your French language skills. In addition, understanding the grammar rules of French sentence structure is essential for effective communication in the language.

The Simple Declarative Sentence

The most common type of sentence in English and in French is the declarative sentence; a simple expression stating a fact:

As in English, the declarative form in French is the core around which more complicated sentences can be built.

Basic French sentences with nouns

When you learn a language, you start with basic sentences with the most common word order.

In French, this is SVO — Subject + Verb + Object. As for most Romance languages — and, indeed, English — the subject (who is doing the action?) generally comes at the beginning of the sentence.

There follows the verb, and then the direct object (what is he/she doing?). The sentences above are all examples of the SVO construct.

We now expand on that basic sentence structure by adding an indirect object (for/to/with whom is he doing it?):

Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Indirect Object

In each of these examples, the subject is doing something with the direct object for, to or with the indirect object.

Until now, we’ve only shown simple sentences using action verbs: somebody or something doing something. What about sentences that use a compound verb?

In English, these ‘helper’ verbs are to be, to have and to do. In French, only the first two, être and avoir, are used in compound structures with being être used less frequently.

Nevertheless, the structure remains the same: the verb that indicates what is happening stays in second place:

The only time a direct object might come after an indirect object is if there is additional information attached to it, such as a relative clause:

Naturally, you could structure the sentence in such a way that the direct object comes before the indirect:

However, that makes the sentence meaning ambiguous: He promised the candies to his sister, but who exactly did he give them to?

French being an exceedingly precise language, it is always best to follow the proper sentence structure in order to convey your intended meaning.

It might take a bit of practice, but your language skills will be all the richer for it!

Word order with pronouns

As in many other languages, French words are put into a different order if some or all of them are pronouns.

Let’s take the sentence:

Subject pronouns stay at the beginning of the sentence:

Sometimes, in French, it is much more convenient to describe an object in a sentence by using a pronoun.

Consider the sentence above: She shows her drawing to her mum. How can that sentence be made less cumbersome?

Elle lui montre son dessin.	‘lui’ takes the place of ‘maman’ even though, generally, ‘lui’ represents a male.
Elle le montre à sa maman.	‘le’ takes the place of the picture. In this sentence, the gender matches; dessin is masculine.
Elle le lui montre.	here, you have a combination of the two representations above, with ‘le’ meaning ‘dessin’ and ‘lui’ in for ‘maman’.

Let us now suppose you are that dear mum, telling a jealous mother about how your daughter creates artwork for you. You would say:

Because of its first-person singular designation, “me” ranks higher than “le” — a mere article. Therefore, you would place ‘me’ before ‘le’ in such sentences.

Object pronouns come BEFORE the verb but AFTER the subject. In what order they come depends on the pronoun:

Subject + ‘me’, ‘te’, ‘se’, ‘nous’, ‘vous’ + ‘le’, ‘la’, ‘les’ + ‘lui’, ‘leur’ + (adverbial pronoun “y”) + ‘en’ + Verb.

Examples:

Elle nous les montre. She shows them to us. Note that ‘montre’ agrees with ‘elle’ — third person singular.

You might also phrase it as a question:

Elle vous les montre? Does she show them to you? Either way, the order listed above remains.

‘En’ is an indefinite plural pronoun that, in this sentence’s case, represents the drawings. ‘en’ is always placed just before the verb:

Elle montre des dessins à sa maman. -> Elle lui en montre. She shows some drawings to her mum. > She shows her them.

Learn more about French grammar rules.

Negative Sentences

The French negative words are: ne…pas and ne…point (the latter is archaic or regional).

“Ne” comes immediately after the subject.
“Pas” comes immediately after the verb.

Negation is pretty straightforward in French, however you should be aware of using ‘any’ properly.

The equivalent of the English “no” or “not…any” is “ne…aucun”:

Marie ne montre aucun dessin à sa mère. Marie doesn’t show any drawing to her mother.

Or: Marie shows no drawings to her mother.

Adding Adjectives, Adverbial Phrases

Adverbs and adverbial phrases

The adverbial phrase or complément circonstanciel can come at the beginning, the end or the middle of the sentence. They are emphasised if they are put at the beginning or the end; it is more colloquial to only put single-word adverbs in the middle.

Such phrases may denote a time:

Or a place:

However, if you are using a complément circonstanciel construction to denote a place where an activity has happened, you cannot put that location in the middle of the sentence:

You’ll note that, as we do not know who the ‘lui’ in question is, it might represent a male or a female — hence both pronouns.  

Adverbial pronouns

The adverbial pronoun “y” (directional) comes after most other pronouns but before the plural pronoun “en”. It is generally used to denote a progressive action, or one that is about to take place. However, ‘y’ can only be used if the listener knows what the speaker is talking about:

If the listener knows where Marie is headed, the speaker could say: Marie y va — Marie is going.

Another example:

Contrast that with the much simpler: Nous y allons. We’re going — the usage is contingent on it being known where we are going!

Caution! You should never say:

Marie y va à l’école or Nous y allons au bois — it suggests the listener both knows and doesn’t know the destination.

Find French lessons that may interest you here.

Adjectives and their placement in the sentence.

Unlike in English, Adjectives are generally placed right after the noun:

Whereas an English speaker would say: ‘the red balloon’, in French, the proper order is: ‘le ballon rouge’. Here are some more examples:

• The hungry lion = le lion affamé.
• The sleepy child = l’enfant somnolent(e).
• The playful cat = le chat (la chatte) ludique.
• A good book = un bon livre.

Do you know of the BAGS group? It denotes constructions wherein the adjective comes before the noun:

Adjectives used with verbs expressing a state come after the verb:

Note that adjectives should always agree with the noun they are qualifying in gender and number.

Dependent and relative clauses

Most dependent or relative clauses come right after the main clause, at the end of the sentence.

Relative clauses

Relative clauses are introduced by the relative pronoun “que” if the noun is an object and «qui» if the noun is human.

These clauses are usually placed at the end of the sentence and come right after the noun they are qualifying — meaning that these nouns are sometimes moved from their usual place in the sentence.

An exception is if the qualifying noun is the subject, then the relative clause is moved forward. If it is very long it can be put between commas.

Conjunctive clauses

Conjunctive phrases are clauses that are the object of a verb. The verb in question generally deals with thoughts and emotions and the expression of them. They are either infinitive clauses or are introduced with the conjunction “que”.

Check for French lessons for beginners here on Superprof.

The French Interrogative Sentence

French has several ways to build an interrogative. Here are some tips to improve your French dialogue:

Est-ce-que

Putting “est-ce-que” at the beginning of a sentence is the easiest way to formulate a question in French. You can use the usual word order following it.

It is considered inelegant to preface your questions in this manner. During your French lessons, your teacher might insist you use reversal instead.

Reversing subject and predicate

The more elegant phrasing is to reverse the subject and predicate, putting the verb at the beginning of the sentence and hyphenating the subject-verb group:

If the subject of the sentence is not the person you are addressing, it stays at the beginning of the sentence, and an additional subject “il” is added:

Question words

For questions that cannot be answered by yes or no, French uses question words. They come at the beginning of the sentence, and are followed by the inverted subject-verb group (also more idiomatically, they can also come at the end of a basic sentence).

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Here is a list of French words for asking questions:

• Qui: who. Qui es-tu? Who are you?
• Que: what. Que fais-tu? What are you doing?
• Quoi: in rare cases, replaces “que”: Quoi faire?
• Où: where. Où vas-tu? Where are you going?
• Comment: how. Comment vas-tu? How are you?
• Pourquoi: why. Pourquoi manges-tu ces frites? Why are you eating those chips?
• Combien: how much. Combien coûte cette baguette? How much does this baguette cost?
• Quel/quelle/quels/quelles: which. Should agree with the noun it is qualifying: Quels cinémas jouent-ils le nouveau Star Wars? (Which cinema is showing the new Star Wars?) “Quel” can be combined with adverbial prepositions: Dans quel château Edmond Dantès était-il emprisonné? (In what castle was Edmond Dantès imprisoned?) Après quelle date peut-on manger des huîtres? (After what date can you eat oysters?)

Indirect questions

Indirect questions are questions that are related rather than asked. They are introduced by the usual question words:

Ils se demandent quels cinémas montrent le nouveau Star Wars. They are asking themselves which cinemas are showing the new Star Wars film. 
Elle demande comment il va. She asks how he’s doing.

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The French Conditional Sentence

The language of Voltaire uses the pair of French words “si… alors” to express a condition over two clauses, though in some French phrases, “alors” is left off. It is considered more colloquial.

Si tu veux apprendre la langue, alors il faut bien apprendre ton vocabulaire français.
If you want to learn the language, so you will have to learn your French vocabulary.

“Si tu ne m’aimes pas je t’aime, et si je t’aime prends gare à toi!”
If you don’t love me, I love you; and if I love you: take care! (from the opera “Carmen”, by Bizet)

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Don’t forget to do the grammar exercises in your French grammar textbooks and from your online French course to help you learn all about French sentence structure, learn French expressions and how to conjugate French verbs.

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In French, the basic sentence structure is: subject, verb, object. For example, Je vends la voiture (I sell the car). The word order of French sentences has many particularities unique to French. In this article you’ll learn all the most important word order rules necessary to properly speak French.

French word order: List of rules

Rule 1: Subject + Verb + Object

For the present tense, the word order in French is simply subject + verb + object (SVO). Here re some very simple examples:

• Je mange la pizza. I eat the pizza.
• Nous achetons la maison. We buy the house.
• Paul aime Marie. Paul loves Marie.

These are called declarative sentences. In French, it is necessary to always include the subject. In other Romantic languages such as Spanish the subject can be omitted. The exception to this rule is the imperative mood. For example:

• Tu parles français (You speak French); correct
• Parles français (incorrect)

In the imperative mood, the subject can be omitted. For example:

• Mange la pizza! Eat the pizza!
• Achète la voiture! Buy the car!

This page on our site covers the French imperative in detail.

Rule 2: Use ne…pas for negation

French negation requires the usage of ne…pas being wrapped around the verb. The ne…pas negation structure is unique to French. For example:

• Tu ne manges pas la pizza. You don’t eat the pizza.
• Tu ne parles pas français. You don’t speak French.

This page on our site covers French negation rules in detail.

Rule 3: Est-ce que and inversion for questions

The basic word order changes for asking questions. There are two main ways of asking questions: Using est-ce que and inversion.

Put est-ce que in front of the basic SVO declarative sentence. For example:

• Est-ce que tu manges la pizza? Are you eating the pizza?
• Est-ce que tu parles français? Do you speak French?

When using inversion the word order changes as the subject and verb are inverted. For example:

• Manges-tu la pizza? Do you eat the pizza?
• Parles-tu français? Do you speak French?

Rule 4: Adjectives come after nouns

In general, the rule for adjectives is that they come after nouns. For example:

• Tu manges une pizza délicieuse. You eat a delicious pizza.

However, the are situations where the adjective comes before the noun. For example:

• Tu manges une bonne pizza. You eat a good pizza.

This page on our site covers French adjective rules in detail.

Rule 5: Adverbs come after verbs

In general, adverbs come after the subject, verb and object. For example:

• Il parle français couramment. He speaks French fluently.
• Je mange la pizza fréquemment. I eat pizza frequently.

However, there are situations where shorter adverbs come between the verb and the object.

• Il parle bien français. He speaks French well.
• Je mange souvent la pizza. I often eat pizza.

This page on our site covers French adverbs in detail.

Conclusion

These five rules are the basics for the word order of French sentences. While sentences came become much more complex, mastering these fives simple rules is required for making basic sentences.

For more information on this topic, we suggest looking at Chapter 6 entitled “Building Sentences” of the book Practice Makes Perfect: Complete French All-in-One.

French grammar is the set of rules by which the French language creates statements, questions and commands. In many respects, it is quite similar to that of the other Romance languages.

French is a moderately inflected language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number (singular or plural, though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled differently); adjectives, for number and gender (masculine or feminine) of their nouns; personal pronouns and a few other pronouns, for person, number, gender, and case; and verbs, for tense, aspect, mood, and the person and number of their subjects. Case is primarily marked using word order and prepositions, while certain verb features are marked using auxiliary verbs.

VerbsEdit

Verbs in French are conjugated to reflect the following information:

• a mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, conditional,^[1] infinitive, or gerundive^[2])
• a tense (past, present, or future, though not all tenses can be combined with all moods)
• an aspect (perfective or imperfective)
• a voice (active, passive,^[2] or reflexive^[2])

Some of these features are combined into seven tense–aspect–mood combinations. The simple (one-word) forms are commonly referred to as the present, the simple past or preterite^[3] (past tense, perfective aspect), the imperfect^[3] (past tense, imperfective aspect), the future, the conditional,^[1] the present subjunctive, and the imperfect subjunctive. However, the simple past is rarely used in informal French, and the imperfect subjunctive is rarely used in modern French.

Verbs in the finite moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and conditional) are also conjugated to agree with their subjects in person (first, second, or third) and number (singular or plural). As in English, the subject must be included (except in the imperative mood); in other words, unlike other Romance languages, French is neither a null-subject nor a pro-drop language.

Auxiliary verbs are combined with past participles of main verbs to produce compound tenses, including the compound past (passé composé). For most main verbs the auxiliary is (the appropriate form of) avoir («to have»), but for reflexive verbs and certain intransitive verbs the auxiliary is a form of être («to be»). The participle agrees with the subject when the auxiliary is être, and with a preceding direct object (if any) when the auxiliary is avoir. Forms of être are also used with the past participles of transitive verbs to form the passive voice.

The imperative mood, which only has first-person plural and second-person singular and plural forms, usually has forms similar or identical to the corresponding ones in the present indicative.

NounsEdit

GenderEdit

Every French noun has a grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine. The grammatical gender of a noun referring to a human usually corresponds to the noun’s natural gender (i.e., its referent’s sex or gender). For such nouns, there will very often be one noun of each gender, with the choice of noun being determined by the natural gender of the person described; for example, a male singer is un chanteur, while a female singer is either une chanteuse (a pop singer) or une cantatrice (an opera singer). A plural noun that refers to both males and females is masculine. In some cases, the two nouns are identical in form, with the difference only being marked in neighbouring words (due to gender agreement; see below); a Catholic man is un catholique, while a Catholic woman is une catholique. Nonetheless, there are some such nouns that retain their grammatical gender regardless of natural gender; personne ‘person’ is always feminine, while (at least in «standard» French) professeur ‘teacher’ is always masculine. In Canadian French, une professeure is the standard feminine form, which is becoming more and more common in European French.

A noun’s gender is not perfectly predictable from its form, but there are some trends. As a very broad trend, nouns ending in -e tend to be feminine (e.g., une étoile ‘a star’, une voiture ‘a car’), while the rest tend to be masculine (e.g., un ballon ‘a balloon’, un stylo ‘a pen’), but it sometimes can be the opposite. More consistently, some endings, such as -sion, -tion, -aison, -ité and -logie occur almost exclusively with feminine nouns, while others, such as -aire, -isme, -ème and -ège occur almost exclusively with masculine ones. Many nouns ending in -e preceded by double consonants are also masculine (e.g. un cadre, un arbre, un signe, un meuble). Nonetheless, a noun that seems masculine judging by its ending might actually be feminine e.g., la peau ‘the skin’, une dent ‘a tooth’ or vice versa e.g., le coude ‘the elbow’, un squelette ‘a skeleton’ are masculine. Noun clauses are masculine.^[4]

A very small number of nouns can be used either in masculine or feminine gender with the same meaning (e.g., après-midi ‘afternoon’). Often one gender is preferred over the other. Some (very rare) nouns change gender according to the way they are used: the words amour ‘love’ and délice ‘pleasure’ are masculine in singular and feminine in plural; the word orgue ‘organ’ is masculine, but when used emphatically in plural to refer to a church organ it becomes feminine (les grandes orgues); the plural noun gens ‘people’ changes gender in a very unusual way, being usually masculine but triggering feminine agreement when certain adjectives precede the word.

Other nouns change meaning depending on which grammatical gender they are used in. For example, le critique (masculine) refers to a critic, while la critique (feminine) means criticism; le livre refers to a book, while la livre means the pound (in the sense of both weight and currency). Similarly, le voile means «veil», whereas la voile means «sail».^[5]

The vocabulary of French includes many homophones, i.e., pairs of words with different spellings but the same pronunciation. Grammatical gender, however, may serve to distinguish some of these. For example, le pot ‘the pot’ and la peau ‘the skin’ are both pronounced [po] but disagree in gender.

NumberEdit

As in English, nouns inflect for number.

Orthographically, the plural is usually formed from the singular by adding the letter -s (cf. maison > maisons ‘houses’). Nouns ending in -au, -eu, and -ou often take the ending -x instead (cf. jeu > jeux ‘games’). However, the endings -s and -x are in most cases not pronounced, meaning that in speech the plural form of a noun generally has the same pronunciation as the singular. Nouns that end in -s, -x or -z in the singular are left unchanged in the plural in both pronunciation and spelling (cf. croix > croix ‘crosses’, both pronounced [kʁwa]).

Liaison between a plural noun and a following adjective is one case where the plural ending -s or -x may be pronounced: des fenêtres ouvertes [dɛ fənɛtʁəz‿uvɛʁt] («open windows»). However, this form of liaison usually only appears in careful formal speech (for example by newsreaders). In most everyday speech singular and plural forms of most nouns are therefore homophonous in all contexts.

In spoken French, the plurality of most nouns is marked not on the form of the noun itself but by a preceding article or determiner (cf. la maison [la mɛzɔ̃] ‘the house’ > les maisons [le mɛzɔ̃] ‘the houses’; mon frère [mɔ̃ fʁɛːʁ] ‘my brother’ > mes frères [me fʁɛːʁ] ‘my brothers’).

French nouns whose spoken plural forms are distinguished from the singular include most of those ending in -al, whose plural form is -aux (cf. cheval [ʃəval] > chevaux [ʃəvo] ‘horses’), as well as a few nouns ending in -ail that also follow this pattern (cf. travail [tʁavaj] > travaux [tʁavo] ‘works’). Three nouns form completely irregular plurals: aïeul [ajœl] > aïeux [ajø] ‘ancestors’ (but aïeuls [ajœl] ‘grandfathers’); ciel [sjɛl] > cieux [sjø] ‘heavens’ (but des ciels de lit ‘bed canopies’); and œil [œj] > yeux [jø] ‘eyes’ (but des œils-de-bœuf ‘oculi’ (round windows), des œils-de-perdrix ‘calluses’ (on the feet)). Three other nouns have regular plurals in spelling but have irregular pronunciations: bœuf [bœf] > bœufs [bø] ‘oxen, cattle’; œuf [œf] > œufs [ø] ‘eggs’; and os [ɔs] > os [o] ‘bones’.

As with English, most uncountable nouns are grammatically treated as singular, though some are plural, such as les mathématiques ‘mathematics’; some nouns that are uncountable in English are countable in French, such as une information ‘a piece of information’.

CaseEdit

Nouns in French are not inflected for any other grammatical categories. (However, personal pronouns are inflected for case and person; see below.)

Articles and determinersEdit

Articles and determiners agree in gender and number with the noun they determine; unlike with nouns, this inflection is made in speech as well as in writing.

French has three articles: definite, indefinite, and partitive. The difference between the definite and indefinite articles is similar to that in English (definite: the; indefinite: a, an), except that the indefinite article has a plural form (similar to some, though English normally doesn’t use an article before indefinite plural nouns). The partitive article is similar to the indefinite article but used for uncountable singular nouns.

AdjectivesEdit

An adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. French adjectives therefore have four forms: masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural. A few adjectives have a fifth form, viz. an additional masculine singular form for use in liaison before a noun beginning with a vowel or a «mute h», e.g. un beau jardin, un bel homme, une belle femme, de beaux enfants, de belles maisons (a beautiful garden, a handsome man, a beautiful woman, beautiful children, beautiful houses). This fifth form, which is older, is sometimes used elsewhere in set phrases, e.g. Philippe le Bel (Philip the Fair or the Handsome of France, 1268–1314) vs. Philippe le Beau (Philip the Handsome or the Fair of Castile, 1478–1506).

The masculine singular, an adjective’s basic form, is listed in dictionaries. The feminine singular is normally formed by adding -e to the basic form. This -e is mute, which makes many masculine and feminine forms homophonous (cf. civil > civile ‘civil’, both pronounced /sivil/). However, the ending causes «mute» final sounds to be pronounced, whereby masculine-feminine pairs become distinguishable in pronunciation if the masculine form ends in a mute consonant, which is the case with a great deal of adjectives (cf. lourd [luʁ] > lourde [luʁd] ‘heavy’). Under certain circumstances, other minor changes occur in the formation of feminine forms, such as the placement of an accent, the doubling of a consonant, or its replacement with another, changes that often reflect the pronunciation of such endings (cf. bon [bɔ̃] > bonne [bɔn] ‘good’; heureux [øʁø] > heureuse ‘happy’). Irregular feminine forms include beau > belle ‘beautiful’, blanc > blanche ‘white’, and a limited number of others. If an adjective’s basic form ends in -e, it is left unchanged in the feminine (cf. riche > riche ‘rich’).

The plural is normally formed by adding -s to the singular (masculine and feminine). This -s is usually mute, but pronounced [z] in liaison with a following noun that begins with a vowel. Unlike liaison after plural nouns, liaison after plural adjectives is common and even obligatory in standard usage. If the basic form ends in -s, -x, or -z, an adjective is left unchanged in the masculine plural (cf. doux > doux ‘soft, gentle’). A few adjectives take the (also mute) ending -x in the masculine plural (cf. nouveau > nouveaux ‘new’). Plural forms that are distinguishable from the singular outside of liaison environments occur only with adjectives ending in -al. These normally have -aux in the masculine plural (cf. central [sɑ̃tʁal] > centraux [sɑ̃tʁo] ‘central’). By contrast, the feminine plural is formed according to the general rule: centrale > centrales.

Due to the aforementioned rules, French adjectives might have four distinguished written forms which are all pronounced the same. This is the case if an adjective’s masculine and feminine forms are homophonous and if there is no liaison between the adjective and a following noun.

	Written form	Pronunciation	Translation
masc. sg.	un prince turc	œ̃ pʁɛ̃s tyʁk	a Turkish prince
fem. sg.	une princesse turque	yn pʁɛ̃sɛs tyʁk	a Turkish princess
masc. pl.	des princes turcs	de pʁɛ̃s tyʁk	Turkish princes
fem. pl.	des princesses turques	de pʁɛ̃sɛs tyʁk	Turkish princesses

On the other hand, if the masculine and feminine forms have different pronunciations and liaison does occur, all four forms can be distinguishable in pronunciation. Adjective declension is therefore important in spoken French, though to a lesser extent than in writing. (All forms distinguished in pronunciation are also distinguished in writing, but not vice versa.)

	Written form	Pronunciation	Translation
masc. sg.	un grand empereur	œ̃ ɡʁɑ̃t‿ɑ̃pʁœʁ	a great emperor
fem. sg.	une grande impératrice	yn ɡʁɑ̃d‿ɛ̃peʁatʁis	a great empress
masc. pl.	de grands empereurs	də ɡʁɑ̃z‿ɑ̃pʁœʁ	great emperors
fem. pl.	de grandes impératrices	də ɡʁɑ̃dz‿ɛ̃peʁatʁis	great empresses

Due to the peculiar orthography of French, which denotes mute final consonants, most feminine forms seem regular in terms of their spelling because they are formed by adding -e to the masculine form, e.g., grand > grande, lent > lente, persan > persane. However, if we put this etymologic orthography aside and consider only current pronunciation, the formation of French female forms becomes quite irregular with several possible «endings»: [ɡʁɑ̃] > [ɡʁɑ̃d], [lɑ̃] > [lɑ̃t], [pɛʁsɑ̃] > [pɛʁsan].

Most adjectives, when used attributively, appear after their nouns: le vin rouge («the red wine»). A number of adjectives (often having to do with beauty, age, goodness, or size, a tendency summarized by the acronym «BAGS»), come before their nouns: une belle femme («a beautiful woman»). With a few adjectives of the latter type, there are two masculine singular forms: one used before consonants (the basic form), and one used before vowels. For example, the adjective beau («beautiful») changes form from un beau garçon («a handsome boy») to un bel homme («a handsome man»). Some adjectives change position depending on their meaning, sometimes preceding their nouns and sometimes following them. For example, ancien means «former» when it precedes its noun, but «ancient» when it follows it. To give another example, un homme grand means «a tall man», whereas un grand homme means «a great man».

Many compound words contain an adjective, such as une belle-mère «a mother-in-law», which is distinct from une belle mère «a beautiful mother». Some of them use an archaic form of the feminine adjective that lacks the final -e. These used to be written with an apostrophe, but a hyphen is now (at least since 1960) considered more correct: une grand-route (formerly, une grand’route) «a main country road», which is distinct from une grande route «a long way», and une grand-mère (formerly, une grand’mère) «a grandmother», which is distinct from une grande mère «a tall mother».

AdverbsEdit

As in English, adverbs in French are used to modify adjectives, other adverbs, verbs, or clauses. Most adverbs are derived from an adjective by adding the suffix -ment, usually to its feminine form (-ment is analogous to the English suffix -ly): e.g. anciennement «anciently», «of old», «in olden times»; grandement «greatly»; lentement «slowly»; though there are some systematic deviations (e.g. patient → patiemment «patiently», malaisé → malaisément «uneasily»), some adverbs are derived irregularly (bon «good» → bien «well») and others do not derive from adjectives at all.

Adverbs themselves are generally invariable. An exception to this is the adverb tout «wholly, very» which agrees in gender and number with the adjective it modifies when it is in the feminine and begins with a consonant (e.g. tout petit «very small, m.s.», tous petits «very small, m.pl.» but toute petite «very small, f.s.», toutes petites «very small, f.pl.» — when beginning with a vowel however: tout entier, tout entiers, tout entière, tout entières «completely, as a whole» (with liaison)).

PrepositionsEdit

French prepositions link two related parts of a sentence. In word order, they are placed in front of a noun in order to specify the relationship between the noun and the verb, adjective, or other noun that precedes it. Some common French prepositions are: à (to, at, in), à côté de (next to, beside), après (after), au sujet de (about, on the subject of), avant (before), avec (with), chez (at the home/office of, among), contre (against), dans (in), d’après (according to), de (from, of, about), depuis (since, for), derrière (in back of, behind), devant (in front of), durant (during, while), en (in, on, to), en dehors de (outside of), en face de (facing, across from), entre (between), envers (toward), environ (approximately), hors de (outside of), jusque (until, up to, even), loin de (far from), malgré (despite), par (by, through), parmi (among), pendant (during), pour (for), près de (near), quant à (as for, regarding), sans (without), selon (according to), sous (under), suivant (according to), sur (on), vers (toward).

PronounsEdit

In French pronouns can be inflected to indicate their role in a clause (subject, direct object, etc.), as well as the person, gender, and number of their referent. Not all of these inflections may be present at once; for example, the relative pronoun que (that, which, whom) may have any referent, while the possessive pronoun le mien (mine) may have any role in a clause.

As noted above, French (like English) is a non-pro-drop («pronoun-dropping») language; therefore, pronouns feature prominently in the language. Impersonal verbs (e.g., pleuvoir – to rain) use the impersonal pronoun il (analogous to English it).

French object pronouns are all clitics. Some appear so consistently – especially in everyday speech — that some have commented that French could almost be considered to demonstrate polypersonal agreement.^[6]

NegationEdit

French usually expresses negation in two parts, with the particle ne attached to the verb, and one or more negative words (connegatives) that modify the verb or one of its arguments. Negation encircles a conjugated verb with ne after the subject and the connegative after the verb, if the verb is finite or a gerund. However, both parts of the negation come before the targeted verb when it is in its infinitive form. For example:

• Je les ai pris I took them → Je ne les ai pas pris I did not take them
• Je voudrais regarder un film et m’endormir I would like to watch a movie and fall asleep → Je voudrais regarder un film et ne pas m’endormir. I would like to watch a movie and not fall asleep

Other negative words used in combination with ne are:

• negative adverbs

ne … plus — not anymore, no longer

ne … jamais — never

ne … nulle part — nowhere

ne … guère — not much, hardly (literary)

ne … point / aucunement / nullement — not, not at all (literary)

• negative pronouns

ne … rien — nothing

ne … personne — nobody

• others

(determiner) ne … aucun — no/not any (also nul, literary)

(restrictive particle) ne … que — only

Examples:

• Je ne sais pas. — I do not know.
• Il ne fume plus. — He does not smoke anymore.
• Nous n‘avons vu personne. — We did not see anybody.
• Elle n‘a rien bu. — She didn’t drink anything.
• Je n‘ai aucune idée. — I have no idea.
• Vous ne mangez que des légumes ? — You only eat vegetables?

The negative adverbs (and rien) follow finite verbs but precede infinitives (along with ne):

• Il prétend ne pas/ne jamais/ne rien fumer. — He claims not to smoke/to never smoke/to smoke nothing.

Moreover, it is possible for rien and personne to be used as the subject of a sentence, which moves them to the beginning of the sentence (before the ne):

• Rien n’est certain. — Nothing is certain.
• Personne n’est arrivé. — Nobody came.

Several negative words (other than pas) can appear in the same sentence, but the sentence is still usually interpreted as a simple negation. When another negative word occurs with pas, a double negation interpretation usually arises, but this construction is criticised.

• Elle n’a plus jamais rien dit à personne. — She never said anything else to anybody.
• Elle n’a pas vu personne. — She did not see nobody (i.e., she saw somebody).

Colloquial usageEdit

In colloquial French, it is common to drop the ne, although this can create some ambiguity with the ne … plus construction when written down, as plus could mean either more or not anymore. Generally when plus is used to mean more, the final s is pronounced ([plys]), whereas it is never pronounced when used to mean not anymore ([ply]).

As an example, the informal sentence Il y en a plus could be pronounced with the final [s] ([il i ɑ̃n a plys, jɑ̃n a plys]) to mean «there is more«, or it could be pronounced without it ([il i ɑ̃n a ply, jɑ̃n a ply]) to mean «there is none left«.

Independent neEdit

In certain, mostly literary constructions, ne can express negation by itself (without pas or another negative word). The four verbs that can use this construction are pouvoir («to be able to»), savoir («to know»), oser («to dare»), and cesser («to cease»).

• (standard, ne + pas) « Je n’ai pas pu venir. » — «I was not able to come.»
• (casual, pas only) « J’ai pas pu venir. » [same]
• (literary, ne only) « Je n’ai pu venir. » [same];
  cf. phrase « Je ne sais quoi » — «I do not know what [it is]» remaining in colloquial speech as a fossilized phrase

Expletive neEdit

In certain cases in formal French, the word ne can be used without signifying negation; the ne in such instances is known as expletive ne (French: ne explétif):

« J’ai peur que cela ne se reproduise. » — «I am afraid that it might happen again.»

« Il est arrivé avant que nous n’ayons commencé. » — «He arrived before we started.»

« Ils sont plus nombreux que tu ne le crois. » — «There are more of them than you think.»

Expletive ne is found in finite subordinate clauses (never before an infinitive). It is characteristic of literary rather than colloquial style.^[7] In other registers French tends to not use any negation at all in such clauses, e.g., J’ai peur que cela se reproduise.

The following contexts allow expletive ne

• the complement clause of verbs expressing fear or avoidance: craindre (to fear), avoir peur (to be afraid), empêcher (to prevent), éviter (to avoid)
• the complement clause of verbs expressing doubt or denial: douter (to doubt), nier (to deny)
• adverbial clauses introduced by the following expressions: avant que (before), à moins que (unless), de peur/crainte que (for fear that)
• comparative constructions expressing inequality: autre (other), meilleur (better), plus fort (stronger), moins intelligent (less intelligent), etc.

Existential clausesEdit

In French, the equivalent of the English existential clause «there is» is expressed with il y a, literally, «it there has» or «it has to it». The verb may be conjugated to indicate tense, but always remains in the third person singular. For example

• « Il y a deux bergers et quinze moutons dans le pré. » – «There are two shepherds and fifteen sheep in the meadow.»
• « Il y aura beaucoup à manger. » – «There will be a lot to eat.»
• « Il y aurait deux morts et cinq blessés dans l’accident. » – «There appears to have been (lit. would have) two dead and five injured in the accident.» (as in news reporting)
• « Il n’y avait personne chez les Martin. » – «There was nobody at the Martins’ home.»

This construction is also used to express the passage of time since an event occurred, like the English ago or it has been:

• « Je l’ai vu il y a deux jours. » – «I saw him two days ago.»
• « Il y avait longtemps que je ne l’avais pas vu. » – «It had been a long time since I had seen him.»
• « Le langage d’il y a cent ans est très différent de celui d’aujourd’hui. » – «The language/usage of one hundred years ago is very different from that of today.»

In informal speech, il y is typically reduced to [j], as in:

• Y a [ja] deux bergers et quinze moutons dans le pré.
• Y aura [joʁa] beaucoup à manger.
• Y avait [javɛ] personne chez les Martin.
• Je l’ai vu y a deux jours.

Word orderEdit

The components of a declarative clause are typically arranged in the following order (though not all components are always present):

• Adverbial(s)
• Subject
• ne (usually a marker for negation, though it has some other uses)
• First- and second-person object pronoun (me, te, nous, vous) or the third-person reflexive pronoun (se)
• Third-person direct-object pronoun (le, la, les)
• Third-person indirect-object pronoun (lui or leur)
• The pronoun y
• The pronoun en
• Finite verb (may be an auxiliary)
• Adverbial(s)
• (second marker for negation) The pronouns pas, rien, personne, aucun.e, peu, que (if not subject)
• Main verb (if the finite verb is an auxiliary)
• Adverbial(s)
• Direct object
• Indirect object
• Adverbial(s)

Note that what is called in English (and above) an indirect object is in many cases called complément circonstanciel d’attribution according to French grammar conventions (e.g. in donner quelque chose à quelqu’un “to give sth. to s.o.” or “to give s.o. sth.”). What the French call complément d’objet indirect is a complement introduced by an essentially void à or de (at least in the case of a noun) required by some particular, otherwise intransitive, verbs: e.g. Les cambrioleurs ont profité de mon absence “the robbers took advantage of my absence” — but the essentially synonymous les cambrioleurs ont mis mon absence à profit has a direct object instead. Unlike in English, in French neither an indirect object nor a circumstantial can become the subject of the passive voice: He was given a book has no direct equivalent in French.

The most common word order in French is subject-verb-object (SVO).

• J’adore le chocolat (I love chocolate).

French also allows for verb-object-subject (VOS) though the usage is relatively rare and various constraints apply. The most common instance of this word order is in more formal texts or in response to questions with a focus on the subject, as opposed to more broad questions such as, Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé? (what happened?). Below are examples of each circumstance.

• Formal or administrative text – Recevront un bulletin de vote les étudiants et le personnel académique (students as well as academic staff will receive a ballot paper).
• Response to questions with a focus on the subject – Qui a mangé les gâteaux? (who ate the cakes?)
  • Ont mangé les gâteaux Marie, Perre et Stéphanie (Marie, Pierre and Stephanie are those who ate the cakes).

Finally, in a comparatively limited number of instances French allows for object-subject-verb (OSV) word order, such as when adding emphasis

• Le chocolat j’adore (chocolate I LOVE).

In regard to word order, French is more restrictive than other Romance languages. For example, Spanish allows for all six possible word orders, compared to French’s three. Additionally, unlike other Romance languages, specifically Spanish and Italian, French does not have free inversion, which is often explained by French not being a pro-drop language (while Spanish and Italian are).^[8]

NegationEdit

As mentioned above, French expresses negation in two parts, the first with the particle ne attached to the verb and one or more negative words, which modify either the verb or one of its arguments. The participle ne comes before the verb in the sentence that is marked for tense and before any unstressed object pronouns that come before the verb. The location of the second part of the negation varies, however.^[9]

Modern French Word Order vs Latin and Old FrenchEdit

Modern French allows for fewer word orders than Latin or Old French, both of which Modern French has evolved from. In both Latin and Old French all six potential word orders are possible:

·      Subject-verb-object (SVO)

·      Verb-object-subject (VOS)

·      Object-subject-verb (OSV)

·      Subject-object-verb (SOV)

·      Object-verb-subject (OVS)

·      Verb-subject-object (VSO)

While linguistic evolution occurs on a continuum, the major shift towards increased grammaticalization occurred in French most distinctly between the mid 12th century and end of the 15th century. It is believed that the progressive move towards SVO as the dominant French word order occurred during this time, as a result of a “progressive fixation of the subject in preverbal position from the fourteenth century on”.^[10]

Question Formation^[9]Edit

Broadly speaking, there are two types of questions; yes/no questions and information questions.

Yes/No QuestionsEdit

In French there are four ways to form yes/no questions, each of which is typically associated with a different degree of formality.

1. Raising IntonationEdit

The simplest and most informal way to ask a yes/no question is by raising intonation at the end of a declarative sentence. This question formation structure is common in informal spoken French, but relatively uncommon in more formal spoken French or written French. Examples include:

• Elle va rester ici ? (Is she going to stay here?)
• Je peux mettre mes photos au mur ? (Can I put my photos on the wall?)

2. Est-ce queEdit

Yes/no questions may also be formed by adding est-ce que to the beginning of a declarative sentence. This structure may be used in any style of French; formal, informal, spoken, or written.

• Est-ce qu’elle va rester ici ? (Is she going to stay here?)
• Est-ce que je peux mettre mes photos au mur ? (Can I put my photos on the wall?)

3. …, n’est-ce pas?^[11]Edit

This is like adding «is it not?» to the end and it is pronounced «ness pah».

• Tu es Jane, n’est-ce pas ?

• Tu parles anglais, n’est-ce pas ?

4. Inversion of Verb and SubjectEdit

Finally, yes/no questions may be formed by inverting the verb and the subject. This sentence structure is typically used in formal and written French. These questions may be formed in one of two ways, depending on whether the pronoun is stressed or unstressed. If the pronoun is unstressed, it changes places with the verb that it agrees with.

• Es-tu content ? (Are you happy?)

This subject-verb inversion is similar to question formation in English, though in English the inversion may only occur with auxiliary verbs, while in French it may occur with all verbs.

If the subject is anything other than an unstressed pronoun, an unstressed subject pronoun that agrees with the subject is added to the right of the verb.

• Pierre est-il content ? (Is Pierre happy?)

Two additional notes on subject verb inversion in French. First, when the inversion results in the adjacency of two vowels “t” is inserted between them.

• T-insertion: A-t-il 17 ans ? (Is he 17?)

Secondly, only the most formal French inverts the verb with “je”. It has become more common, both in spoken and written French, to replace je with est-ce-que. For example, the following two sentences are ungrammatical in French.

• *Mens-je ? (Am I lying?)
• *Prends-je le bus ? (Am I taking the bus?)

Information QuestionsEdit

There are four ways to form information questions in French. Like yes/no questions, each form is associated with a different degree of formality.

1. Addition of Question Word or PhraseEdit

The simplest and generally most informal way to form an information question in French is by replacing a word in a declarative sentence with a question word or phrase and adding rising intonation to the end of the sentence. The question word or phrase may occur at the beginning or end of the sentence, depending on which word is being replaced, unlike in English, where the question word typically occurs at the start of the sentence.

• Declarative sentence – L’étudiant(e) téléphonera à son député demain. (The student will telephone his/her MP tomorrow.)
• L’étudiant(e) téléphonera à son député quand ? (When will the student telephone his/her MP?)
• Qui téléphonera à son député demain ? (Who will telephone his/her MP tomorrow?)

2. Moving Question Word or PhraseEdit

Another common and informal way of forming information questions is by replacing an item in a declarative sentence by a question word or phrase then moving the question word or phrase to the front of the sentence.

• Qui vous avez vu ? (Who did you see?)
• À qui Marcel a écrit ? (Who did Marcel write to?)  

3. Addition of Est-ce QueEdit

Another way to form a question in French is by following the steps outlined above in one and two, and in addition inserting est-ce que after the question word. This style of question formation may be used in all styles of French.

• Qui est-ce que vous avez vu ? (Who did you see?)
• À qui est-ce que Marcel a écrit ? (Who did Marcel write to?)  

4. Inversion of Verb and SubjectEdit

Finally, information questions in French may be formed by following the steps outlined above in one and two and additionally, inverting the subject and verb. This is typically the most formal form of question formation and is found in written and formal spoken French. As in yes/no question formation, if the subject is an unstressed pronoun, it switches places with the verb:

• Qui avez-vous vu? (Who did you see?)

If the subject is anything other than an unstressed pronoun, an unstressed subject pronoun is added after the verb.

• Qui Robert a-t-il recontré? (Who did Robert meet?)

Cleft SentencesEdit

Cleft sentences are sentences that consist of two clauses, one of which is a copular clause and one of which is a relative clause, also known as a cleft clause. The copular clause consists of a copula followed by the cleft constituent. Cleft sentences are found in many European languages, including French. In the sentence, c’est Stella qui lit Kant (It’s Stella who reads Kant) “c’est Stella” is the copular clause, «Stella» is the cleft constituent, and “qui lit Kant” is the cleft clause.^[12]

Types of Clefts^[13]Edit

While cleft sentences are common in European languages, the types of possible cleft sentences vary dramatically by language. Subject clefts, in which the cleft constituent acts as the subject of both the main verb and the cleft clause, are the most common clefts and are found in all languages that have clefts. C’est Stella qui lit Kant (It’s Stella who reads Kant) is an example of a subject cleft. In complement clefts the cleft constituent is a complement of both the main verb of the cleft clause and the non-cleft clause. For example, c’est Kant que Stella lit (it’s Kant that Stella reads). The final type of clefts are adverbial clefts, which are the most common clefts in French, but are not found in all languages with clefts, such as German. In adverbial cleft sentences, the cleft constituent has an adverbial syntactic function. Therefore, the cleft constituent is not subcategorized by the cleft clause’s main verb and it is not required in corresponding non-cleft clauses.

• Adverbial cleft sentence – C’est avec facilité que Stella lit Kant (It is with ease that Stella reads Kant)
• Corresponding non-cleft clause – Stella lit Kant [avec facilité] (Stella reads Kant [with ease])^[12]

Qu’est-ce Que ClausesEdit

French is the only romance language to have “homophonous interrogative, exclamative, and relative constructions sharing the same Que+est+ce+que string”.^[14] One theory to explain this unique phenomenon is that the first «que» is a covert duplicate of the following ce+que clause (exclamative and relative clauses, respectively). Despite Modern French spelling, the ce que part of the phrase is actually a complex complementizer of headless relatives.

See alsoEdit

• Le Bon Usage, a reference by Maurice Grevisse, and later editions by André Goosse

NotesEdit

The order of words in a French sentence can be very confusing, due to dual-verb constructions; object, adverbial, and reflexive pronouns; and negative structures. The basics of this are discussed in the compound verb and dual-verb lessons, but inversion further complicates matters.

What Is an Inversion

Inversion is commonly used to ask questions: the subject and verb are inverted and joined by a hyphen.

Tu lis — Lis-tu?

Vous voulez — Voulez-vous ?

A.  Simple (single) verb constructions

The pronouns precede the verb and the negative structure surrounds that group: ne + pronouns + verb-subject + part two of negative structure.

• Lis-tu Are you reading?
• Le lis-tu ? Are you reading it?
• Ne lis-tu pas ? Aren’t you reading?
• Ne le lis-tu pas ?   Aren’t you reading it?
• Ne me le lis-tu pas ?   Aren’t you reading it to me?

B.  Compound verbs (conjugated auxiliary verb + past participle) The pronouns directly precede the inverted auxiliary/subject and the negative structure surrounds that: ne + pronouns + auxiliary verb-subject + part two of negative structure +past participle.

• As-tu mangé Did you eat?
• L’as-tu mangé?   Did you eat it?
• T’es-tu habillé? Did you get dressed?
• N’as-tu pas mangé? Didn’t you eat?
• Ne l’as-tu pas mangé? Didn’t you eat it?
• Ne t’es-tu pas habillé? Didn’t you get dressed?
• Ne l’y as-tu pas mangé?  Didn’t you eat it there?

C.  Dual-verb constructions (conjugated verb + infinitive) The negative structure surrounds the inverted conjugated verb/subject and the pronouns are placed between the second negative word and the infinitive: ne + conjugated verb-subject + part two of negative structure + preposition (if any) + pronoun(s) + infinitive.

• Veux-tu manger? Do you want to eat?
• Veux-tu le manger?   Do you want to eat it?
• Veux-tu te doucher?   Do you want to take a shower?
• Ne veux-tu pas manger?   Don’t you want to eat?
• Ne veux-tu pas le manger?   Don’t you want to eat it?
• Ne veux-tu pas te doucher?   Don’t you want to take a shower?
• Continuerons-nous à travailler?   Will we continue to work?
• Continuerons-nous à y travailler?   Will we continue to work there?
• Ne continuerons-nous pas à travailler?   Won’t we continue to work?
• Ne continuerons-nous pas à y travailler?  Won’t we continue to work there?

Sometimes the object pronoun precedes the first verb; in French, the object pronoun has to go in front of the verb it modifies. If there is a second pronoun, that gets placed as in C above.

• Promets-tu d’étudier?   Do you promise to study?
• Ne promets-tu pas d’étudier?   Don’t you promise to study?
• Ne me promets-tu pas d’étudier? Don’t you promise me that you’ll study?
• Ne me promets-tu pas de l’étudier?  Don’t you promise me that you’ll study it?
• Me promets-tu d’étudier?   Do you promise me that you’ll study?

Bienvenue – Welcome

French (français) belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family. Like all Romance languages, it developed from Vulgar Latin spoken by the Roman invaders. Before the Roman invasion of what is France today, the territory was inhabited by a Celtic people whom the Romans called Gauls. The language of the Gauls had little impact on French.

From the 3rd century on, Gaul was invaded by Germanic tribes whose languages had a profound effect on the Vulgar Latin of the region, especially on its vocabulary. In 1539, King Francis I made French the official language of administration and court proceedings in France, replacing Latin as the official written language of the country. Following a period of unification and standardization, the language spoken in the 17th-18th centuries became the basis of modern French. From the 17th century on, French enjoyed the status of being the language of culture and diplomacy throughout the western world. European colonization brought French to the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Status

French is spoken in 53 countries, making it one of the most wide-spread languages of the world. It is estimated that the number of first- and second-language speakers of French worldwide is between 220 and 300 million people. It is an official, co-official or de facto national of 29 countries. Countries using French as either a first or a second language are located on four continents. Four of them are in Europe: France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Two are in the Americas: Canada and Haiti. There are also two overseas departments of France: Martinique and Guadeloupe. The rest are former French colonies in Africa and in the islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. French is a major second language in Arabic-speaking Algeria, Tunis, and Morocco. The dispersion of French is due to the political, economic, scientific, and cultural influence of France. Countries in which French is spoken are listed below. Please note that some of the numbers are estimates and do not clearly show the breakdown between first- and second-language speakers.

France	66 million	official language
Canada	7 million	official language used in all domains, along with English
Belgium	4 million	official language, along with Dutch and German
Switzerland	1,5 million 1st language and 2.5 million 2nd language speakers	official language, along with German, Italian and Romansch
Algeria	16 million	no official status
Italy (Aosta Valley)	95,000	official regional language, along with Italian and Slovenian
French Polynesia	184,000 1st language and 2nd language speakers	official language, along with Tahitian
Gabon	1.24 million	official language, the only language of formal education
Lebanon	1.9 million 1st language speakers	official language along with Arabic
New Caledonia	53,000	official language
Réunion	2,400 1st language and 161,000 2nd language speakers	official language
Equatorial Guinea	75,000-100,000 2nd language speakers	official language along with Spanish; increasingly used for wider communication
Benin, Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti,Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mauritius, Monaco, Tunisia	10,000 – 40,000	official or co-official language
Andorra, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Guadelupe, Mali, Martinique, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles,	under 10,000	official or co-official language
Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, French Guiana, Guinea	no estimates available	official or co-official language

In addition, there are a number of French-based Creoles spoken today mainly in the Caribbean, in the U.S., and on several islands in the Indian Ocean.They are listed below. Please note that these numbers may be actually higher.

Caribbean
Amapá Creole	25,000	Brazil
Guadeloupean Creole	848,000	Guadeloupe, Martinique
Guianese Creole	50,000	French Guiana
Haitian Creole	7,389,066	Haiti, U.S.
Louisiana Creole	60,000-80,000	U.S.
Indian Ocean
Morisyen Creole	604,000	Mauritius
Réunion Creole	600,000	Réunion
Seychellois Creole	72,7000	Seychelles

• French is one of the official languages of the United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the European Union (EU).
• French is one of the most studied foreign languages. In the US, French is the second most-studied foreign language in schools, after Spanish.

Click here on the MLA Interactive Language Map to find out where French is spoken in the US.

Dialects

Europe

European French is usually divided into two major dialects which, in turn, subsume many regional varieties.

• Langue d’oil
  Northern and central varieties of French, including what is today Belgium. One of the dialects of langue d’oil was françien which was spoken in Île de France. It became the basis of standard French. However, it did not become dominant in all of France, even after it became a major international language of culture and diplomacy.
• Langue d’oc
  Southern varieties of French including dialects of Switzerland and the Val d’Aosta in Italy, closely linked to Catalan.

Canada

All Canadian French varieties differ from Standard French in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Canadian French is usually divided into three varieties:

• Québécois spoken in Québec. It is spoken by an overwhelming majority of Canadian francophones.
• Franco-Ontariens spoken in Ontario, Western Canada, Labrador and in New England. It is considered to be a very conservative dialect of French.
• Acadiens spoken by the Acadians in some parts of the Canadian Maritimes.

Africa

Africa has the largest population of French speakers in the world. African French varieties are spoken in 31 African countries with the number of first- and second-language speakers exceeding 100 million. All African French varieties differ from Standard French in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. They are usually divided into several groups.

• Varieties of French spoken in Western, Central, and East Africa with an estimated 75 million first and second language speakers;
• Varieties of French, known as Maghreb French, spoken in Northwest Africa with an estimated 36 million first and second language speakers;
• Varieties of French spoken in the Indian Ocean (Réunion, Mauritius, and Seychelles) with an estimated 1.6 million first and second language speakers.

Structure

Although there are many varieties of spoken French, learners of French as a foreign language are usually taught a variety spoken by educated Parisians. Some of the main features of this variety are presented below.

Sound system

Vowels

French has a rich vowel system. In addition to the oral vowels given below, there are four nasal vowels /ɛ, ̃œ̃, ã, ɔ̃).

	Front	Central	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i	y		u
Mid	e	ø	ə	o
Open-mid	ɛ	(œ)		ɔ
Open			a	(ɑ)

• /i/ = ee in beet
• /e/ = ai in bait
• /ɛ/ = e in bet
• /y, ø, œ/ have no equivalents in English. They are pronounced with rounded lips.
• /ə/ = u in bud
• /a/ = a in bat
• /u/ = oo in boot
• /o/ = oa in boat
• /ɔ/ = ough in bought
• /ɑ/ = o in pop

Consonants

French has a relatively uncomplicated consonant system which is presented below.

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental/Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Stops	voiceless	p	..	t			k
voiced	b		d			g
Fricatives	voiceless	..	f	s	ʃ
voiced		v	z	ʒ			ʁ
Affricates	voiceless
voiced
Nasals		m		n		ɲ
Lateral				l

• /p, t, k/ are not aspirated, i.e., they are produced without a puff of air, as they are in English.
• /ʃ/ = sh in shop
• /ʒ/ = s in vision
• /ɲ/ = first n in canyon
• /ʁ/ has no equivalent in English

Stress

Stress in French words normally falls on the last syllable.

Grammar

The grammar of French is historically based on the grammar of Latin. As a result, it shares many features with other Romance languages.

Nouns, adjectives, articles, and pronouns

French nouns have the following grammatical categories:

• There are two grammatical genders (masculine and feminine) that are not predictable from the form of the noun.
• There are two numbers (singular and plural).
• Nouns are not marked for case.
• Adjectives agree with nouns they modify in gender and number.
• There is a definite and an indefinite article, each of which agrees with the noun in gender and number. Definite articles can combine with a number of prepositions, e.g., à + le = au; de + le = du ; à + les = aux; de + les = des.
• Pronouns are marked for person, gender, and number. They are also inflected to indicate their role in the sentence, e.g., subject, direct object, indirect object.
• French makes a distinction between the informal second person pronoun tu and the formal vous.

Numerals

The Standard French counting system is partially vigesimal, i. e., it uses vingt ‘twenty’as a base for numbers 80-99, e.g., quatre-vingts ‘eighty’ literally ‘4 times 20’. This is comparable to the archaic English use of score ‘twenty’, as in fourscore ‘eighty’.

Verbs

French verbs have the following grammatical categories:

• There are three regular conjugations. In addition, there are many irregular verbs.
• Verbs are marked for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and number (singular, plural).
• Verbs agree with their subjects in person and number.
• There are four simple tenses and five compound tenses. Compound tenses are formed using the auxiliary verbs être ‘to be’ or avoir ‘to have’.The latter is used to indicate the perfective aspect.
• There are four moods: indicative, conditional, subjunctive, imperative.
• There are two voices: active and passive. Passive constructions are formed using the auxiliary verb être ‘to be’ + past passive participle.
• French has a two-part negation, e.g., je ne sais pas ‘I don’t know’, with ne indicating global negation and pas clarifying the type of negation.

Word order

The basic word order in French is Subject-Verb-Object, but a large number of other orders is possible to indicate topic and emphasis. Word order is further complicated by an interaction among compound verb constructions, object and adverbial pronouns, inversion, imperatives, adverbs, and negative structures. Most adjectives follow the noun, e.g., un chat noir ‘a black cat’.

Vocabulary

French vocabulary is mostly Latin-based, e.g., frère ‘brother’ from Latin frater. As a result, it shares much of its basic vocabulary with other Romance languages. A study by Walter and Walter (1998) estimated that 12% of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse were borrowed from other languages. About 25% of these loanwords are fairly recent borrowings from English (e.g., le rostbif, le week-end). Other languages that have contributed to the French lexicon are Italian, ancient Germanic languages, Arabic, German Celtic, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Persian and Sanskrit.

Below are some common phrases in French.

Hello	Bonjour
Good bye	Au revoir
Please	S’il vous plaît
Thank you	Merci
Sorry, excuse me	Pardon, excusez-moi
Yes	Oui
No	Non
Man	L’homme
Woman	La femme

Below are numerals 1-10 in French.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
un	deux	trois	quatre	cinq	six	sept	huit	neuf	dix

Writing

The Latin alphabet was a natural choice for the scribes who started writing French texts starting in the 11th century, even though it was less than an ideal fit for a language whose sound system differed substantially from that of Latin. A significant number of changes in the sound system of French during the 14th-16th centuries caused a further divergence between spoken French and its written representation. Despite some attempts to reform French spelling, no major changes have been made over the last two centuries. The orthography of modern French has not changed since 1740.

The modern French alphabet is given below.

A a

B b

C c

D d

E e

F f

G g

H h

I i

J j

K k

L l

M m

N n

O o

P p

Q q

R r

S s

T t

U u

V v

W w

X x

Y y

Z z

• There are three accent marks over vowels: acute over é; grave over á and é; cirumflex over â, ê, î, ô, û.
• Diaeresis, or two dots over the vowel, shows that each vowel is pronounced separately as in Noël ‘Christmas.’
• A cedilla placed below the letter ç indicates that it is pronounced as [s].
• There are two ligatures: œ and æ, e.g., . œil ‘eye,’ bœuf ‘beef,’ et cætera ‘et cetera.’
• w and k are used exclusively in loan words or foreign names.

Take a look at the text of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme Article premiere Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Did You Know?

French words in English
English has borrowed many words from French. They are too numerous to list. Below is a short sampling of French loan words related to cooking, and those that occur in common usage.

Food	Common usage
bon appétit cuisine du jour blanch sauté fondue purée flambé à la carte à la mode escargot julienne canape	attaché avant-garde c’est la vie chic déjà vu encore en route haute couture matinée née par excellence protégé vis-à-vis

Difficulty