French grammar is a set of rules that French uses to create statements, questions, and commands. In many ways, it is very similar to other Roman languages.
French is a somewhat reflected language. The nouns and pronouns are mostly written for numbers (singular or plural, although in most nouns the compound word is pronounced singular even if it is spelled differently); adjectives, for numbers and sex (masculine or feminine) of their nouns; people's pronouns and other pronouns, for persons, numbers, genders, and cases; and verbs, to tense, aspect, mood, and people and the number of their subjects. Cases are mainly marked by using word order and foreground, while certain verb features are indicated by using auxiliary verbs.
Video French grammar
Verba
Verbs in French are conjugated to reflect the following information:
- mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, conditional, infinitive, participle, or gerundive)
- tense (past, present, or future, though not all forms of words can be combined with all moods)
- an aspect (perfect or imperfect)
- sound (active, passive, or reflexive)
Some of these features are combined into seven tension-aspect mood combinations. Simple forms (one word) are usually referred to as the present, past or simple preterite (past tense, perfect aspect), imperfect (past tense, imperfect aspects), future, conditional, subjunctive present , and imperfect Subjective. However, the simple past is seldom used in informal French, and the imperfect subjunctive is rarely used in modern French.
Verbs in limited mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and conditional) are also conjugated to approve the subject directly (first, second, or third) and number (singular or plural). As in English, subjects should be included (except in the imperative mood); in other words, unlike other Roman languages, French is not a language without a subject or a pro-drop language.
Auxiliary verbs are combined with the past participle of the main verb to produce compound tenses, including the past compound (passÃÆ'Â © composÃÆ' â € <â € <Â ©) . For most major verbs, the helper is (exact form) avoir ("own"), but for reflexive verbs and certain intransitive verbs, the helper is the form ÃÆ'ªtre ("to"). The participle agrees with the subject when the auxiliary is ÃÆ'ªtre , and with the previous direct object (if any) when the auxiliary is avoir . The ÃÆ'ªtre form is also used with past participants of the transitive verb to form passive voice.
The imperative atmosphere, which has only the plural and second person singular and plural forms, usually has a similar or identical form to the corresponding in this indicative.
Maps French grammar
Nouns
Gender
Every French noun has a gender of grammar, either masculine or feminine. The grammatical gender of a noun refers to a human usually corresponding to the gender of a natural noun (ie, sex or gender of reference). For such nouns, there will often be a noun of each sex, with the selection of nouns determined by the natural sex of the person described; for example, the male singer is chanteur , while the female singer is chanteuse . Plural nouns that refer to men and women are masculine. In some cases, the two nouns are identical in form, with the distinction marked only in the words of a neighbor (because of the gender agreement; see below); a Catholic man is un catholique , while a Catholic woman is une catholique . Nonetheless, there are some nouns that retain their grammatical gender regardless of the sex of the natural; personne 'person' is always feminine, while (at least in French "standard") professeur 'guru' is always masculine. In French Canada, une professeure is a standard feminine form, which is becoming more and more common in French Europe.
The sex of an object can not be perfectly predicted from its shape, but there are some tendencies. As a very broad trend, nouns ending in -e tend to be feminine, while the rest tend to be masculine. More consistently, some endings, such as -a person , -tion , -aison and -itÃÆ' Â © occur almost exclusively with feminine nouns, while others, such as -aire and -isme occur almost exclusively with the masculine. However, a seemingly masculine noun seen from its end may be actually feminine (eg, la peau 'skin') or vice versa (eg, un squelette 'skeleton').
The noun clause is masculine.
A small number of nouns can be used either in masculine or feminine genes with the same meaning (eg, 'aprÃÆ'¨s-midi ' afternoon '). Often one gender is preferred over the other. Some (very rarely) nouns change sex according to the way they are used: the words amour 'love' and dÃÆ' Â © lice 'pleasure' are masculine in the singular and feminine in plural; the orgue word 'organ' is masculine, but when used empathetically in the plural to refer to the organ of the church he becomes feminine (lesy leses orgues ); plural nouns 'people' change gender in a very unusual way, as it is usually masculine but it triggers a feminine agreement when certain adjectives precede a word.
French vocabulary includes many homophones, ie, couples of words with different spellings but the same pronunciation. However, grammatical sex can serve to distinguish some of them. For example, le pot 'pot' and la peau 'skin' are both pronounced [po] but disagree in gender.
Numbers
As in English, nouns infect numbers. In the case of spelling, the plural is usually formed from a single form by adding the letters -s (cf. maison & gt; maisons 'home'). The nouns ending in -au, -eu, and -ou often take the end of -x instead (cf. jeu & gt ; jeux 'game'). However, the ends of -s and -x are mute outside the context of connecting, so the plural noun form generally has the same pronunciation as the singular. Nouns ending in -s, -x or -z in a single form are left unchanged in plural both in pronunciation and spelling (cf.
In oral French, therefore, the plurality of nouns is generally unpredictable from the pronunciation of the noun, but is generally characterized by the form of a previous or decisive article (cf. la maison les maisons [le m? z ??] 'home'; mon frÃÆ'Â ¨re mes frÃÆ'¨res [aku f ??:?] 'my brothers').
The connections between the plural nouns and adjectives are only common in careful speeches, for example, by newsreaders. In this case, the plural ending of -s or -x can be pronounced: des fenÃÆ'ªtre s ouvertes [d? f? n? t ?? z ? uv ?? t] ("open window"). In this general speech almost never done, the singular and plural forms of most nouns are homophonous in all contexts.
However, some French nouns have an indistinguishable oral plural form. This includes most of the -al , plural of which is -aux (cf. cheval [?? val] & gt; chevaux [?? vo] ' horses'), as well as some noun ending in -ail which also follows this pattern (cf. travail [t? avaj] & gt; travaux [t? avo] 'works'). Three nouns form an irregular plural form: aÃÆ'¯eul [ajoel] & gt; aÃÆ'¯eux [ajÃÆ'¸] 'ancestor'; ciel [sj? l] & gt; cieux [sjÃÆ'¸] 'sky'; and oeil [oej] & gt; yeux [jÃÆ'¸] 'eye'. Three other nouns have regular plural forms in spelling but have irregular pronunciation: boeuf [boef] & gt; boeufs [bÃÆ'¸] 'oxen, cow'; oeuf [oef] & gt; oeufs [ÃÆ'¸] 'egg'; and os [? s] & gt; os [o] 'bones'.
Like English, the innumerable nouns are grammatically treated as singular, although some plural, such as mathÃÆ'Â © dieques 'mathematics'; some unaccountable nouns in English can be counted in French, such as unknown information 'piece of information'.
Case
French nouns are not affected for other grammatical categories. (However, people's pronouns are affected for cases and people; see below.)
Articles and determinators
Articles and determinants agree in gender and number with the nouns they specify; unlike with the noun, this inflection is made in speech or in writing.
French has three articles: definite, unlimited, and partictive. Differences between definite and indeterminate articles are in English (surely: the ; unlimited: a , an ), except that unlimited articles have multiple forms (similar to some , although English does not usually use articles before unlimited plural nouns). Partictive articles are similar to unlimited articles but are used for innumerable single nouns.
Adjective
Adjectives must agree in the gender and the numbers with the modified nouns. Hence the French adjective has four forms: single masculine, single feminine, masculine plural, and feminine plural.
A single, masculine form, the basic form of adjectives, is listed in the dictionary. The single feminine is usually formed by adding -e to the base form. This is -e is mute, which makes many homophonous masculine and feminine forms (cf. civil/gt; civile 'civil', both pronounced/civil/). However, it eventually causes a final "mute" sound to be uttered, in which the masculine-feminine couple becomes indistinguishable in pronunciation if the masculine form ends in a mute consonant, which is the case with many adjectives (cf.
Plural forms are usually formed by adding -s to a single form (masculine and feminine). This -s is usually mute, but it is pronounced [z] in relation to the following noun starting with vowels. Unlike the connector after the plural noun, the connector after the plural adjective is common and even mandatory in the use of the standard. If the basic form ends in -s, -x , or -z , an adjective does not change in the masculine plural (cf. doux & gt; doux 'soft, soft'). Some adjectives take mute (also mute) -x in masculine plural (cf. nouveau & gt; nouveaux 'new'). Plural forms that can be distinguished from outside a single environmental relationship only occur with adjectives ending with -al . It usually has -aux in the masculine plural (cf. center [s? T? Al] centraux [s ?? t? o] 'central'). In contrast, the feminine plural is formed in accordance with the general rule: centrale & gt; centrales .
Because of the above-mentioned rules, French adjectives may have four different forms of writing all of which are pronounced the same. This is the case if the masculine and feminine forms of the adjective are homophonous and if there is no relation between the adjective and the following noun.
On the other hand, if masculine and feminine forms have different pronunciations and connections, the four forms can be distinguished in pronunciation. The decline of adjectives is therefore important in spoken French, although to a lesser extent than in writing. (All the differentiated forms in pronunciation are also distinguished in writing, but not vice versa.)
Because of the typical French orthography, which shows a mute final consonant, the most feminine forms seem common in terms of their spelling because they are formed by adding -e to a masculine form, for example, large & gt ; grand e , lent & gt; lend e , press & gt; press e . However, if we put this etymological orthography to the side and consider only the current pronunciation, the formation of the French female form becomes very disorganized with some possible "end": Representation in the International Phonetic Phonetic (IPA) ? ??] & gt; [???? d ] , [l ??] & gt; [l ?? t ] , [p ?? s ??] & gt; [p ?? s an ] .
Most adjectives, when used attributively, appear after their noun: le vin rouge ("red wine "). A number of adjectives (often related to beauty, age, virtue, or size, a trend summarized with the acronym "BAGS"), come before their noun: une belle femme "a beautiful woman "). With a few adjectives of the latter type, there are two single-masculine forms: one used before the consonant (the basic form), and one used before the vowel. For example, the adjectives beau ("beautiful") change shape from un beau garÃÆ'§on ("a good-looking boy ") to un bell homme (" a handsome guy "). Some adjectives change positions depending on their meaning, sometimes precede their noun and sometimes follow them. For example, ancien means "former" when it precedes the noun, but is "ancient" when it follows it. To give another example, un homme great means "a man high ", while un grand homme means "a great man ".
Many compound words contain adjectives, such as belle -mÃÆ'¨re "mother-in-law", which is different from primadona mÃÆ'¨re "beautiful mother". Some of them use the ancient form of the feminine adjective which has no end of -e and sometimes shows quotation marks instead of hyphens, such as grand ' route "main country road", which is different from grande the route "remote," and great -mÃÆ'¨re "grandmother", which is different from the grande mÃÆ'¨re "tall mother".
Adverbs
As in English, the French word is used to change adjectives, other adverbs, verbs, or clauses. Most adverbs are derived from adjectives by adding the -ment suffix to its feminine form ( -ment analogous to the English suffix -ly ), although some information lowered irregularly and the other does not come from an adjective at all.
Description itself is generally not changeable. Exceptions to this are a handful of adverbs that show a syncretic comparative form (eg bien "good" -> mieux "better") and adverb tout "wholly, very" agree in the gender and the number with the adjective modifies (eg tout petit "is very small, m" "-> petite toute " is very small, f. ").
Preposition
French prepositions connect two related sections of a sentence. In the order of words, they are placed in front of the noun to determine the relationship between the noun and the verb, the adjective, or other nouns that precede it. Some French general words are: ÃÆ' (for, at, at), ÃÆ' cÃÆ'Â'tÃÆ' © de (beside, in addition), aprÃÆ'¨ (after), au sujet de (about, about the problem), avant chez (at home/office, in between), contre (opponent), dans (according to), de (from, from, about), depuis (since, for), derriÃÆ' © devant (ahead), durant (during, temporarily), en (in, at, until), en face de (facing, across), entre (between), envers environ , hors de (outside), jusque (up to, even, even), loin de (far from), malgrà © © (though), par (by, via), parmi a hook (for), pour (for), prÃÆ'¨s de (near), quant ÃÆ' (without), selon (accor ding to), sous (below), suivant (according to), sur (on), vers (against).
Pronouns
In French pronouns can be infected to show their role in clauses (subject, direct object, etc.), as well as their person, gender, and reference number. Not all of these inflections can be present at once; for example, the relative pronouns que that , that , are ) may have references, while the possessive pronouns le mien ( mine ) may have a role in the clause.
As noted above, French (such as English) is a non-pro-drop language ("spelling words"); therefore, the pronoun is very prominent in the language. Impersonal verbs (eg, pleuvoir - to rain ) use the impersonal pronoun il (analogous to English it ).
The pronouns of French objects are all cliches. Some seem so consistent - especially in everyday conversations - that some people have commented that France can almost be considered to show polipersonal approval.
Negation
France usually expresses negation in two parts, with the particle ne attached to the verb, and one or more negative words (connegatives) that change the verb or one of its arguments. The negation surrounds a conjugated verb with ne after the subject and connotative after the verb, if the verb is limited or gerund. However, the two halves of the negation appear before the targeted verb when it is in its infinitive form. As an example:
-> Je voudrais honor un film et ne pas m'endormir. 'I want to watch movies and no fall asleep'
Other negative words used in combination with ne are:
- negative statement
- ne... plus - "no longer, no more"
- ne... jamais - "never"
- ne... part nulle - "no where"
- ne... guÃÆ'¨re - "not much, hardly" (literary) - "no, not at all" (literature)
- negative pronouns
- ne... rien - "nothing"
- ne... personne - "none"
- more
- (decider) ne... aucun - "no/no" (also nul
- (finite particles) ne... que - "only"
example:
- "I do not know not ." - "I do not know."
- "He does not like again ." - "He does not smoke anymore."
- "We n ' have seen people ." - "We do not see anyone."
- "She n ' does not have anything to drink." - "He does not drink anything."
- "I n ' have an idea not ." - "I do not know."
- "Do you eat only vegetables?" - "You just eat vegetables?"
Negative adjectives (and rien ) follow finite verbs but precede infinitive (along with ne ):
- Ã, Â «Il prÃÆ'Â © tend ne pas/ne jamais/ne rien fumer.Ã,» - "He pleaded not smoking/never smoked/did not smoke anything."
Additionally, it is possible for rien and personne to be used as the subject of the sentence, which moves them to the beginning of the sentence (before ne ):
- Ã,  «Rien n'est certain.Ã, Ã,» - "Nothing is certain."
- Ã, Â «Personne n'est arrivÃÆ'Â ©.Ã, Ã,» - "No one comes."
Some negative words (other than pas ) may appear in the same sentence, but the sentence is usually still interpreted as a simple negation. When another negative word occurs with pas , the interpretation of the double negation usually appears, but the construction is criticized.
-  «Â« Elle n'a plus jamais rien dit ÃÆ' personne .à ,  »-" He never said anything else to anyone. "
-  «Â« Elle n'a pas vu personne . - "He does not see anyone (ie, he sees someone)."
daily use
In everyday English, it is common to drop ne , although this may create some ambiguity with ne... plus constructs when written, such as plus could mean "more" or "no longer". Generally when plus is used to mean "more", "s" end is pronounced ([plys]) whereas it is never spoken when used to mean "no longer" ([ply]).
For example, the unofficial sentence Il y a plus can be pronounced with the final [s] ([il i na plys, j na plys]) meaning "Anything else". Or it can be pronounced without it ([il i ?? n ply, j? N a ply]) means "Nothing is left".
Independent ne
Certainly, most literary constructs, ne can express negation by itself (without pas or other negative words). The four verbs that can use this construction are pouvoir ("to be"), savoir ("know"), oser ("to dare "), and cesser (" stop ").
- (standard, ne pas ) Ã, Â «Je n ' ai pas venir.Ã, Â »-" I can not come. "
- (ordinary, just fit ) Ã,  «J'ai pas pu venir.Ã,» [sama]
- (literature, ne only) Ã,  «Je n ' ai pu venir.Ã,» [sama];
cf. the phrase Ã,  «Je ne sais quoiÃ,» - "I do not know what [it]" left in everyday language as a fossil phrase
Expletive ne
In certain cases in formal French, the word ne can be used without signifying negation; ne in such cases is known as an absorbent oath ne (in French:
Expletive ne is found in a limited subordinate clause (never before infinitive). This is a characteristic of literary style rather than the style of everyday language. In another list, the French tend not to use the negation at all in such clauses, for example, J'ai peur que blem se reproduise .
The following context allows an absorbent oath ne
- complement clause of the verb expressing fear or avoidance: craindre (fear), avoir peur (fear), empÃÆ'ªcher i> (to prevent), ÃÆ' Â © viter (to avoid)
- the complement clause of the verb expressing any doubt or rejection: douter (doubt), nier (deny)
- the adverbial clause introduced by the following expression: avant que (formerly), ÃÆ' moins que (except), de peur/crainte que (for fear of it)
- comparative constructs expressing inequality: autre (other), meilleur (better), plus stronger (stronger), moins intelligent (less intelligent), etc.
Existential clause
In France, the equivalent of an existential English clause "exists" is expressed with il y a , literally, "it exists" or "must". Verbs can be conjugated to show tense, but always remain in a single third person. As an example
- Ã,  «Il deux bergers et quinze moutons dans le prà © à © Ã, Ã,» - "There are two shepherds and fifteen sheep in the meadow."
- Ã, Â «Il y aura beaucoup ÃÆ' palanger.Ã,» - "There will be plenty to eat."
- Ã, Â «Il y aurait deux morts and cinq blessÃÆ' Â © s dans l'accident.Ã,» - "There seem to be (lit. be) two dead and five injured in the accident." (as in news reporting)
- Ã,  «Il n'y avait personne chez les Martin.Ã,» - "No one at Martins's house."
This construction is also used to express the passage of time since the event occurred, such as English ago or has :
- Ã,  «Je l'ai vu il y deux jours.Ã, Ã,» - "I saw him two days ago."
- <<> Il y avait longtemps que je ne l'avais pas vu.Ã, Â »-" It's been a while since I saw it. "
- Â «Le langage d'il ya sen ans est trÃÆ'¨s diffÃÆ' Â © rent de celui d'aujourd'hui.Ã,» - "The language/use of a hundred years ago is very different from today."
In informal conversations, there is usually reduced to [j], as in:
- There are [ja] two shepherds and fifteen sheep in the pre
- There will be plenty of food.
- There [jav?] is nobody in Martin.
- I saw it two days ago.
Word order
The components of the declarative clause are usually arranged in the following order (though not all components always exist):
- Adverb (s)
- Subjects
- ne (usually a marker for negation, even if it has some other uses)
- The first and second person's pronouns ( i , te , nous , vous ) or pronoun reflexive third person ( se )
- The third direct human pronoun ( le , la , les )
- Indirect third person pronoun ( lui or leur )
- Pronoun y
- The pronoun en
- Verbs are limited (can be a helper)
- Adverb (s)
- The pronoun rien (if not the subject)
- The main verb (if finite verb is a helper)
- Adverb (s) and object (s)
The French base sequence is thus subject-verb-object ( Je lisais un livre : I am reading a book) although, if the object is a pronoun of clit, it precedes the verb ( Je le lisais : I'm reading it). Some types of sentences allow or require different word commands, particularly the inversion of the subject and the verb. For example, some adverbial expression placed at the beginning of a sentence triggers the inversion of a pronominal subject: Peut-ÃÆ'ªtre est-elle partie (Perhaps he has gone).
The word sequence can be a style list indicator. For example, the inversion of a nominal subject is possible in many relative clauses.
- C'est le livre [que mon cousin lui a donnÃÆ' Â ©]. (Object-subject-verb)
- C'est le livre [que lui a donnÃÆ' Â © mon cousin]. (Object-verb-subject)
- "That's the book my cousin gave me."
The second version of the sentence, with inversion, is more formal.
See also
- Le Bon Usage, referenced by Maurice Grevisse, and later editions by AndrÃÆ' © Goosse
External links
- French Grammar from About-France.com
- French Grammar by LanguageGuide.org
- French Grammar by Lingolia
Note
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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