How to Structure French Sentences for Beginners

How to Structure French Sentences for Beginners How To Build French Sentences ChaptersThe Simple Declarative SentenceNegative SentencesAdding Adjectives, Adverbial PhrasesDependent and relative clausesThe French Interrogative SentenceThe French Conditional SentenceConfessions of a Language Learner: Learning with a TutorSpeaking French is more than just learning vocabulary words from flash cards. Words are just the atoms, the building blocks of a language. They have to be put into context, strung together to form a sentence that is imparted with meaning.And grammar rules don’t just govern how to decline a verb, or what gender a French word is. They also regulate in what order you are going to put the words in a sentence. 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 ca ses 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.Native speakers of French experience the same conundrum: if they are already speaking correctly, why do they have to analyse their speech?Grammar rules are the blueprints upon which language is built; its role obvious only upon learning a second language.Going back to the earlier analogy, that words are a language's building blocks, we can put grammar in that context by assigning it the role of mortar holding the blocks together.Just as mortar may combine different ingredients, so, from one language to the next, grammar may involve different constructions to make sentences.The most common t ype of sentence in English and in French is the  declarative sentence;  a simple expression stating a fact:Il fait beau.   It (the weather) is nice.Catherine est une adolescente. Catherine is a teenager.  J'ai faim! I am hungry!Ma mère est danseuse. My mother is a dancer.  Il écoute la musique. He listens to music.  As in English, the declarative form in French is the core around which more complicated sentences can be built.Basic as (French) bread, the declarative sentence is the simplest form of expression Source: Pixabay Credit: Free-PhotosBasic French sentences with nounsWhen 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 constr uct.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 ObjectMarie donne le livre à sa maîtresse.  Marie gives the book to her teacher.Jean rend le cartable à son frère. Jean gives his brother his rucksack back.Suzanne apporte les pommes  Ã  la cuisine. Suzanne brings the apples to the kitchen.Lucie retourne les livres  Ã  la bibliotheque. Lucy returns the books to the library.  Remi mange son dîner  Ã  table. Remi eats dinner at the table.  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 sample sentences using action verbs: somebody or something doing something. What about sentences that use a compound verb?In French as in English, compound verbs consist of an auxiliary verb and a participle verb form, either in past or present tense.In English these 'helper' verbs are to be, to h ave and to do. In French, only the first two, être and avoir, are used in compound structures with being  Ãªtre used less frequently.Nevertheless, the structure remains the same: the verb that indicates what is happening stays in second place:Le roi avait pardonné le mousquetaire. The king had pardoned the musketeer.J'ai fini la vaisselle. I have finished the dishes.  Les parents ont gaté ces enfants! The parents have spoiled these children!Le maitre avait donné des devoirs. The teacher had given homework.  Mon copain est arrivé hier soir. My mate arrived yesterday evening.  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:Jean rend à son frère le cartable qu’il lui avait prêté. Jean gives his brother back the rucksack he had lent him.Ma soeur montre  Ã  ma mére les dessins que j'avais peint. My sister shows my mother the drawings I painted.  Mon collegue dit  Ã  nôtre patro n que je suis fainéante!  My colleague tells our boss that I am lazy!Benoit lit  Ã  sa copine des pôemes qu'il trouve romantique.   Benoit reads to his girlfriend poems he finds romantic.Gabriel donne  Ã  sa soeur les bonbons qu'il avait promi. Gabriel gave to his sister the sweets he had promised.  Naturally, you could structure the sentence in such a way that the direct object comes before the indirect:Gabriel a donné les bonbons qu'il avait promi a  sa soeur. Gabriel gave the sweets he had promised to his sister.  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!Who exactly did Gabriel give the sweets to? Said correctly in French, we would know! Source: Pixabay Credit: Sk yradarWord order with pronounsAs 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:Marie montre son dessin à sa maman. Marie shows her drawing to her mum.Subject pronouns stay at the beginning of the sentence:Elle montre son dessin à sa maman. She shows her drawing to her mum.  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, telli ng a jealous mother about how your daughter creates artwork for you. You would say:Son dessin? Elle me le montre! Her drawing? She shows it to me!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 SentencesThe 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.Marie ne montre pas son dessin à sa maman. Marie does not show her drawing to her mum.  Marie ne le montre pas à sa maman. Marie doesn't show it to her mum.Marie ne lui montre pas son dessin. Marie doesn't show her her drawing.Marie ne le lui montre pas. Marie doesn't show her it.French sentence structure in the negative. Photo credit: biphop on Visual huntNegation 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 PhrasesAdverbs and a dverbial phrasesThe 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:Marie lui montrera son dessin demain. Marie will show him/her her drawing tomorrow.  Demain, Marie lui montrera son dessin. Tomorrow, Marie will show him/her her drawing.Marie lui montrera demain son dessin. Marie will show him/her tomorrow her drawingOr a place:Marie lui montrera son dessin à l’école. Marie will show her drawing at school.  Ã€ l’école, Marie lui montrera son dessin. At school, Marie will show her drawing.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:Marie lui montrera à l’école son dessin. Marie will show him/her at school her drawing .  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 pronounsThe 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:Marie va à l’école. Marie goes to school. If the listener knows where Marie is headed, the speaker could say: Marie y va - Marie is going.Another example: Nous irons au bois. We go to the forest. 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  Ã  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.How would you say Marie and P aul go to school in French? Source: Pixabay Credit: Mohamad HassanAdjectives 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:Beauty: Un joli ballon. A pretty balloon.  More: Une jolie femme (a pretty woman), une belle chanson (a pretty song)Age: Un vieux ballon. An old balloon. More: Un viel homme (an old man), une vieille bicyclette (an old bicycle)Goodness: Un méchant ballon. A mean balloon. More: un bon vin (a good wine), une bonne amie (a good friend).Size: Un grand ballon. A big balloon.  More: Un petit ballon (a small balloon), une petite fille (a small girl).Adjectives used with verbs expressing a state come after the verb:Le ballon est vert.  The balloon is green.Le ballon semble petit.  The balloon seems small.Le ballon deviendra grand.  The balloon will become big.  Note that adjectives should always agree with the noun they are qualifying in gender and number.La chatte deviendra grande. The (female) cat will become big.  La fille semble petite. The girl seems small.  La voiture est verte. The car is green.  An imperative phrase,always begins with the verb. Photo credit: biphop on Visual HuntDon’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.Confessions of a Language Learner: Learning with a TutorLet us again reflect on how we learned our native tongue: by speaking it. That being the case, wouldn't it make sense that language classes would fo cus on spoken language rather than language mechanics?All while acknowledging that grammar is indeed essential to language, must we inevitably conclude that lessons in grammar are a vital component of language lessons?It seems to be a universal practice that language classes will devote a substantial portion of their time to teaching grammar, placing less emphasis on speaking and listening skills.I can say that with some veracity. Having been a language learner for all of my life - aren't we all? - and currently embroiled in picking up a new tongue, I feel frustration at grammatical exercises in the classroom that do seemingly little to improve my speaking ability.I could rail about it, complain to my teacher or school leader... or I could do something about it.Grateful as I am of my teacher's efforts at imparting declensions, cases and other grammatical particulars - and having no desire to detract her, I have engaged a tutor for the express purpose of practicing my speaking skills .This gives me the best of both worlds.I have a teacher, in a formal setting, imparting all of the nuts and bolts that makes this language I'm learning so very challenging.I also have a conversation partner who is a native speaker of this language, whose focus is exclusively on my pronunciation and my ability to understand what he says.Whereas in class, I get very little talking time; with my online tutor, I get to talk as much as I want - indeed, I am encouraged to talk ever more!If you are reading this, then you too must be a language learner. As such, you might consider the solution I hit upon to acquire the most language capability in the fastest manner possible.A language tutor will tailor his/her lessons to your needs and abilities, all while driving you to improve steadily. Also, s/he will give you a substantial boost in confidence - something that sometimes gets left out for all of the busy-ness in class.Why not contact a Superprof French tutor to help you, the way my tutor helps me?