Basic sentence formation in FRENCH

Compiled this for my personal use from various source on the net!!

1. Basic Sentence Structure

The typical word order in French is:

Subject → Verb → Object/Complement

Examples:

• Je mange une pomme. → "I am eating an apple."

  • Subject: Je (I)
  • Verb: mange (eat)
  • Object: une pomme (an apple)

• Il regarde la télévision. → "He is watching television."

  • Subject: Il (He)
  • Verb: regarde (watches)
  • Object: la télévision (television)

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2. Adding Adjectives

Adjectives usually follow the noun in French, except for certain adjectives that come before the noun (like beau(beautiful), grand(big), petit(little), jeune(young), vieux(old), bon(good), mauvais(bad)).

Examples:

• Un livre intéressant → "An interesting book." (Adjective follows noun)
• Un grand homme → "A great man." (Adjective precedes noun)

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3. Questions with "Quel"

When forming questions with quel (which/what), the order depends on the type of question.

Structure 1: Quel + Noun + Verb + Subject

• Quel livre lis-tu ? → "Which book are you reading?"
  • Quel = Which
  • Livre = Book
  • Lis-tu = Are you reading

Structure 2: Quel + Noun + Verb

• Quel film préfères-tu ? → "Which film do you prefer?"
• Quels parcs tu visitie →. "Which parks did you visit?"
• tu visitie quel parcs

4. Questions with Inversion

For formal questions, the structure is often:

Question Word + Verb + Subject Pronoun

Examples:

• Où habites-tu ? → "Where do you live?"

  • Où = Where
  • Habites-tu = Do you live

• Comment vas-tu ? → "How are you?"

  • Comment = How
  • Vas-tu = Are you going

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5. Negative Sentences

To make a sentence negative, place ne...pas (or another negative pair) around the verb.

Examples:

• Je ne parle pas anglais. → "I do not speak English."

  • ne...pas surrounds the verb parle.

• Il n’aime pas les légumes. → "He doesn’t like vegetables."

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6. Word Order in Compound Sentences

For compound tenses (e.g., passé composé), the auxiliary verb comes before the past participle.

Examples:

• J’ai mangé une pomme. → "I ate an apple."
  • Subject: Je
  • Auxiliary verb: ai
  • Past participle: mangé

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7. Emphasizing Sentences

You can emphasize certain parts of a sentence by reordering or using additional phrases like c’est...qui or c’est...que.

Examples:

• C’est toi qui as fait ça. → "It’s you who did that."
• C’est le livre que j’ai acheté. → "It’s the book that I bought."

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Quick Reference for French Sentence Sequences

Type	Structure	Example
Basic Sentence	Subject + Verb + Object	Je vois un chien. → "I see a dog."
With Adjective	Subject + Verb + Noun + Adjective	Une maison bleue. → "A blue house."
Question with Quel	Quel + Noun + Verb + Subject	Quel film aimes-tu ? → "Which film?"
Inversion Question	Question Word + Verb + Subject Pronoun	Où vas-tu ? → "Where are you going?"
Negative Sentence	Subject + Ne + Verb + Pas + Object	Je ne parle pas. → "I don’t speak."