Created by Jacques Léon
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Lesson 5 - Sentences Structures

Now, it's time to build sentences. Stand alone words are rarely useful. To express an idea, whether complex or not, you need to combine words in order to build up sentences. French language distinguishes three basic sentence structures : normal sentence structure, negative sentence structure and interrogative sentence structure.

A typical French sentence is composed of the following elements :

• The people who or the thing which does the action : it is referred to as the subject of the sentence.
• the action : this is the verb.
• the people who or the object which is affected by the action : this element is usually called the accusative or complément d'objet direct in French grammar. We're going to adopt the term accusative (abbreviation : ACC).
• the circumtances under which the action takes place (the time, the location, etc.) : this element is known as the complément circonstanciel in French. We're going to call it circumstances (abbreviation : CIR)

These elements play the role of elementary bricks that compose a sentence. French, as English, is a positional language, i.e. the function played by words in the sentence depends on their position in the sentence. So, each kind of sentence is built according to a specific structure or framework.

These structures are very useful because they indicate the postition of the various elements (various bricks) in a given kind of sentence (normal, negative or interrogative). In the context of spoken language they work pretty well. Written language is often more sophisticated than spoken language and leads to more complicated sentences. Before reviewing the various sentences structures in the present tense, let's introduce some prepositions

1. Some Prepositions

• dans (in)
• à (to, at)
• de (from)
• sur (on)

Examples :

Je vis dans une grande ville (I live in a big city).

Les enfants vont à l'école (The children are going to school).

Il vient de France (He comes from France).

Nous marchons sur la route (We are walking on the road).

2. Normal Sentences

The basic framework of a nomral sentence is :

SUBJECT + VERB + ACC + CIR

This structure is comparable to the English one. Examples :

subject	verb	ACC	CIR	meaning
Tu	chantes	une chanson	dans la rue	You sing a song in the street
Il	conduit	la voiture	tous les jours	He drives the car every day
Le boulanger	vend	le pain	dans la boulangerie	The baker sells bread in the bakery

3. Negative Sentences

The basic framework of a negative sentence is :

SUBJECT + ne + VERB + pas + ACC + CIR The words ne ... pas play a role similar to do not in English. While do not is located before the verb, in French the verb is put inbetween ne and pas. Excepting this difference, the structure of a French negative sentence is similar to its English counterpart.

Examples :

• Tu ne chantes pas une chanson dans la rue.
• Il ne conduit pas la voiture tous les jours.
• Le boulanger ne vend pas de pain dans la boulangerie.

subject	verb	ACC	CIR	meaning
Tu	ne chantes pas	une chanson	dans la rue	You do not sing a song in the street
Il	ne conduit pas	la voiture	tous les jours	He does not drive the car every day
Le boulanger	ne vend pas	le pain	dans la boulangerie	The baker does not sell bread in the bakery

4. Interrogative Sentences

The primary goal of interrogative sentences is to ask questions !! That's what we call in French a "la palissade" or "un truisme" (something obvious). When asking a question, you may want to know who (qui in French) or what (que in French) is performing the action, when (quand in French) the action is performed, how (comment in French) or where (où in French) it is performed, etc. Most of questions need an interrogative conjunction which indicate what we want to know. The basic interrogative conjunctions are :

• qui (who)
• que (what)
• pourquoi (why)
• comment (how)
• quand (when)
• où (where)
• combien (how many, how much)

Compared to the normal and negative structures, the interrogative sentences are a little bit more complicated. Basically, French language provides two interrogative structures : a spoken laguage oriented structure and a written language oriented one. As the spoken language is always simpler than the written one, the first structure is easier to understand. So, let's start with it.

The basic structure is :

Interrogative conjunction + est-ce que + SUBJECT + VERB + ACC + CIR + ?

Once again, the group of words est-ce que plays a role similar to do in the English interrogative sentences. As we see, the structure of a French interrogative sentence is similar to its English couterpart. Note that the interrogative conjunction is optional depending on what you want to know.

Examples :

Question : Est-ce que tu chantes une chanson dans la rue ? (Do you sing a song in the street ?

Answer : oui (yes) or non (no)

Question : Qu'est-ce que tu chantes dans la rue ? (What do you sing in the street ?)

Answer : Je chante une chanson. (I sing a song)

Question : Est-ce qu'il conduit la voiture tous les jours ? (Does he drive the car every day ?)

Answer : Oui, il condui la voiture tous les jours. (Yes, he drives the car every day)

Question : Quand est-ce qu'il conduit la voiture ? (When does he drive the car ?)

Answer : Il conduit la voiture tous les jours. (He drives the car every day)

Question : Est-ce que le boulanger vend le pain dans la boulangerie ? (Does the baker sell the bread in the bakery ?)

Answer : oui (yes) or non (no)

Question : Qui est-ce qui vend le pain dans la boulangerie ? (Who sells the bread in the bakery ?)

Answer : Le boulanger. (The baker).

Question : Combien as-tu de frères ? (How many brothers do you have ?)

Answer : J'ai deux frères (I have two brothers) or simply : Deux (two).

Notes :

1. when que is followed by a word starting with a vowel, que is contracted in qu' . This rule is illustrated in the examples Qu'est-ce qu'il and Est-ce qu'il and is general. We have already mentioned the same kind of contraction with the pronoun je (I) : je mange (I eat) and j'achète (I buy).
2. when used with the conjunction qui (who) , est-ce que is replaced by est-ce qui resulting in Qui est-ce qui . This alteration is not a caprice of the French language but is conversely governed by strict grammatical rules. The que and the qui we are talking about here belong to the pronouns category, as we are going to see later in this course.
3. Est-ce que does not depend on the gender nor the number of the subject while the English do must respect the conjugation pattern of to do. For the fisrt time, French is simpler than English !
4. in French, when you answer a question by only oui (yes) or non (no) you are not required to repeat the subject and the verb as in English (yes I do, no we don't, yes she does, etc.). However, it is not grammatically incorrect to repeat the subject. You may want to do that in order to emphasize your answer. If you do so, you have to repeat all the words of the question Examples : Oui, je chante une chanson (Yes, I do sing a song). Non, il ne conduit pas la voiture tous les jours (No, he does not drive the car every day)

Now, we can introduce the second interrogative structure. Basically, this strcuture consists of switching the position of the subject and the verb like this :

Interrogative conjunction + VERB + - + SUBJECT + ACC + CIR + ?

Again, the interrogative conjunction is not mandatory. Examples :

Questions	Answers
Chantes-tu une chanson dans la rue ?	oui or non
Où chantes-tu une chanson ?	Dans la rue
Que chantes-tu dans la rue ?	Une chanson
Conduit-il la voiture tous les jours ?	oui or non
Que conduit-il tous les jours ?	La voiture
Quand conduit-il la voiture ?	Tous les jours

It is very easy. However, the pattern only applies when the subject is a pronoun (je, tu, il/elle, nous, vous, ils/elles). Otherwise, it is not so straight forward. When the subject is not a pronoun, the interrogative structucture is :

Interrogative conjunction + SUBJECT + VERB+ - + PRONOUN + ACC + CIR + ?

The pronoun which is added must be in accordance to the number and the number of the subject.

Examples :

Normal sentence : Le Boulanger vend le pain dans la boulangerie.
Interrogative sentences
1. Le boulanger vend-il le pain la boulangerie ?
2. Où le boulanger vend-il le pain ?
3. Que le boulanger vend-il ?

Explanations : "Le boulanger" is masculine singular The corresponding pronoun is "il"

Normal sentence : La boulangère vend le pain dans la boulangerie.
Interrogative sentences :
1. La boulangère vend-elle le pain dans la boulangerie ?
2. Où la boulangère vend-elle le pain ?
3. Que la boulangère vend-elle ?

Explanations : "La boulangère" is feminine and singular. The corresponding pronoun is "elle"

Normal sentence : Les boulangères vendent le pain dans la boulangerie.
Interrogative sentences :
1. Les boulangères vendent-elles le pain dans la boulangerie ?
2. Où les boulangères vendent-ellesle pain ?
3. Que les boulangères vendent-elles ?

Explanaitons : "Les boulangères" is feminine and plural. The corresponding pronoun is "elles"

Normal sentence : Le boulanger et la boulangère vendent le pain dans la boulangerie.
Interrogative sentences :
1. Le boulanger et la boulangère vendent-ils le pain dans la boulangerie ?
2. Où le boulanger et la boulangère vendent-ils le pain ?
3. Que le boulanger et la boulangère vendent-ils ?

Explanations : "Le boulanger et la boulangère" is a subject which comprises two people, therefore it is plural. As far as the gender is concerned, you have to remember the macho rule " the masculine wins over the feminine ". Consequently the gender of this subject is masculine. The corresponding pronoun is then "ils"

This fifth lesson ends the grammatical core of the course. In the next lessons, we're going to focus on the vocabulary and the language by itself i.e. usual expressions, familiar expressions and idiomatic expressions. Other major verb tenses (past, future and conditonal) will be introduce at a steady pace. So don't miss the next lessons.

5. Exercises

Build up the neagtive and interrogative sentences for the following normal sentences as shown in the example below :

• normal sentence : Pierre chante une chanson dans la rue (Pierre is singing a song in the street)
• negative sentence : Pierre ne chante pas une chason dans la rue (Pierre is not singing a song in the street)
• interrogative sentence #1 : Où Pierre chante t-il une chanson ? Answer : dans la rue
• interrogative sentence #2 : Que chante Pierre dans la rue ? Answer : une chanson
• interrogative sentence #3 : Qui chante une chanson dans la rue ? Answer : Pierre

List of normal sentences :

1. Nous conduisons une voiture dans la ville (We're driving a car in the city)
2. Monsieur et Madame Dupont habitent une maison à Toulouse (Mr. and Mrs Dupont live in a house in Toulouse)
3. Elle achète un gâteau dans la pâtisserie (She buys a cake in the bakery)
4. Les enfants jouent au football dans le jardin (The children play soccer in the garden)

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