French complex + other useful structures

Adjectival agreements

• generally come after the noun

• the BAGS (beauty, age, good/bad, size) adjectives go AFTER the noun.

the superlative

used when comparing two or more things - to say what is the best or worst.

you use le/la/les depending on the gender of the noun in addition to either plus (most) or moins (least). where the superlative goes depends on where the adjective would usually go relative to a noun (so your BAGS adjectives go before, all others after). e.g:

• la plus grande maison → the biggest house

• le repas le moins délicieux → the least delicious meal

remember to make the adjective agree!

the comparative

used to compare things… wow

plus (adjective) que → more …. than

moins (adjective) que → less… tan

aussi (adjective) que → as …. as

the adjective needs to agree with the subject. e.g:

• il est plus arrogant qu’elle → he’s more arrogant than her. vs.

• elle est plus arrogante que lui → she is more arrogant than him

possessive adjectives

remember whether you use mas fem or plural is reliant on the gender of the NOUN, not the person in ownership of it.

emphatic pronouns

used after prepositions like avec, a or de.

• moi - me

• toi - you

• lui - him

• elle - her

• nous - us

• vous - you (plural)

• eux - them

• elles - them (fem)

depuis

means for or since. in french, there’s no continuous past - to say you have been doing something. so instead, we use the present tense here.

use depuis que to mean since. e.g:

je joue au foot depuis que j’ai 10 ans. → i’ve played football since i was 10.

‘en’

replaces the partitive article and acts like a direct object pronoun, going before the first conjugated verb. It can mean a lot of things - most commonly any, of it/them, some, about it/them, e.g.

• J’en ai garde une tranche pour toi - I saved a slice (of it) for you.

• Je veux en avoir beaucoup - I want to have a lot (of them).

• Je n’en ai pas eu - i didn’t have any.

Follow these guidelines:

1. Place the pronoun 'en' before the conjugated verb.

2. If the verb is followed by an infinitive, place 'en' before the infinitive verb.

3. If the verb is in the negative form, place 'en' between the ne and the verb.

you can also use en before a verb to say ‘by doing’ something. e.g:

• en apprenant les autres langues, on s’ouvre des portes. - by leanring other languages, you open doors.

countries, towns and places

for countries, use en if it’s feminine, au if its masculine and aux if its plural. le pays = the country

for cities, use à

for directions (nord/est/sud/ouest) use dans

for une ville/une village use dans

e.g: j’habite en Angleterre, dans le sud du pays (contraction of de le), à Londres. Mon ami habite dans une ville dans le nord.

direct object pronouns replace the noun that’s receiving an action. use me/te/le/la/nous/vous/les. e.g.

• Elle les aime. - she loves them.

• Je ne l’ai pas fait! - i didn’t do it!

• Ils veulent le manger. - they want to eat it.

if the verb is in the passe compose, the past participle needs to agree with the gender of the object. e.g.:

• il a cassé la poupée. Je ne l'ai pas cassée. - He broke the doll. I didn’t break it.

Follow these guidelines:

1. Place the pronoun before the conjugated verb.

2. If the verb is in the negative, put it between the ‘ne’ and the negated verb.

3. If the verb is followed by an infinitive (e.g modal, near future) put it between the conjugated and infinitive verb.

y - there

replaces à + a noun.

goes before the infinitive in the modal/near future. e.g:

• je veux y aller! → i want to go there!

goes before the auxillary in the perfect tense. e.g:

• nous y sommes allés → we went there

goes before the verb in the present/imperfect/simple future. e.g:

• il y aura → there will be

qui - who, which or that

bon vs bien and mauvais vs mal

bon and mauvais are adjectives, modifying a noun.

bien and mal are adverbs, modifying a verb.

e.g: si on travaille bien, on peut obtenir un bon métier. Mais si on travaille mal, on va obtenir un mauvais métier. → if we work well, we can get a good job. But if we work badly, we’re going to get a bad job.

venir de

this means that you have just done something. use the conjugation of venir + de + an infinitive

• je viens

• tu viens

• il/elle vient

• nous venons

• vous venez

• ils/elles viennent

questions

this can be done in a number of ways.

1. inversion → basically flip the verb and the subject. formal way to ask questions. e.g: veux-tu les bonbons?

2. rising intonation→ in speech, you can just say the end of the sentence higher to indicate its a question. e.g: tu veux les bonbons?

3. est-ce que→ kind of like how ‘do’ works in english, except you don’t need to change word order. less formal, common in speech. e.g: est-ce que tu veux les bonbons?

quel/quelle/quels/quelle (they all sound the same spoken) can be used to mean what or which in a question. it works like an adjective in that what one you choose has to agree with the noun. e.g:

• à quelle heure vas-tu te coucher? → at what time are you going to go to sleep?

• quel temps fait-il? → what’s the weather like?

partitive article - de

refers to a portion of something, or only some of it. often used with food and drink.

• du for masculine nouns

• de la for feminine nouns

• de l’ for nouns that start with a vowel or with h

• des for plural nouns

negatives

put ne and pas around the first verb to negate (if its reflexive, the pronoun needs to stick with it), but there’s some fancier negatives too.

• ne … rien → nothing

• ne … jamais → never

• ne … personne → nobody

• ne … plus → no longer

• ne … que → only (yes this isn’t negative but it uses a negative structure in french.)

• ne … aucun(e) → no/not any/not a single. agrees with the noun.

• ne … ni → neither … nor. you use just a noun alone after every ni, with no article.

use de where you are negating partitive or definite articles (so le/la/les etc.), regardless of the gender or quantity of the noun. exception of aucun, which doesn’t use any article whatsoever. e.g:

• il n’y a aucun chat → there wasn’t a single cat

• je ne mange pas de viande → i don’t eat meat

avant de

avant de + infintive means ‘before doing something’

e.g. avant de prendre le train, j’ai acheté mon billet. - before taking the train, I bought my ticket.

après - the perfect infinitive

means ‘after having done…’

to form: après + (reflexive pronoun) + avoir/etre + the past participle of the verb. e.g:

• après avoir joué au foot au parc, nous sommes retournés chez nous. → after having played football in the park, we returned to ours.

remember to agree the past participle if it’s an etre verb!

demonstrative adjectives

meaning this, that, those and these. two types:

1. used in conjunction with the noun

   	singular	plural
   masc	ce	ces
   fem	cette	ces

2. replacing the noun - remember to agree with the gender + amount of the noun you’re replacing

   	singular	plural
   masc	celui	ceux
   fem	celle	celles

for both, you can add là (that) or ci (this) to distinguish the difference between this one and that one. e.g: Nous avons deux vélos; ce-ci vélo est rouge, et celui-là est vert. We have two bikes. This bike is red, and that one is green.

ça vs ce/cette/celle/celles

think of ça to mean ‘this thing’ and ce/cette/celle/celles to mean ‘this (noun)’. e.g:

• j’aime ça = i like this thing

• j’aime ça chat = i like this thing cat, which doesn’t make sense. so you use ce here: j’aime ce chat.

‘si’ clauses

meaning if - how something would be if something else was the case.

1. si + imperfect + conditional. e.g: si j’avais le choix, je voyagerais en Italie. → if i had the choice, I’d travel to Italy.

2. si + present + future. e.g: si j’ai le temps, j’irai avec toi. → If I have the time, I’ll go with you.

3. si + pluperfect + past conditional. e.g: Si j’avais eu l’argent, je serais acheté un télevision. → If I had had the money, I would’ve bought a TV.

or, you can flip it and give what you’d do before the condition. e.g: nous ferions de la natation si nous avions le temps. → we would’ve gone swimming if we had the time.