French grammar and
grammatical analysis
Lecture 3
Words and sentence structure
Today’s lecture
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(1) Words: recap on:
meaning
parts of speech
function
form
(2) Structure of the sentence: the noun
phrase
What’s in a word?
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When you learn French, you must look at each
word in four ways:
Meaning
Part of speech
Function
Form
(1) Meaning
An English word may be connected to a French
word that has a similar meaning:
boy, a young male child, has the same meaning as
the French word garçon
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idiomatic expressions
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expressions in which the meaning of a group
of words is different from the meaning of the
words taken individually.
e.g. to fall asleep
to take a walk
(2) Parts of speech
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In English and French words are grouped
according to how they are used in a sentence.
There are eight groups corresponding to eight
parts of speech:
nouns
articles
verbs
adverbs
pronouns
prepositions
adjectives
conjunctions
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In order to choose the correct French equivalent
of and English word, you will have to identify its
part of speech.
e.g. ‘plays’
John plays squash
verb =
John likes plays
noun =
(3) Function
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In English and French the role a word plays in a
sentence is called its function.
Nouns can have the following functions:
subject
direct object
indirect object
object of a preposition
Identify the function of ‘him’
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John sees him
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John gives him the book
(4) Form
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In English and French, a word can influence the
form of another word, that is, its spelling and
pronunciation.
This matching is called ‘agreement’ and it is said
that one word ‘agrees’ with another.
Sentence structure
Syntactic rules
Syntactic categories
Syntactic rules
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determine the order of words in a
sentence
Syntactic categories
(1) the Noun Phrase
NP’s always contain some form of a
noun.
 e.g. Noun phrase (NP) - may function as
‘subject’ or ‘object’ in a sentence, and
only NP's may do so.
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Nouns
 What
is a noun?
 person,
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animal, place, thing, event, idea
common noun/proper noun/pronoun
Terms used to talk about
nouns:
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gender
number
count or non-count
function (subject, object)
What is gender?
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In English, nouns themselves do not have a
gender, but sometimes their meaning indicates a
gender based on the biological sex of the person
or animal the noun stands for.
In French, all nouns have a grammatical
gender; they are either masculine or feminine
What is number?
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When a word refers to one person or thing it is
singular
When a word refers to more than one it is plural
Collective nouns refer to a group of persons or
things but they are considered to be singular, e.g.
a JF language class has 10-12 people in it.
Count vs Non-count nouns
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Count nouns: nouns which designate objects
which can be counted.
(2) Non-count nouns: nouns which designate an
object which cannot be counted.
French Articles:
Les articles français
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As a general rule, if you have a noun in French,
there is virtually always an article in front of it,
unless you use a possessive (mon, ton, etc.),
demonstrative (ce, cette, etc.), or some other
determiner.
French Articles:
Les articles français
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There are three kinds of articles in French:
definite articles
indefinite articles
partitive articles
French articles
Masc
Fem
Before
vowel
Plural
Definite
Indefinite
Partitive
le
un
du
French articles
Definite
Indefinite
Partitive
Masc
le
un
du
Fem
la
une
de la
Before
vowel
Plural
l’
un’/une
de l’
les
des
des
French Definite Articles
Les articles définis
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The French definite article corresponds to the
in English.
There are four forms of the French definite
article:
French Definite Articles
Les articles définis
Singular
Plural
masc
fem
before vowel
le
la
l’
les
le garçon
le père
la fille
la mère
l’ami
l’homme
les filles
Indefinite articles: singular forms
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The singular indefinite articles in French
correspond to a, an, or one in English.
un and une: the singular has a different form for
masculine and feminine.
Indefinite articles: plural form
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The plural indefinite article corresponds to
some in English.
des: the plural indefinite article is the same for
masculine and feminine nouns.
French indefinite articles
Singular
Plural
Masc
Fem
un
une
des
un garçon
une fille
des garçons
un ami
une amie
des filles
Meaning and usage of the French
indefinite article: singular form
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The indefinite article usually refers to an
unspecified person or thing.
I found a book.
He wants an apple.
Plural Indefinite article
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The plural indefinite article means some:
I bought some apples.
Do you want some books?
Indefinite article
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When referring to a person's profession or
religion, the indefinite is not used in French,
although it is used in English:
Je suis professeur - I am a teacher.
Il va être médecin - He's going to be a doctor.
Indefinite article
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In a negative construction, the indefinite
article changes to de, meaning any:
I have an apple ==> I don't have any apples.