Mastering French Sentence Structure: A Shortcut to Proficiency

Getting proficient in French is not all about memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules, but also about learning French sentence structure. Understanding how words fit together to form sentences correctly is essential for clear communication. You know this if you’ve ever found yourself wondering where to place a pronoun or an adjective, whether the position of an adverb is fixed or flexible, and how to form a question or a negative statement.

In this article we’ll help you find answers to these important questions. While allowing for some flexibility, French language sentence structure follows some general rules that we will introduce here, providing examples to make things clearer.

Mastering French sentence structure can really make the difference in how you come across when you speak French – it can get you much closer to sounding like a native!

Basic French sentence structure

Let’s begin by looking at basic sentence structure in French. Like English, French follows a SVO word order – where SVO stands for Subject, Verb, Object. This means that the subject comes first, then the main verb, and then the object or objects.

To briefly remind you of what these terms mean, the subject is the person or thing that performs the action in a sentence, the verb is the action itself, and the object is the person or thing that receives the action. Of these three key elements, only the subject and the verb are needed to make a sentence.

This basic structure provides a foundation for most sentences in French and can be used as a general pattern.

Don’t forget the subject!

When we talk about French sentence structure for beginners, an essential rule to remember is that in French, apart from rare exceptions, the subject has to be stated in order for a sentence to make sense. This is referred to in linguistics as a ‘non-pro-drop language’ – English is part of the same category.

In a ‘non-pro-drop language,’ pronouns are not typically dropped. This means that every sentence needs either a noun as the subject (like ‘Lola’ and ‘les enfants’ in the examples above) or a subject pronoun (like ‘je’ in the first example above). The subject cannot be implied, as it can be in pro-drop languages like Italian or Spanish.

Direct and indirect object pronouns

Let’s introduce the first exception to the typical SVO word order that we presented above. Normally the object of a sentence comes after the verb. But when direct and indirect object pronouns are used, they are placed between the subject and the main verb.

What are direct and indirect object pronouns? Direct object pronouns replace the direct object, or complément d'objet direct (COD) in French. So they replace nouns that directly receive the action of the verb. In English, direct object pronouns include ‘me,’ ‘you,’ ‘him,’ ‘her,’ ‘us’ and ‘them.’ In French, they are me, te, le, la, nous, vous, eux and elles.

Indirect object pronouns replace indirect objects, or complément d'objet direct (COI) in French. They replace nouns that receive the action of the verb (just like direct object pronouns), but they are also connected to a preposition, usually ‘to’ in English and à in French. Some French indirect object pronouns are the same as the direct object pronouns and some are different – they include me, te, lui, nous, vous and leur.

English speakers should pay extra attention here, because in English, unlike French, these pronouns are placed after the main verb. See the tables below to understand how the sentence structure changes in French when direct and indirect object pronouns are used, and how this is different from English sentence structure.

It gets even trickier! In French, it’s possible to have both a direct and an indirect pronoun in the same sentence. In that case, both pronouns are placed between the subject and the main verb – the direct object pronoun comes first, and the indirect object pronoun follows.

Negative sentence structure in French

Negative sentences follow the same basic SVO order as affirmative sentences, but involve the addition of the words ne (or n’ before vowels and mute ‘h’) and pas. These words have a fixed position within the sentence – they have to be placed before and after the main verb.

Examples:

Antoine parle anglais. → Antoine ne parle pas anglais.

Antoine speaks English. → Antoine doesn’t speak English.

Je comprends. → Je ne comprends pas.

I understand. → I don’t understand.

In compound tenses, meaning the verbs are made of two words rather than one, ne and pas are placed before and after the auxiliary verb (the first part of the verb).

Examples:

Jean a rencontré son ami. → Jean n’a pas rencontré son ami.

Jean met his friend. → Jean did not meet his friend.

J’ai vu ce film. → Je n’ai pas vu ce film.

I saw this film. → I did not see this film.

Question sentence structure in French

There are three main ways to form a question in French: by switching the position of the subject and verb, by using ‘est-ce que,’ and by changing your intonation.

Switching the position of the subject and verb

The most formal method relies precisely on a change in the SVO sentence structure, more specifically the inversion of the subject and the verb. The verb comes first and is followed by the subject, and a hyphen has to be placed in the middle.

Examples:

Parlez-vous anglais?

Do you speak English?

A-t-il déjà mangé?

Has he already eaten?

As you can see from the second example, a ‘t’ has to be added between the verb and the subject when the verb ends in a vowel and the subject begins with one.

Using ‘est-ce que’

Another common method to form questions involves adding the phrase ‘est-ce que’ at the beginning of a sentence to turn it into a question.

Examples:

Est-ce que vous parlez anglais?

Do you speak English?

Est-ce qu’il a déjà mangé?

Has he already eaten?

Intonation

Perhaps the simplest method to form a question, and the most informal one, relies simply on intonation, or the way your voice goes up or down. There is no difference in terms of words or word order, but pronouncing the sentence with a rising intonation towards the end will signal that you’re asking a question.

Examples:

Vous parlez anglais? ↗

Do you speak English?

Il a déjà mangé? ↗

Has he already eaten?

Advanced French sentence structure

Now that we’ve looked at different types of basic sentences and how they are built, what happens if we try to add more elements?

The basic SVO word order does not change, but these other items are inserted in different positions around the main elements of the sentence. The position of these other elements, such as adjectives and adverbs (called ‘modifiers’), is more flexible than that of the main elements of the sentence.

A useful rule of thumb for more complex sentences is that modifiers should be placed next to the word or phrase that they refer to. In this section we will look at the most relevant categories of modifiers – adjectives and adverbs – and their position patterns in the French sentence.

French sentence structure: Adjectives

Adjectives are words like ‘red,’ ‘beautiful,’ ‘intelligent,’ ‘big’ and so on. They refer to nouns and describe them, defining their qualities and properties. Unlike in English, French adjectives are usually placed after the noun they refer to – see the examples below.

Une voiture rouge

a red car

un film intéressant

an interesting film

des chaussures confortables

comfortable shoes.

However, there is a small group of common adjectives that are placed before the noun they describe. These are usually referred to as BANGS adjectives because of the type of qualities that they describe: Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness and Size. You’ll find a list of BANGS adjectives in the table below.

Note: In this table you only find the singular form of each adjective. Don’t forget that adjectives need to agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to! (If you need a refresher, check our guide to French adjectives.)

Here are some examples showing the position of BANGS adjectives in a sentence:

Un jeune homme

a young man

la première dame

the first lady

un petit chien

a small dog.

French sentence structure: Adverbs

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and groups of words, including entire sentences. In English, words ending in ‘-ly’ like ‘cleverly,’ ‘slowly’ and ‘quickly’ are adverbs, as well as words describing time and space, like ‘today,’ ‘yesterday,’ ‘here’ and ‘there.’

There are no hard and fast rules to follow when it comes to the position of adverbs in French sentences. Where to place an adverb in relation to other items in a sentence very much depends on the type of adverb and which part of the sentence it modifies.

Adverbs modifying adjectives

When an adverb modifies an adjective, it’s usually placed before that adjective. These are usually adverbs of quantity or intensity like très (very), trop (too), peu (little), tellement or si (so), and vraiment (really).

Examples:

Cette robe est trop chère pour moi.

This dress is too expensive for me.

C'est très gentil de ta part.

It’s very nice of you.

Adverbs modifying other adverbs

When an adverb modifies another adverb, it is placed before that adverb, just like for adjectives:

Il se comporte vraiment mal avec sa famille.

He behaves really badly with his family.

Le lapin courait si vite!

The rabbit was running so fast!

Adverbs modifying verbs

When an adverb modifies a simple verb (a verb made of only one word), it is placed after that verb:

Cet auteur écrit magnifiquement.

This author writes beautifully.

Elle travaillait dur.

She used to work hard.

When an adverb modifies a compound verb (a verb made of two words), there are no hard and fast rules. Some adverbs are placed between the auxiliary verb and the past participle:

J’ai bien mangé.

I have eaten well.

Ils sont déjà partis.

They have already left.

Some adverbs are placed after the past participle:

Je suis rentré tard.

I came home late.

Nous avons voyagé ensemble.

We traveled together.

And some adverbs can be placed before or after the past participle:

Je l’ai souvent appelé.

or Je l'ai appelé souvent.

I called him often.

Nous avons récemment déménagé.

or Nous avons déménagé récemment.

We moved recently.

Adverbs modifying entire sentences

Things get even more flexible when an adverb modifies an entire sentence. In this case the adverb is usually placed at the start or at the end of the sentence:

Je vais à la plage demain.

I’m going to the beach tomorrow.

Normalement je ne parle pas aux inconnus.

I don’t normally speak with strangers.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, understanding the rules of French sentence structure is key to achieving proficiency and communicating more effectively. When you have a sense of how words should fit together, it’s easier to avoid making sentences that might have the right words in them, but just don’t sound right.

Languages are messy and creative, and it might not be possible to pinpoint every single rule about how to form sentences. However, in this article we’ve presented you with a few golden rules that will help you navigate the process and better understand the French language sentence structure.

French sentence structure is just one of the many exciting parts that make up your language learning journey. Now that you’ve reached another milestone, where are you going next?