Grammar terms, with French examples

An abstract noun refers to a concept like “time,” “life,” or “patience.” These are different from concrete nouns, which refer to things you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, like “cat,” “flower,” or “table.”

An action noun is a word for an event or action.

• The examination of the letter revealed nothing.

• John enjoys swimming.

• The employee's dismissal was a shock.

An action verb is a word for something someone does at some particular time (walk, sing, hit, read, say, forget), rather than a word describing how someone generally is or generally feels.

Active verbs describe an action that is performed by the subject of the verb. Active verbs are the opposite of passive verbs, whose subject undergoes the action instead.

• Lacey broke the car. → Active verb: the subject (Lacey) does the action

• The car was broken by Lacey. → Passive verb: the subject (the car) undergoes the action

Some active verbs describe a situation or link the subject to a description, rather than describing an action. For example:

• Lacey is a good driver. → Active verb: the subject (Lacey) has a trait

Adjectives are words that describe nouns (things, people, ideas, places, etc.). Most adjectives provide standard descriptive information (e.g. "tall," "sleepy," "sweet," "serious,"...) but some adjectives may provide information about ownership (e.g. "my") or quantity (e.g. "some") as well.

• le chat gris

  Translation: the gray cat
• la maison chère

  Translation: the expensive house
• les pommes rondes

  Translation: the round apples
• les filles amusantes

  Translation: the funny girls

An adjective phrase is a group of words that describes a noun (like an adjective does).

Adverbs are words that modify (add information about) verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs can describe how, how much, when, or how often, something happened, but they can also give other kinds of information, like the degree to which a description fits. In English, many adverbs have the suffix “-ly.”

• He runs quickly.

• He ran yesterday.

• She is very clever.

• I spoke really quietly.

Adverbs of degree are words that are used to describe how completely or how well a description fits a situation. Some English examples: "too green," "fast enough," "almost there," "very happy," or "a little slow."

An adverb of direction is a word used to describe the direction of movement, like "forward," "left," "up," or "around." Note that unlike prepositions or direction (e.g. "to" or "from") these words are not followed by nouns.

An adverb of frequency is a word like "usually," "sometimes," or "never," that describes how often something happens.

Adverbs of manner describe how an action or situation takes place.

• He speaks loudly. → Answers the question “How does he speak?”

• I sat alone. → Answers the question “How did you sit?”

Adverbs of place describe where an action occurs.

• We were working indoors.

An adverb of time is a word that describes when something happened or when a situation was true (e.g. yesterday, soon, later, tomorrow, recently,...)

An adverbial phrase or adverbial is a group of words that, together, acts as an adverb. An adverbial phrase therefore modifies a verb, an adjective, an adverb, or a clause.

• I baked a cake with my friend.

• She cleans the kitchen every evening.

• He will be happy when he hears this news!

Adverbial pronouns in French are the words, y and en, which replace both a noun and a preposition.

• Je vais au cinéma → J’y vais.

  Translation: I’m going to the cinema → I’m going there.
• Je veux du café → J’en veux.

  Translation: I want (some) coffee → I want some.

An adversative conjunction is a word like "but" that is used to link two ideas that are in opposition to each other.

In grammar, an affirmative (or positive) word, phrase, or sentence is the opposite of a negative one. For example:

• Negatives: "I didn't eat your sandwich," "nobody," "never"

• Affirmatives: "I ate your sandwich," "somebody," "always"

An affix is a letter or group of letters that is added to the beginning of a word (called a “prefix”), the end of a word (a “suffix”), or even in the middle of a word (an “infix”). Affixes generally alter the grammatical function or the meaning of the word they are added to.

• intolerable, unlikable, walked, brightest

An agent is the person or thing that performs or completes the action of a sentence.

• Le jardinier arrose les fleurs.

  Translation: The gardener waters the flowers.
• Les fleurs sont arrosées par le jardinier.

  Translation: The flowers are watered by the gardener.

An agent noun is a noun for a person or tool that usually performs an action. In English they usually end in -er (e.g. "driver," "wiper," "jailer,"...)

Agreement occurs when a word or phrase takes on a special form that reflects features of another word in the sentence. This shows that the two are grammatically connected.

In French, many words agree with the noun they describe or modify in gender (masculine, feminine), number (singular, plural), or more. And in the examples below, we can see that the verb agrees with the subject:

• Il est parti.

  Translation: He left.

  The subject is masculine, singular
• Elles sont parties.

  Translation: They left.

  The subject is feminine, plural

A noun's animacy depends on whether or not it is alive. Animate nouns usually represent living, conscious beings (e.g. people, animals,...), while inanimate nouns represent non-living or unconscious things (e.g. objects, ideas, plants,...)

An antecedent is the word in a sentence which establishes the meaning for the pronoun which replaces it.

• Maria cooks the eggs. She cooks very well. → “Maria” is the antecedent of “she”

Antonyms are pairs of words that have opposite meanings. For example: “true/false,” “up/down,” “loud/quiet,” “possible/impossible” etc.

Articles are words that precede nouns and carry some information about specificity. There are definite articles, like “the,” and indefinite articles, like “a/an.”

In French, the definite articles are le, la, and les, and the indefinite articles are, un, une, and des.

• Le tableau est dans une collection privée.

  Translation: The painting is in a private collection.

The aspect of a verb shows how an action extends over time, such as whether it is completed, ongoing, or habitual.

In English, we mostly talk about the continuous (progressive) aspect, for ongoing events, or the perfect aspect, for completed events.

• I have eaten. → perfect aspect

• I am eating. → continuous aspect

Auxiliary verbs or “helping verbs” are used alongside other main verbs to form specific tenses or grammatical constructions.

In French, auxiliary verbs are used to form compound tenses, like the passé composé, plus-que-parfait, future perfect, and others. The French auxiliary verbs are avoir (meaning to have) and être (meaning to be).

• J’ai fait une promenade.

  Translation: I went for a walk.

Cardinal numbers (or cardinal numerals) are the numbers that are used for math, counting, etc. In English, some examples of cardinal numbers include 1 (one), 2 (two), 3 (three), 54 (fifty-four), and 367 (three hundred and seventy-six). Cardinal numbers are contrasted with ordinal numbers, which indicate the “order” or position of something in a sequence (first, second, third, etc).

We use a causative verb to show that something happened because of another action. For example:

• Sam made Lucy cry.

• The teacher had her students clean up the classroom.

• Mary's actions caused the shower to break.

A cédille in French is the diacritic mark under the “c,” which looks like this: ç. The cédille softens the "c," making it sound like an /s/.

A clause is a group of words that contains everything you need to make a sentence (e.g. “Josh likes cats”). This means that it contains a subject (“Josh”) and a predicate (“likes cats”). The predicate tells you about the subject (what happens to it, what it does, what it is like, etc.). Though sometimes a sentence has only one clause, other times it may have more than one clause in a sentence.

• I am happy. ← sentence with one clause

• I am happy that I am studying grammar. ← sentence with two clauses

A closed question (also called a polar question or a yes-no question) is a question that only implies a yes/no answer, like "Are you coming?" or "Is he a doctor?"

A collective noun is a noun that refers to a group.

• John went to visit his family.

• Mary went on a trip with her whole class.

Collocations are combinations of words that are frequently used together. These words form a phrase that can acquire a less-than-predictable meaning. For example: “a booming economy,” “making the bed,” or “getting hitched” (to mean getting married).

Common nouns are words for things, people, animals, ideas, and places, like “table,” “neighbor,” “dog,” or “city.” Common nouns are the opposite of proper nouns, which are the names for people, places, etc. In English, common nouns are those nouns that are not automatically capitalized.

Comparative adjectives are special forms of adjectives used to show which of two nouns (things, people, places, etc.) has a larger amount of the quality they express.

• This boy is taller than that one.

• This book is more interesting than that one.

• These papers are less important than those.

Comparative adverbs are special forms of adverbs used to show which of two actions displays a larger amount of the quality they express.

• He ran more quickly than the others.

• They woke up earlier than usual.

• I worked less than yesterday.

The complement of a word completes or clarifies its meaning. Often the complement will serve a similar function to the object of a verb, but the word a complement completes does not need to be a verb. For example:

• I am afraid of dogs. ← complement of an adjective

• I am the captain of the ship. ← complement of a noun

• I want two of the egg rolls. ← complement of a number

• I said I was too tired. ← complement of a verb (technically a “complement clause”)

A complement clause is a clause (a phrase with a subject and a verb) that completes the meaning of another word. For example:

• He said that he was tired.

• She wondered where her dog had gone.

• They were glad that the weather was so nice.

The complement of an adjective (or adjective complement) completes the meaning of an adjective, as in:

• She is afraid of heights.

• I am afraid that I might lose.

A compound noun is a noun (a word for a place, person, thing, animal, idea, action, etc.) that is made of two or more words, such as “butterfly,” “haircut,” or “passerby.”

A compound tense is formed using at least two verbs. For example, the sentence "I am running" uses a compound tense, because there are two different verbs: "am" and "running."

The compound tenses in French include the passé composé, the plus-que parfait, the future perfect, the conditional perfect, and the past infinitive, among a few others that are far less common.

Concrete nouns refer to someone or something you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch: “cat,” “flower,” “table.” They are different from abstract nouns, which refer to concepts like “time,” “life,” or “patience.”

A conditional clause (or "if" clause) is the part of an if-then sentence that comes after "if" or an equivalent word. It sets the condition when something else happens.

• You can go to Bill's house if you clean your room first.

• When Paula reads, she writes in the margins.

A conditional conjunction, like "if" introduces a condition under which something else happens.

• If it rains tomorrow, I'll bring an umbrella.

The conditional mood is used to express hypothetical ideas or describe a situation in which something else will happen.

Conditional sentences are “if-then” sentences, like: “If the weather is good, (then) I’ll go to the lake this weekend.”

They contain two parts: a conditional clause (often called a siclause in French), which describes a situation or event that could take place, and a result clause which describes the expected consequence of that situation or event.

• S’il fait beau... (meaning If the weather is good...)← conditional clause / si clause

• ...j’irai au lac ce week-end. (meaning ...I'll go to the lake this weekend.)← result clause

When we conjugate a verb, we put it into different forms in order to reflect different grammatical features of a sentence. For example, the conjugated form of a verb can tell you when the action happened, how long it happened for, or who performed the action.

The conjugated verb in a clause is the verb that is marked for tense and agrees with the subject.

• The sandwich is being eaten.

• I like to swim.

A verb’s conjugation is the pattern that it follows when we put it into different forms.

In French, there are three conjugation groups: first group verbs (ending in -er), second group verbs (ending in -ir), and third group verbs (ending in -ir, -re, and the irregular -er verb aller (meaning to go).

Conjunctions are words or phrases that are used to link words, phrases, or clauses (sentences within sentences) together.

• I ate cheese and crackers

• He likes dogs that are either very small or very large

• Marco ate cheese but Lucy ate crackers

• Lucy likes small dogs because she likes to carry them

A conjunction of concession is a word or phrase like "even though" that introduces something that could have been an obstacle to the main action, but was not.

A conjunction of purpose is a word or phrase that introduces the goal of the main action in a sentence. For example: "I studied so that I would pass the exam."

A conjunction of time is a word or phrase that introduces a clause that describes when something happened.

• We ate dinner before we started the movie.

• When I got there, it was raining.

Consonants are speech sounds that are not vowels (a, e, i, o, u,...). Some examples of consonants: “t,” “m,” “b,” “r,” “h”…

Continuous tenses are used to express a continued action that is, was, or will be in progress at some point in time. In English, the continuous tenses look like this: "is running," "was running," "has been running,"...

In French, the continuous is formed using the phrase, être en train de (meaning to be in the middle of) + infinitive:

• Elle est en train de lire un livre en ce moment.

  Translation: She is reading a book at the moment.

Contractions are formed when two words combine into one. In English, contractions usually contain an apostrophe (‘), as in “they’re” (= “they are”) or “we’ve” (= “we have”).

Coordinating conjunctions are words and phrases that connect two words, phrases, or clauses that do the same "job" in a sentence. For example:

• Marie and Alex baked the cake. ← Links two subject nouns

• I will either bake the cake or bring a salad. ← Links two verb phrases

• I enjoyed John's cake, but it would have been better with icing. ← Links two independedent clauses

A count noun is a noun that can be counted with numbers, as compared to a “mass noun” which cannot. For example, “banana” and “word” are count nouns, but “milk” and “peace” are not.

• Randall bought 5 bananas and some milk.

• Pauline spoke a few words about peace at the beginning of the event.

A noun’s declension is the pattern that you follow when you put it into different forms.

When you decline a noun, pronoun, or adjective, you are putting it into a specific form which will usually depend on the role it (or the noun it describes) plays in a sentence.

A defining relative clause (sometimes called a "restrictive relative clause") describes a noun and is not separated out using commas. These are used to pick out a sub-group. For example, in “The athletes who were tired got on the bus,” the relative clause selects a sub-group of the athletes: those who were tired. Some athletes might not be on the bus.

A definite noun refers to something that is specific and familiar. For example, "I saw the mailman," refers to a specific mailman who is familiar to the listener.

In English, the most common way to show that a noun is definite is to add the definite article "the," but other words can also do this (e.g. "my," "this,"...)

Definite articles are used to make a noun specific. In English, “the” is the only definite article.

In French, the definite articles are le, la, and les.

• le livre, la rivière, les chats

  Translation: the book, the river, the cats

A demonstrative is a word that we use to point to a particular noun. Some examples: "this," "that," "these," "those," "here," "there," "now," "then."

Demonstrative adjectives are words like “that,” “this,” “these,” or “those” that point out specific nouns. Demonstrative adjectives are always used with a noun, as in “that hat.”

A demonstrative adverb is a word like "here," "there," "now," or "then" that points to the specific location, direction, or time of an action.

Demonstrative pronouns are words like “that,” “this,” “these,” or “those” that point to something specific. Demonstrative pronouns are always used instead of a noun, as in “I saw that” or “Have a look at these!”

Determiners give information about a noun's specificity and often also, proximity, possession, or quantity.

In French, they usually include:

• definite articles: le / la / les (meaning the)

• indefinite articles: un / une (meaning a, an, one), des (meaning some)

• partitive article: du / de la / des (meaning some, any)

• numbers: un (meaning one), deux (meaning two),...

• possessive adjectives: mon (meaning my), sa (meaning his, her, its),...

• demonstrative adjectives: ce / cette (meaning this, that), ces (meaning these, those),...

• quantifiers: quelques (meaning some),...

A dialect is a variety of a language. In most cases, two dialects of a language will have slightly different grammar rules, pronunciation rules, and vocabulary, but will still be "mutually comprehensible" (that is, someone speaking one dialect will understand someone speaking the other). However, this is not always the case.

Importantly, while some dialects may be considered more prestigious than others, all dialects are equally logical, expressive, and legitimate.

The diminutive form of a word is used to represent a small, cute, or insignificant version of the original word (e.g. doll vs. dolly).

A diphthong is composed of two adjacent vowels within the same syllable.

We use direct speech to represent the literal words someone said, while indirect speech (or reported speech) is used to tell someone about what someone said.

• He said, “do your homework!” ← direct speech

• He told me to do my homework. ← indirect/reported speech

The direct object of a sentence undergoes an action. In English, the direct object usually follows the verb.

• He ate an apple.

• My mother gave me a book.

Direct object pronouns are words that replace the noun that undergoes the action of the verb.

In French, the direct object pronouns are me (meaning me), te (meaning you), le (meaning him, it), la (meaning her, it), nous (meaning us), vous (meaning you), les (meaning them)

• Je mange une pomme. → Je la mange.

  Translation: I am eating an apple. → I am eating it.

The etymology of a word is its history or the story of where it came from.

An exclamation (a.k.a. exclamative or exclamatory sentence) is something you say to express your emotions about an event. In English, they almost always end in an exclamation point. For example:

• What a lovely cat!

• How terrible!

• Happy birthday!

A false cognate is a pair of words in two different languages that are similar in spelling or in sound, but which have different meanings.

• actuellement (meaning currently) ≠ actually

• chance (meaning luck) ≠ chance

The first person is a grammatical category used to refer to the speaker (e.g. “I”) or the speaker and some others in the same group (e.g. “we”).

• je (meaning I) / me (meaning me) / nous (meaning we) → first person pronouns

• je finis (meaning I finish) → is a first person singular form of the verb finir (meaning to finish)

• nous finissons (meaning we finish) → is a first person plural form of the verb finir (meaning to finish)

Gender (a.k.a. grammatical gender) represents categories in which nouns are split like masculine, feminine, or neuter. In English, the gender of a noun really only impacts which pronoun you use to replace it. For example:

• Our waitress brought us snacks, so we thanked her.

• Our waiter brought us snacks, so we thanked him.

But in French, all nouns are either masculine or feminine, and the gender of the noun will often affect the forms of other words that modify, replace, or are associated with it:

• le garçon

  Translation: the (m.) boy
• la fille

  Translation: the (f.) girl

The genitive case is the form classically given to a noun or pronoun that "has" or "possesses" something else.

In English, the genitive case is usually formed by “-'s” or with the word "of":

• John's house.

• The door of the car.

In French, a gerund has the formaten + present participle (ending in-ant) and is used to modify a verb.

• On a regardé le chien en marchant dans le parc.

  Translation: We watched the dog while walking in the park.

Homonyms are two or more words that have the same spelling (called “homographs”) or the same pronunciation (called “homophones”) or both. For example: “bank” (financial institution) vs. “bank” (the side of the river).

Idioms or set phrases are phrases that have a well-known non-literal meaning. For example, when you “burn bridges” in English, you are doing irreparable damage to a relationship, not literally setting bridges on fire. A phrase that has a non-literal meaning is sometimes said to have an “idiomatic meaning.”

The imperative is a verb form that’s used to give an order. A positive imperative tells someone to do something (“Wash the dishes!”) and a negative imperative tells someone not to do something (“Don’t come any closer!”)

An impersonal pronoun is a word that stands for a non-specific noun. In English "one" or "you."

An impersonal sentence or impersonal expression has a meaningless and sometimes missing subject.

• Il faut un billet. (meaning A ticket is necessary.) → Literally: "It is necessary a ticket."

An indefinite noun refers to something that is either generic (= nonspecific) or unfamiliar. For example:

• I want some cheese. → generic cheese, nothing specific

• She bought a house. → it is a specific, but unfamiliar house

Indefinite adjectives are words or phrases that are used before generic or unfamiliar nouns and generally provide a little information about quantity, like "some," "many," or "a few."

Indefinite articles are used with generic or nonspecific nouns. In English, “a/an” is the indefinite article (a book / an egg)

In French, the indefinite articles are : un, une, and des.

• un livre, une fleuve, des idées

  Translation: a book, a river, ideas

Indefinite pronouns are words or phrases that replace a noun and give general information about its quantity. For example:

• There were 20 children in the room, and some / three / a few / none were asleep.

An independent clause is a clause that contains a complete idea all by itself. A sentence can have one independent clause, or several independent clauses joined by words like “and,” “or,” or “but.”

• I love studying grammar.

• I love studying grammar, and Mary likes to nap.

The indicative mood is the form of a verb or sentence we use for giving facts (e.g. I am happy). An indicative sentence is also called a declarative sentence.

An indirect object is affected by the action of the verb, but does not directly undergo the action. Usually this means that the indirect object receives something, benefits from the action, or (occasionally) is negatively affected by the action.

• Je donnerai le gâteau à mon père.

  Translation: I will give my father the cake.
• Je lui parle.

  Translation: I am speaking to her.

Indirect object pronouns are words that replace a noun that receives something, is benefited by the action, or is harmed by the action.

In French, the indirect object pronouns are me (meaning me), te (meaning you), lui (meaning him, her), nous (meaning us), vous (meaning you) and leur (meaning them). They take the place of a noun introduced by the preposition à.

• Je parle à Marie. → Je lui parle.

  Translation: I’m speaking to Marie. → I’m speaking to her.

An infinitive is a verb in its basic form. This is usually the form you will see in the dictionary. For example: “to run,” “to eat,” “to be.”

In French, infinitives have one of three infinitive verb endings: -er, -ir, -re, as in marcher (meaning to walk), partir (meaning to leave) and descendre (meaning to come down).

An infinitive clause is a phrase that is built around an infinitive verb (e.g. "to eat") and has a subject or an implied subject. For example in "I want John to eat his breakfast." implied subject of "to eat" is John.

An infinitive phrase is an infinitive verb (e.g. "to eat") and some associated words. For example, "to eat breakfast at ten" or "to have eaten slowly."

An interjection is a little word that expresses an emotion, like “oh!” or “wow!”

An interrogative or interrogative sentence is a question.

Interrogative pronouns are words like “who” or “what” that replace the noun that you are asking a question about:

• I ate pizza → What did you eat?

• She ate pizza with Kevin. → Who did she eat pizza with?

The main French interrogative pronouns are qui (meaning who), que/quoi (meaning what), and lequel (meaning which one).

Interrogative words or wh-words are words like “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how,” that we use to ask questions.

In French, qui (meaning who), où (meaning where), quand (meaning when), pourquoi (meaning why), comment (meaning how), combien (meaning how much/many), que/quoi (meaning what), quel(le) (meaning which).

Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not need a direct object.

• John sneezed.

• All of the water evaporated.

In grammar, inversion happens when the position of two words in the sentence is reversed to change the meaning, as when “I am tall” becomes “Am I tall?” to create a question.

An example of inversion in French:

• Vous voulez du café. → Voulez-vous du café ?

  Translation: You (formal) want a coffee. → Do you (formal) want a coffee?

Irregular is a word we use in grammar to describe a word form that isn’t formed according to the usual grammar rules. For example, the verb “swim” has an irregular past tense (“swam”) because it doesn’t follow the usual rule of adding “-ed” (ex: “*swimmed”)

Linking verbs (or copular verbs) connect a noun with something that describes that noun. The classic copular verb, sometimes just called “the copula,” is the verb “to be,” as in “Jordan is in class.” But other linking verbs carry a little more meaning, for example, “seem,” “get,” and “look” can also be linking verbs in sentences like these:

• The table seemed very heavy.

• The baby got sleepy.

• My dog looks very scary.

A loan word or borrowed word is a word that historically came from another language. In English, some examples might be "taco," "garage," or "algebra."

The main clause of the sentence contains the central action or situation being described.

• I will clean my room after I finish my computer game.

• Joey thinks he is studying grammar.

• If I am studying grammar, I am happy.

The main verb is the verb in a compound tense that carries the meaning (e.g. "am running" "was being eaten"). This term is also sometimes used for the most central verb in a complex sentence ("I thought it was raining.")

A mass noun (also called an uncountable noun or non-count noun), is a noun that cannot be counted with numbers. These nouns are usually measured with countable words, like “piece,” “cup,” “kilo/pound” etc.

• Fred is listening to music.

• John bought 8 pieces of furniture.

• Mary ate 2 sticks of celery.

A modal verb is a verb that indicates possibility, ability, obligation, necessity, permission, and sometimes desire. Often they are used with another verb, but not always.

• Je peux conduire de nuit.

  Translation: I can drive at night.

  ability
• Je devais partir.

  Translation: I had to go.

  obligation

The mood of a verb or clause tells you about its intended purpose (e.g. to give commands, express a wish, state a fact, etc.). The mood impacts how you form the verb and will sometimes impact other things, like the word order you should use.

French verbs conjugate into four different moods: the indicative (to express objective facts), the imperative (to give orders), the conditional (to express hypothetical ideas), and the subjunctive (for wishes and possibilities).

• Tu viens avec nous. (meaning You come with us.) ← indicative

• Viens avec nous ! (meaning Come with us!) ← imperative

• Tu viendrais avec nous si.... (meaning You would come with us if…) ← conditional

• Il faut que tu viennes avec nous. (meaning You must come with us.) ← subjunctive

A mute h is a silent h. Words that start with a mute h are pronounced as though there was no h at all and so liaison can take place between the word and certain preceding words. For example, herbe (meaning grass) has a mute h, so we can combine it with la (meaning the) to say l’herbe (meaning the grass). Mute h is different from aspirated h (h aspiré) which does not permit liaison.

A negative adverb (or "adverb of negation") is a word like "not" or "never" that can turn a positive sentence negative. For example: "I am cooking dinner." vs. "I am not cooking dinner."

A negative clause is a phrase with a subject and a negative verb. For example:

• I didn't go.

• He found his keys in a place where he never goes.

A negative question is a question that includes a negative word. Some examples in English:

• N’ont-ils rien mangé ?

  Translation: Haven’t they eaten anything?
• Tu ne connais pas cet acteur ?

  Translation: Don’t you know this actor?
• Qui n’a pas pris son ticket ?

  Translation: Who hasn’t taken their ticket ?

A nominalizer is something that turns a a word or phrase into a noun, like the "-ness" in "sadness". Nominalizers are often affixes (a prefix or an ending), but they are sometimes independent words.

The nominative case is the form of a noun, adjective, or pronoun that you will find in the dictionary. We usually use the nominative case to talk about the subject (or central topic) of a sentence. In English, the subject is usually before the verb.

• John bought a bottle of soda.

• He drank it before arriving home.

Non-defining relative clauses are clauses that describe a noun, but are separated out using commas. These are clauses that give us additional, but non-essential, information about a group that has already been “defined.”

For example, if we leave out the relative clause in “the athletes, who were tired, got on the bus,” the athletes we are talking about do not change, so the information is non-essential.

Non-finite verbs are verb forms that aren’t marked for number or person.

French non-finite verb forms include: infinitives (“to break”) and participles/gerunds (“breaking”).

Nouns are words that represent people, things, animals, ideas, or actions, such as “man,” “table,” “tiger,” “generosity,” or “running.”

A noun clause is a phrase with a subject and a verb that acts like a noun in a sentence, as in "You can buy whatever you want."

A noun phrase is a noun plus other words or phrases that describe or add information about that noun.

• I saw my very intelligent cousin last week.

• The French teacher with long hair was late to class.

• Miranda likes to listen to that singer who tripped on the red carpet last month.

The number of a word tells you about its quantity, usually whether it is singular (just one) or plural (for more than one).

• le garçon → les garçons

  Translation: the boy (sg.) → the boys (pl.)
• la fille (s.) → les filles (pl.)

  Translation: the girl (sg.) → the girls (pl.)

The object of a preposition is the phrase that immediately follows a preposition. Recall that prepositions are small words and phrases like “in,” “around,” or “on behalf of”)

• I put it in the cabinet.

• Sandro wrote the poem for her.

• We sent the letter to Patrick’s new pen pal from Sweden.

An object of a verb (sometimes just called an “object”) is what is affected by or undergoes the action of the verb. Sometimes a verb can have more than one object.

• Lucy ate an apple.

• Paul made Anne two birthday cards.

(Note that the subject of a sentence cannot also be an object, even if it is affected by or undergoes the action of a verb.)

Object pronouns are the equivalent of English words like “me,” “her,” “him,” “us,” and “them.”

The French object pronouns are me, te, le, la / lui, nous, vous, and les / leur.

• Je veux le biscuit ! → Je le veux !

  Translation: I want the cookie! → I want it!
• Elle téléphone à ses parents. → Elle leur téléphone.

  Translation: She calls her parents. → She calls them.

An open question (a.k.a. wh- question or content question) asks for more information than just a “yes” or “no.” For example, “What’s that?” or “Where are you going?” or “How do you know?”

Ordinal numbers (or ordinal numerals) are the numbers we use to put things in order, like “first,” “second,” “third,” “fiftieth,” or “one hundred and sixty-first.”

In French most are formed by adding-ième to the numbers: trois → troisième (meaning three → third)

A word's part of speech describes its basic grammatical category and function, like "noun," "verb," or "adjective."

A participle is a form of a verb that can be used to form certain compound verb forms, but can also be used to describe a noun (like an adjective).

• Le chien a couru jusqu'à lui.

  Translation: The dog ran up to him.
• Ayant perdu mon colis, je vais demander un remboursement.

  Translation: Having lost my package, I’m going to request a refund.

A participle phrase is a participle (e.g. "eating" or "eaten") and some associated words. For example, "eating a cake" or "eaten with enthusiasm."

A partitive noun is a word or phrase used to indicate a part or quantity of something. For example: a glass of water, a piece of cheese.

A passive infinitive is a verb with an infinitive form that is used with the grammatical structure of a passive verb. For example, while “to cook” is a regular (active) infinitive, “to be cooked” is a passive infinitive.

A passive verb is a verb whose subject is undergoing the action. Passive verbs have a special form that is used to mark them as different from “active verbs,” where the subject is doing the action instead. For example, “cleaned” (active) → “was cleaned” (passive).

• The ball was hit by Mary.

• The moose was spotted yesterday.

Notice also that the do-er of a passive sentence is either left unmentioned or is marked in some special way (in English, with the word “by”).

A past participle is the equivalent of the "-ed" / "-en" form of a verb in English.

In French, they are used to form tenses, the passive voice, or to describe a noun that has undergone the action of a verb, etc. In French, regular past participles are formed using the endings -é, -i, and -u

• J’ai bien dormi.

  Translation: I slept well.
• Vous serez contacté le mois prochain.

  Translation: You will be contacted next month.

In English, a perfect tense is formed by combining a form of the verb "to have" with the past participle of the main verb. For example: "has eaten" or "had watched." Generally, actions in a perfect tense took place (or at least started) before the main action in the sentence or story.

Person is a grammatical category used to distinguish between the speaker, the listener, or the person / thing talked about (can be any number of them). For example:

• il, elle, on are “third person” subject pronouns in French

• Elle est (meaning she is) is a “third person” form of the verb être (meaning to be)

• Je suis (meaning I am) has a “first person” pronoun (je) and a “first person” form of the verb être (meaning to be)

A personal pronoun is a word like "you" or "we" or "she," that refers to the speaker, the listener, or to someone or something that isn't part of the conversation.

Phonetic syllables are clusters of sounds in a word that are pronounced. Let’s take the word française (meaning French).

• While you can count three syllables:

• fran -

  1

  çai -

  2

  se

  3

• you only pronounce two:

• fran -

  1

  çaise

  2

  (transcribed fra(n)-sehz)

A phrase is a group of words that form a unit that acts together, but is usually not a complete sentence: “in a car,” “very tall,” “last night’s dinner,” “how to clean the sink,” etc.

The plural form of a word is the form a word has when it stands for more than one of something (e.g. “cars,” “birds,” “people,” “children”).

In French, to form most plural forms, you add an -s at the end of the noun, but there are exceptions too.

• la robe → les robes

  Translation: the dress → the dresses

Possessive adjectives are words like "my" or "his" that are used with a noun to express possession or ownership.

In French, mon, ma, mes are examples of possessive adjectives. Unlike in English, possessive adjectives agree with the possessed object in French.

• Elle a pris son parapluie.

  Translation: She took her umbrella.

  parapluieis masculine so we use son

A possessive noun in English is a noun that is marked with the possessive -'s, for example: "Patrick's" or "the door's."

Possessive pronouns are words that replace a noun and also tell you something about who owns that noun.

• Ce chien n’est pas le tien, c’est le mien.

  Translation: This dog is not yours, it is mine!

The predicate is the part of the sentence that describes the subject or describes something that happens to the subject.

• Maria ate an apple.

• Maria is a teacher.

• Maria seemed tired.

A prefix is a letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word that somehow changes its meaning or grammatical function. The underlined portions of the following words are prefixes: “untie,” “discourage,” “devalue.”

Here are some French examples:

• irréel (meaning unreal)

  refaire (meaning to do again)

Prepositions are words like “in,” “at,” “to,” “around,” or “of,” that come before other words and indicate whether those words describe a location (“John is in the house”), a direction (“I am going to the airport”), a time (“Let’s meet at ten”), etc.

Prepositions of movement, also known as prepositions of direction, are used to in phrases that describe which way something is moving. In these phrases, the preposition describes how something moves in relation to a particular noun. For example:

• She walked toward the house.

• I drove over the bridge.

A preposition of place is a word like "at" or "in," that introduces something's location.

A preposition of time is a word that works with a noun or time to create a description of when something happens (e.g. at noon, after the party,...)

A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition (a word like “at,” “from,” “in, “with,” etc.) and a noun or pronoun:

• behind the hotel

• in the blue house

• with me

Present participles (a.k.a. active participles) are forms of verbs ending in -ing in English. In French, present participles end in -antand are used to shorten sentences, to express cause, or as adjectives.

• Le vainqueur est le premier joueur qui arrive sur la case “arrivée.” → Le vainqueur est le premier joueur arrivant sur la case “arrivée.”

  Translation: The winner is the first player to reach the "finish" square.

A pronominal verb is a verb that is preceded by the reflexive pronoun se in its infinitive form. Pronominal verbs include reflexive verbs like se laver , reciprocal verbs like se parler (meaning to talk to each other), idiomatic verbs like se douter (meaning to suspect), and essential pronominal verbs like s’absenter (meaning to be away).

Pronouns are words that replace nouns:

• J’ai fait un gâteau. Je l’ai fait ce matin.

  Translation: I made a cake. I made it this morning.

  Here, l’is used to substitute un gâteau to avoid repetition.

Proper nouns are particular places, persons, and things. In English, they always start with a capital letter.

• France

• Marie

• the Eiffel Tower

Quantity words (a.k.a. quantifiers or quantifying adjectives) describe “how much” or “how many” without being specific. For example “some,” “a few,” or “a little” describe small quantities, while “a lot of,” “many,” or “all” describe large quantities.

A reason clause or causal clause is a subordinate clause (containing a verb) that describes what caused some situation to arise. As in, "because I forgot my umbrella."

Reciprocal pronouns are used when a mutual action is expressed.

The French reciprocal pronouns are nous, vous, and se, and they are used with reciprocal verbs.

• Nous nous connaissons.

  Translation: We know each other.

A reciprocal verb expresses an action that two people do to each other. E.g. "We met (each other) yesterday."

Reflexive pronouns are used with verbs in which the action is both done by and done to the subject.

In French, they are used with pronominal verbs, which include reflexive verbs like se laver (meaning to wash), reciprocal verbs like se parler (meaning to talk to each other), idiomatic verbs like se douter (meaning to suspect), and essential pronominal verbs like s’absenter (meaning to be away).

Reflexive verbs are verbs for an action that is done both by and to the subject.

In French, reflexive verbs are verbs like se brosser les dents (meaning to brush your teeth), se laver (meaning to wash oneself), se lever (meaning to get up).

The word register refers to which style of language we use depending on whether we are talking to friends, to superiors, to a child, in court, etc. Written language is usually a more formal register than everyday spoken language.

The word regular is used in grammar to describe a word form that you can guess just by following the general rule. For example, the verb “want” has a regular past tense form, because it is formed by adding “-ed” (“wanted”).

A relative clause is a clause (sentence within a sentence) that describes a noun. e.g. "The book that has a yellow cover"

In French, a relative clause begins with a relative pronoun like qui, que, dont, ce qui, etc.

• Le livre que je lis est intéressant.

  Translation: The book that I am reading is interesting.
• La femme dont tu parles est ma tante.

  Translation: The woman who you are talking about is my aunt.

A relative pronoun is a word that introduces a relative clause (a clause that describes someone or something). e.g. "The book that has a yellow cover"

In French, relative pronouns are words like qui, que, dont, ce qui, etc.

• Le livre que je lis est intéressant.

  Translation: The book that I am reading is interesting.

A reporting verb is a word like "said" or "asked," that we use to show that someone spoke or otherwise communicated certain words.

The root is the part of the word that carries the central meaning.

For example, the words "fish," "fishery," "fishing," and "fishy," all share the root "fish."

The second person is the "you" form: a grammatical category for the person or people that are being addressed.

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. A sentence must have at least these two parts: a subject (what the sentence is “about”) and a predicate (that tells you “about” the subject: what the subject does, where it is, etc.). For example, in the sentence “We bought milk,” the subject is “we” and the predicate is “bought milk," which tells you what “we” did.

Simple tenses are formed using just one verb. They are different from compound tenses, which require more than one verb. For example, the verb runs is in a simple tense, but the verb is running is in a compound tense.

A singular word refers to one entity.

• garçon (meaning boy)← singular

• garçons (meaning boys)← plural

A stative verb or non-action verb describes the way someone or something is, feels, or remains rather than describing something dynamic that is accomplished at a particular time. (e.g. is, seems, loves, believes, stays,...). A stative verb is generally something that is not done on purpose and continues for some time without change.

The stem is the core of the verb, without any special endings or prefixes to mark the tense or the subject. So the stem of “runs” is “run” and the stem of “catching” is “catch.”

In French, the stem is usually, the part of the verb that comes before the infinitive verb ending (before -er, -ir, or -re). For example, the stem of marcher is "march-," the stem of partir is "part-," and the stem of descendre is "descend-."

A stem-changing verb is a verb that changes forms not only by adding endings, but also by changing the form of the core or “stem” of the verb.

One such verb in French is nettoyer (meaning to clean), which uses different stems in je nettoie vs. nous nettoyons.

The stress in a word is the part of that word that is emphasized in regular pronunciation. For example the stress in "coward" falls on the first part (COW-ard) but the stress in "reply" falls on the second part (re-PLY)

A stressed pronoun, or pronom tonique, refers to people and animals only. They are often used to add emphasis, but they can also be used with comparisons, after words and phrases like et (meaning and), c’est (meaning it is), with certain prepositions, and with commands. They are words like moi (meaning me), toi (meaning you), lui (meaning him/it), elle (meaning her/it), nous (meaning we), vous (meaning you), eux (meaning them), and elles (meaning them).

• Donnez-moi la recette, s’il vous plaît.

  Translation: Give me the recipe, please.

The subject of a sentence is the noun that a sentence is about. In English, this is the noun that comes before the verb. Most often, the subject does the action, but sometimes it is described or it is experiencing the action.

• Le jardinier arrose les fleurs.

  Translation: The gardener waters the flowers.
• Les fleurs sont arrosées.

  Translation: The flowers are watered.

Subject pronouns are words we use instead of a noun as the subject of a verb.

• "Joey took me to the deli. He bought me a sandwich, and I bought him a pickle."

The subject pronouns in French are: je, tu, il/elle/on, nous, vous, and ils.

The subjunctive mood is for wishes, feelings, thoughts, and possibilities.

A subordinate clause (or dependent clause) is a sentence within a sentence that adds information about the main action or situation. It might describe the situation (its time, reason, purpose, etc.) or it might complete its meaning (e.g. by describing what someone said/thought).

• When I woke up, I made some coffee.

• I didn’t go out because I was tired.

• Marianne said that she was tired.

A subordinating conjunction is a word or phrase that introduces a subordinate clause (a sentence within a sentence). For example:

• He saved his money so that he could go to Paris.

• Sandra didn't know when her sister would arrive.

A suffix is a letter or group of letters that is added to the end of a word and somehow changes its meaning or grammatical function. The highlighted portions of the following words are suffixes: “tallest,” “runs,” “fastener,” “replacement.”

Relative superlative adjectives (usually just called superlative adjectives) are used to compare more than two items and express which has the quality it describes in the highest or lowest degree.

• This boy is the tallest.

• This book is the most interesting.

• These papers are the least important of all.

Superlative adverbs are used to compare more than two actions and express which is performed to the highest or lowest degree.

• He ran the quickest of all.

• Yesterday I woke up the earliest.

• I worked the least of all days.

A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y). This vowel may be surrounded by consonants. For example “bed” has one vowel (e) with two adjacent consonants (b and d) that create one unit of sound — they are pronounced together. The word “father” has two vowels (a and e) and is a two-syllable word.

Synonyms are pairs of words that have basically the same meaning. For example: “big/large,” “person/human,” “walk/stroll,” etc.

A tag question is a short question added to the end of a statement. It is meant to express a level of uncertainty or request corroboration from the recipient.

For example:

• Il fait froid aujourd’hui, n’est-ce pas ?

  Translation: It is cold today, isn’t it?

Tense, in grammar, references time. The main tenses found in many languages include past, present, and future. Tense is usually reflected in the form of the verb.

A third person form of a word is a "he," "she," "it," or "they" form of a word, used to reference entities (objects, people, ideas,...) that are being talked about, rather than people involved in the conversation directly.

• il, elle, andon are “third person” subject pronouns in French

• Elle est (meaning she is)is a “third person” form of the verb être (meaning to be)

The grammatical topic of a sentence is the noun the sentence is about. Usually this is a noun that was already known or under discussion, and it could be introduced using a phrase like "as for..."

Transitive verbs are verbs that take an object, which complements, or completes, the meaning of the verb.

• Elle regarde la télé.

  Translation: She is watching TV.

  regarder is a transitive verb because it takes the object la télé

Transitive-direct verbs are verbs that take a direct object complement that is not introduced by a preposition, e.g. regarder (meaning to watch).

• Elle regarde la télé.

  Translation: She is watching TV.

  regarderis a transitive-direct verb because it takes the direct object, la télé

Transitive-indirect verbs are verbs that take an indirect object complement and often require a preposition to introduce this object, e.g. sourire à (meaning to smile at).

• Il a souri à moi.

  Translation: He smiled at me.

Verbs are words used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, like “to run,” “to exist,” “to happen.”

A verb phrase is a verb plus other words that describe or add information about that verb.

• John ran.

• John ran towards his house.

• John saw his friend together with his mother.

• Seeing his friend together with his mother, John ran again.

Voicing refers to whether or not your vocal cords are buzzing when you make a sound. A voiced sound (d, z, w, a...), uses vocal cords but an unvoiced sound (t, s, f,...) does not.

You can feel the difference by putting your fingers on your throat as you make a sound. If you feel a buzzing, it's voiced, otherwise it's not.

A volitional verb is an action that someone does on purpose, while a non-volitional verb describes a state or something that "just happens."

Vowels are speech sounds that are not consonants.

The French vowels are: a, e, i, o, u, and y.