Language/French/Grammar/How-to-use-half,-third-and-quarter-in-French

How to use half, third and quarter in French

'Half, 'third', 'quarter' have their own names. ‘Half’ is translated by la moitié (de) when it is a noun (i.e. is followed by de or stands alone):

Consider exploring these related pages after completing this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Conditional Mood and Future Tense & Subject verb agreement — Verb agreement with fractions.

Half

La moitié

• La moitié des conducteurs ont dépassé la limite de vitesse

Half of all drivers have broken the speed limit

• La moitié seront recyclés

Half will be retrained

Demi

However, half is translated by demi when it is part of a compound noun (and is invariable):

• un demi-verre de cognac

a half-glass of brandy

• une demi-heure

a half an hour

• la demi-finale

the semi-final

et demie

It is also translated by demi in compounds involving et, but here it agrees with the preceding noun in gender:

• deux heures et demie

two and a half hours

un litre et demi one and a half litres

• deux kilos et demi

two and a half kilos

mi-

Some compounds are constructed with invariable mi-:

• la mi-trimestre

half-term

• à mi-chemin

half-way

• mi-clos

half-closed

Third

'Third' is translated by tiers:

• Un tiers des étudiants ont des dettes

A third of students are in debt

• Les deux tiers des blessés ont été évacués

Two-thirds of the injured were evacuated

• Seulement un tiers de la population a été vaccinée

Only a third of the population has been vaccinated

NB: le tiers monde 'the Third World'.

Quarter

'Quarter' is translated by quart:

• Un quart seulement des accidents ont lieu sur les autoroutes

Only a quarter of accidents happen on motorways

• Les trois quarts étaient des hommes

Three-quarters were men

NB: Il est deux heures et quart or II est deux heures un quart It's quarter past two

• Il est deux heures moins le quart

It's quarter to two

• cinq kilos et quart or cinq kilos un quart

five and a quarter kilos

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Nouns with irregular plurals
• Common Mistakes
• Pronominal verbs, the auxiliary “être” and the agreement of the past participle
• Verb agreement with fractions
• Directly transitive verbs without objects
• Namesake
• Negation
• Direct object and indirect object pronouns differences between English and French
• Plurals
• Quantifiers and personal pronouns
• Adverbs ending in —ment derived from the masculine form of an adjective
• Plural of words in Al
• Homophones
• Use of stressed pronouns for emphasis
• Changes in the stem form of some —er conjugation verbs