Language/French/Grammar/Indirectly-transitive-in-French-but-directly-transitive-in-English

Verbs which are indirectly transitive in French but whose translation equivalents in English are directly transitive

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Definitions

Indirect transitive verbs

A verb is said to be indirect transitive when it is accompanied by an indirect object complement.

Example:

• "Il joue aux petites voitures".

He plays toy cars

Here "petites voitures" is the complement of indirect object or COI (complément d'objet indirect).

A verb can be used in the active, passive or pronominal voice.

Indirect transitive verbs, therefore verbs which accept an indirect object complement, do not accept transformation in the passive voice.

We cannot use the passive voice when the verb of the sentence does not admit a direct object complement, as for example in the case of an indirect transitive verb, or in the case of an intransitive verb.

Direct transitive verbs

With the active voice the subject performs the action:

• Le chat mange la souris

The cat eats the mouse

The verb “manger” (to eat) is of direct transitive type.

In the passive voice it is the subject who undergoes the action: “La souris est mangée par le chat” (The mouse is eaten by the cat).

Direct transitive verbs, therefore verbs which accept a direct object complement, accept transformation in the passive voice.

Indirect in French but Direct in English

Particular attention should be paid to the verbs in the list below because, if they are indirectly transitive in French, their English equivalents are directly transitive.

Objects introduced by à

French	Translation
contrevenir à la réglementation	break the rule
convenir à Jean	suit Jean
(dés)obéir à ses parents	to (dis)obey one's parents
(dé)plaire à son voisin	(dis)please one's neighbor
échapper à la police	escape the police
jouer au football	to play football
échouer à un examen	to fail an exam
nuire à la réputation de quelqu'un	to harm somebody's reputation
parvenir au sommet de la montagne	reach the top of the mountain
renoncer à l'alcool	to give up alcohol
plaire à quelqu'un	to please someone
remédier à la situation	to rectify the situation
subvenir aux besoins de quelqu'un	to look after somebody financially
résister à une publicité	resist an advertisement
ressembler à son fils	to look like one's son
succéder à son père	to succeed one's father
téléphoner à quelqu'un	to telephone someone
toucher aux affaires de quelqu'un	to mess about with somebody's things
survivre à un accident de voiture	to survive a car accident

• Note: While "échapper à" means "to evade capture", "s'échapper de" means "to escape from". Example: "s'échapper de la prison".

Examples

GOOD	BAD
Il joue au football	Il joue football
Il a téléphoné à son mari	Il a téléphoné son mari
Il ressemble beaucoup à son père	Il ressemble beaucoup son père
Le nouveau poste plaisait à Jean	Le nouveau poste plaisait Jean

Objects introduced by de

French	Translation
hériter d'une somme d'argent	inherit some money
douter de la vérité d'un article	doubt the truth of an article
jouir de privilèges	to enjoy privileges
jouer du piano	to play the piano
redoubler d'efforts	to double one's efforts
médire de son voisin	to slander one's neighbor

Notes

"Entrer" is followed by dans:

• "entrer dans la maison".

to enter the house

"Grimper" is followed either by sur or by à:

• "grimper sur un escabeau"

to climb a stepladder

• "grimper à l'échelle"

to climb a ladder

Examples

GOOD	BAD
Elle espère hériter d'une fortune	Elle espère hériter une fortune
Elle jouait du piano	Elle jouait le piano

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

• Easy future
• Adverbs ending in —(é)ment derived from past participles
• Use of neutral le where no equivalent exists in English
• Indirect object pronouns used in possessive constructions with body parts
• Years
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Kings, queens and popes
• Stressed pronouns used as the object of a preposition
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Dates
• How to use Have
• Object pronouns in coordinated clauses
• Nouns with irregular plurals
• How to Use Be
• Verbs whose stems end in c— or g—
• Nouns which change meaning when they change gender
• Impersonal verbs