Language/French/Grammar/Intransitive-constructions

Verb Construction - Intransitive Constructions in French Grammar

Intransitive constructions are verb constructions that do not require a direct object. In this lesson, we will explore intransitive constructions in French.

Basic Intransitive Verbs

There are many intransitive verbs in French that do not require a direct object. Some common examples include:

• Aller (to go)
• Arriver (to arrive)
• Dormir (to sleep)
• Rester (to stay)
• Sortir (to go out)

For example:

• Je vais au cinéma ce soir. (I am going to the cinema tonight.)
• Le train arrive à midi. (The train arrives at noon.)
• Je dors huit heures par nuit. (I sleep eight hours per night.)
• Je reste à la maison aujourd'hui. (I am staying home today.)
• Nous sortons souvent le soir. (We often go out at night.)

Reflexive Verbs

Reflexive verbs in French are verbs that require a reflexive pronoun, indicating that the action is being performed on oneself. Some common reflexive verbs that can be used in intransitive constructions include:

• Se lever (to get up)
• Se coucher (to go to bed)
• Se promener (to take a walk)
• Se reposer (to rest)

For example:

• Je me lève tôt tous les jours. (I get up early every day.)
• Elle se couche tard le weekend. (She goes to bed late on weekends.)
• Nous nous promenons dans le parc. (We take a walk in the park.)
• Ils se reposent après le travail. (They rest after work.)

Impersonal Verbs

Impersonal verbs are verbs that are used in the third person singular, regardless of the subject. Some common impersonal verbs that can be used in intransitive constructions include:

• Falloir (to be necessary)
• Pleuvoir (to rain)
• Neiger (to snow)
• Faire beau (to be nice weather)
• Faire mauvais (to be bad weather)

For example:

• Il faut étudier pour réussir l'examen. (It is necessary to study to pass the exam.)
• Il pleut depuis ce matin. (It has been raining since this morning.)
• Il neige souvent en hiver. (It often snows in winter.)
• Il fait beau aujourd'hui. (It is nice weather today.)
• Il fait mauvais temps demain. (It will be bad weather tomorrow.)

Conclusion

Understanding intransitive constructions in French is an important part of mastering the language. By knowing the basic intransitive verbs, reflexive verbs, and impersonal verbs, you can improve your French language skills and communicate more effectively with native speakers.

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

• Subject verb agreement when subject quantifiers are present
• Gender
• y and en as an integral part of the verb structure
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — No change in written or spoken French
• Compound Tenses
• Quand utiliser QUAND et QUANT
• Conditional Mood
• “en” when numbers are direct objects
• Direct object and indirect object pronouns differences between English and French
• Sentence modifying adverbs