Language/French/Grammar/subjects-objects-pronouns
A sentence is made up of a subject (the person or thing that makes the verb) and can have an object (the thing that we do). Depending on the languages the order between the subject (S), the verb (V) and the object (O) may vary.
Consider broadening your understanding by checking out these related lessons: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Polite Form & Fractions.
English[edit | edit source]
English is primarily a language with the following order: subject-verb-object or S-V-O.
Consider these the 2 following sentences:
subject | verb | object |
---|---|---|
Jean | throws | the ball |
Cécile | studies | French |
French[edit | edit source]
French is also (mostly) S-V-O. Consider these sentences:
subject | verb | object |
---|---|---|
Jean | lance | la balle |
Cécile | étudie | le français |
On the other hand in French, when we replace the object noun (la balle or anglais, in the above examples) with an object pronoun (la, le, l', les), the object pronoun moves in front of the verb, which makes the sentence Structure S-O-V:
Subject | Object (Pronoun) | Verb | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|
Jean | la | lance | Jean throws it |
Cécile | l' | étudie | Cécile studies it |
Note also that a subject pronoun can be used:
- Il la donne.
He gives it.
- Elle l'apporte.
She brings it.
Videos[edit | edit source]
French Subject Pronouns explanation - YouTube[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Marked use of tu
- Plurals of nouns ending in –ou
- Intransitive verbs and auxiliary “être”
- Directly transitive verbs
- Categories of Nouns in French
- Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Ordinal number abbreviations
- Reciprocal se and cases of potential ambiguity
- Adjectives agreeing with just one noun
- Well Better Worse
- Homophones
- Adjectives with complements
- Present Tense
- Use of the definite article to indicate a habitual action
- Coordination of stressed pronouns
- Comparative and superlative forms of adverbs