Language/French/Grammar/Confusions-English-and-French-direct-object

Possible confusion between English and French on the definition of a direct object: English verbs 'double object'

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Definitions Reminder: What is a Direct Object?

The direct object complement (French: le complément d'objet direct, COD) directly completes the verb without any preposition. The verb used with a COD is a direct transitive verb.

To find the COD of a verb, it is most often enough to ask questions:

• Quoi ? (What?)
• Qui ? (Who?)

English: 2 structures for an almost identical meaning

The English language has a set of verbs which allow 2 structures for an almost identical meaning:

1. one has a direct object and a prepositional object,
2. the other has two non-prepositional objects and the word order is different.

1. Matthew gave flowers to Emily
2. Matthew gave Emily flowers

In both sentences:

• "Emily" is the indirect object complement of the verb "to give"
• "flowers" is the direct object complement, but in the "double object" construction "Emily" directly follows the verb, which gives the impression that it is the direct object complement.

The English language allows any of the objects to become the subject when the sentence is in the passive voice:

1. Flowers were given to Emily by Matthew
2. Emily was given flowers by Matthew

French: only 1 structure

The French language, however, only allows the prepositional object construction "offrir quelque chose à quelqu'un": Matthew a offert des fleurs à Emily (NOT "Matthew a offert Emily des fleurs")

Furthermore, French only allows the direct object to become the subject in a passive sentence.

Thus:

• Des fleurs ont été offertes à Emily par Matthew

Flowers were given to Emily by Matthew

It is an acceptable French sentence.

However, "Emily fut offerte des fleurs par Matthew " cannot be accepted.

French and English comparison

Sentences constructed with similar verbs run into the same problems:

English

To teach somebody something:

• I taught English to Pierre
• I taught Pierre English
• English was taught to Pierre by me
• Pierre was taught English by me

French

"Enseigner quelque chose à quelqu'un":

• J'ai enseigné l'anglais à Pierre
• But "J'ai enseigné Pierre l'anglais" cannot be accepted

Consequently:

• "L'anglais fut enseigné à Pierre par moi" can be accepted
• But *Pierre fut enseigné l'anglais par moi" cannot be accepted

English

To tell somebody something:

• I told a story to Pierre
• I told Pierre a story
• A story was told to Pierre by me
• Pierre was told a story by me

French

"Raconter quelque chose à quelqu'un":

• J'ai raconté une histoire à Pierre

• But "J'ai raconté Pierre une histoire" cannot be accepted

Consequently:

• "Une histoire fut racontée à Pierre par moi" can be accepted
• But "Pierre fut raconté une histoire par moi" cannot be accepted

List of common French verbs which cannot be put in the passive voice

Common French verbs whose prepositional objects must retain the preposition and cannot be passive are listed below:

French	Translation
accorder qc à qn to grant sb sth	to grant sb sth
apprendre qc à qn to teach sb sth	to teach sb sth
commander qc à qn	to order sb to do sth/to order sth from sb
conseiller qc à qn	to advise sb to do sth
défendre qc à qn	to forbid sb sth
demander qc à qn	to ask sb sth
donner qc à qn	to give sb sth
écrire qc à qn	to write sb sth
enseigner qc à qn	to teach sb sth
laisser qc à qn	to leave sb sth
montrer qc à qn	to show sb sth
offrir qc à qn	to offer sb sth, treat sb to sth
pardonner qc à qn	to forgive sb sth
passer qc à qn	to pass sb sth
permettre qc à qn	to allow sb sth
prescrire qc à qn	to prescribe sb sth
prêter qc à qn	to lend sb sth
promettre qc à qn	to promise sb sth
refuser qc à qn	to refuse sb sth

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