Language/French/Grammar/Compare-numbers

Compare numbers in French

comparisons with the verb être

When numbers figure in comparisons with the verb être, they are often preceded by de:

• Elle est mon aînée de six ans

She is six years older than me

• La fenêtre est trop grande de cinq centimètres

The window is five centimetres too big

• Elle est plus lourde de huit kilos

She is eight kilograms heavier

alternative expressions with avoir

In some of these cases alternative expressions with avoir are possible:

• Elle a six ans de plus que moi
• J'ai six ans de moins qu'elle

Translating 'more than' and 'less than' into French

Translating 'more than' and 'less than' into French often causes English speakers some difficulty, because there are two possibilities:

• plus de / plus que
• moins de / moins que

plus de, moins de imply that there is a specific benchmark against which something is measured as being 'more than' or 'less than', and this is often a number:

• Elle gagne plus de 5 000€ par mois

She earns more than 5,000 euros a month (5 000€ is the benchmark - she earns more than this)

• Il travaille moins de deux heures par jour

He works less than two hours a day

(deux heures is the benchmark - he works less than this)

• Interdit aux moins de 15 ans

Not suitable for children under fifteen

(15 ans is the benchmark - below this age, children are not allowed)

plus que, moins que imply a comparison between one person or thing and another, without a specific benchmark being mentioned:

• Elle gagne plus que moi

She earns more than me

(how much I earn isn't specified - but she earns more)

• Il travaille moins que son frère

He works less than his brother

(how much his brother works isn't specified - but he works less)

The difference between the two can be illustrated in the following pair of sentences:

• Elle a réuni plus de cinquante de ses collègues pour la fête

She.got more than fifty of her colleagues together for the party

(cinquante de ses collègues is the benchmark - she managed to persuade more colleagues than this to come)

• Elle a gagné plus que tous ses collègues ensemble pendant l'année

She earned more than all her colleagues during the year

(her colleagues earned an unspecified amount during the year - however much it was, she earned more than this)

compare one measurement with another

NB: The following expressions compare one measurement with another:

• quatre mètres sur trois

four metres by three

• un Français sur sept

one French person in seven

• une chose à la fois

one thing at a time

• 20% par an 20% a year

deux heures par jour two hours a day

litres aux cent

'miles per gallon' is measured in French by the number of litres consumed per hundred kilometres: dix litres aux cent (kilomètres) (roughly 30 miles per gallon).

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

---

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

---

Personal and impersonal pronouns

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

Prepositions

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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

Related Lessons

• Possessive determiners
• y and en as an integral part of the verb structure
• Definite and indefinite articles
• Use of on
• The plural of compound nouns
• Easy way of generating the imperfect subjunctive
• Possessive pronouns
• Directly transitive verbs take the auxiliary “avoir”
• Past Tense
• Agreement of past participle if direct object is placed before
• Agreement of past participles with preceding direct objects in questions
• Stressed pronouns used as the object of a preposition
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Order of cardinal numbers and adjectives
• Quantifiers — tout and chaque
• "de" when an adjective precedes the noun