Language/French/Grammar/Exclamatives

Exclamatives in French

Exclamatives are sentences or phrases that express strong emotions, such as surprise, excitement, admiration, or frustration. In French, there are different ways to form and use exclamatives. Let's take a look at some of them with examples and dialogues:

Exclamatory Adjectives

In French, you can use certain adjectives to express strong emotions. These adjectives are called exclamatory adjectives. Some examples include:

Quelle belle journée ! (What a beautiful day!)

Quelle surprise ! (What a surprise!)

Quelle chance ! (What luck!)

Dialogue:

Tu as gagné la loterie ! (You won the lottery!)

Quelle chance ! (What luck!)

In this dialogue, "Quelle chance!" is an exclamative expression to show excitement and admiration for the good fortune.

Exclamatory Adverbs

Another way to form exclamatives in French is by using certain adverbs. Some examples include:

Vraiment ! (Really!)

Formidable ! (Wonderful!)

Incroyable ! (Incredible!)

Fantastique ! (Fantastic!)

Dialogue:

J'ai fini tous mes devoirs ! (I finished all my homework!)

Formidable ! (Wonderful!)

In this dialogue, "Formidable!" is an exclamative expression to show admiration for the accomplishment.

Interjections

Interjections are words or phrases used to express emotions or reactions. They can be used as standalone sentences or as part of a sentence. Some examples include:

Oh ! (Oh!)

Ah ! (Ah!)

Aïe ! (Ouch!)

Bravo ! (Bravo!)

Dialogue:

Tu as réussi ton examen ! (You passed your exam!)

Bravo ! (Bravo!)

In this dialogue, "Bravo!" is an exclamative interjection to show congratulations and admiration.

Inverted Order

To emphasize a word or a phrase, you can use inverted order in French. This means that the subject and verb of the sentence are inverted. For example:

Quel beau paysage ! (What a beautiful landscape!)

Quelle chance tu as ! (What luck you have!)

Dialogue:

Tu vas partir en vacances à Hawaii ? (Are you going on vacation to Hawaii?)

Quelle chance tu as ! (What luck you have!)

In this dialogue, "Quelle chance tu as!" is an exclamative expression to show admiration and envy for the opportunity to go on vacation to Hawaii.

Cleft Sentences

Cleft sentences are sentences that are divided into two parts, with the emphasis on the second part. In French, cleft sentences are formed by using the phrase 'c'est' or 'il est' followed by 'que' or 'qui'. For example:

C'est moi qui ai gagné ! (It's me who won!)

Il est incroyable que tu sois encore en vie ! (It's incredible that you're still alive!)

Dialogue:

Tu as survécu à un accident de voiture ? (You survived a car accident?)

Il est incroyable que tu sois encore en vie ! (It's incredible that you're still alive!)

In this dialogue, "Il est incroyable que tu sois encore en vie!" is an exclamative expression to show disbelief and admiration for the fact that the person survived a car accident.

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That's it for this lesson on exclamatives in French. By learning how to use these different forms of exclamatives, you can express your emotions.

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

Related Lessons

• Easy way of generating the simple past
• The plural indefinite article des
• Verbs with intransitive and transitive uses
• How to Use be
• Adverbs ending in —amment and —eminent derived from adjectives ending in —ant or —ent
• Indirect and Direct Transitive Verbs
• Plurals
• Comparative forms of adjectives
• ensuite VS puis
• Dates