Language/French/Grammar/Measurements-and-comparisons-Numbers-with-length,-height,-depth-etc

Measurements and comparisons: Numbers with length, height, depth etc.

With the verb être, numbers specifying length, height, depth, width, distance and so on, are preceded by de:

• La piscine est longue de 50 mètres
• La longueur de la piscine est de 50 mètres

The swimming pool is 50 metres long

• Cette tour est haute de 20 mètres
• La hauteur de cette tour est de 20 mètres

This tower is 20 metres high

• Le lac est profond de 300 mètres
• La profondeur du lac est de 300 mètres

The lake is 300 metres deep

• Le fleuve est large de 2 kilomètres à cet endroit
• La largeur du fleuve à cet endroit est de 2 kilomètres

The river is 2 kilometres wide at this point

• La distance de Londres à Paris est de 500 kilomètres

The distance from London to Paris is 500 kilometres

An alternative way of describing some of these measurements is with the verbs faire a n d avoir; in this case de precedes long, haut, large, etc., which remain invariable in form:

• La piscine fait/a 50 mètres de long
• Cette tour fait/a 20 mètres de haut
• Le fleuve fait/a 2 kilomètres de large

In talking about how tall people are, the verbs mesurer, faire are usually used:

• Je mesure 1,97 mètres

I am 1.97 metres tall

• Elle fait 1,80 mètres

She is 1.80 metres tall

The verbs mesurer, faire are the equivalent of English 'is' in describing dimensions:

• La table mesure (or fait) trois mètres sur deux

The table is three metres by two

Take a moment to explore these relevant pages as you conclude this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Easy way of generating the Future and Conditional & “être” and “avoir” with verbs used intransitively and transitively.

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

Other Lessons

• Non agreement of direct object numerals with coûter, peser and mesurer
• How to tell the time
• Plural of words in Al
• Use of jamais
• Easy way of generating the present tense
• Relative Clause
• Ditransitive verbs
• Subject verb agreement — Verb agreement with fractions
• Adjectives which regularly occur before and after the noun, but with a change of meaning
• Stressed pronouns used as the object of a preposition
• Location of adverbs modifying adjectives, prepositions, noun phrases and other adverbs
• Subjunctive Mood
• Restrictions on possible combinations
• Auxiliary
• Position of object pronouns with imperatives