French Language Blog

Building funny French phrases is a way to learn more vocabulary and even improve your grammar.  The challenge lies in finding a root word and then expressing the same word as a noun, adverb, verb and adjective all in the same sentence.  Here are some examples:

La commode commode a été accommodée commodément.
Le commentateur a commenté comment ce commentaire aussi commenté?
Les enthousiastes enthousiasment avec enthousiasme l’enthousiasme enthousiasmant.
La traîtresse traître trahit traîtreusement.

Mais, attention!  Just as in English, the sentences you make this way would probably not be expressed in French like this, although technically/grammatically it is possible (that’s what makes them funny).  Moreover, all four parts of speech can not necessarily be found with all root words.  Here is a table with some nouns and their corresponding adverbs, verbs and adjectives.

Now, why don’t you try coming up with your own funny French sentence in this way and share it with us in a comment!  This will help us all learn more vocabulary.

In the French language, there are different ways to be negative…to express negativity.  Perhaps the most common is when you want the sentence to be negative.  In that case, you place ne before the main verb and pas after it.  Or, if you want to say that you never do something, you place ne before the main verb and jamais after it.  Here are some examples:

Je ne sais pas.  (I don’t know.)
Elle ne mange pas de pain. (She doesn’t eat bread.)
Vous ne voulez pas de vin ?  (You don’t want any wine?)
Je ne fais jamais de vélo.  (I never ride a bike.)
Il ne boit jamais de lait.  (He never drinks milk.)
Ils ne sortent jamais la nuit.  (They never go out at night.)

To express negation towards a noun or noun group (as opposed to the verb in the above cases), you do the following:
Tu veux de l’eau?  Non, pas de l’eau, du vin.  (No, not water, wine.)
Tu viens en train?  Non, pas en train, en voiture.  (No, not by train, by car.)
Tu veux manger quelque chose ?  Non, je ne veux rien.  (No, I don’t want anything.)
Tu entends quelqu’un ?  No, je n‘entends personne.  (No, I don’t hear anyone.)

To express negation towards an adverb, you do as follows:
Elle le voit toujours.  Non, elle ne le voit plus.  (No, she doesn’t see him anymore.)
Tu as déjà essayé ce vin?  Non, pas encore.  (No, not yet.)

Finally, you can use the negative form to express some kind of restriction:
Je ne travaille que le matin.  (I only work mornings.)

OK.  No more being negative.  Il faut être positif!

In the French language, semi-auxiliaries are the same as in the English language.  They are multi-word verbs that occur before main verbs.  In English, these semi-auxiliaries include: have to, get to, be about to, used to, mean to, be going to, etc.

In French, many of the semi-auxiliaries are the same as the English ones.

To express the future:
ALLER + infinitive (near future)
Mon bébé va s’endormir.  (My baby is going to go to sleep).
J’allais partir quand mon copain est arrivé.  (I was going to leave when my boyfriend arrived.)

***Be careful though as aller + infinitive can be used to express movement and in that case, it is not considered a semi-auxiliary.  Ex: El bébé va marcher.

ÊTRE SUR LE POINT DE + infinitive (immediate future)
Nous sommes à table ; nous sommes sur le point de manger.  (We are at the table.  We are about to eat.)

DEVOIR + infinitive
Mes amis doivent arriver à la gare ce soir à 8 heures. (My friends should be arriving at the station this evening at 8 o’clock.)

To express the past:
VENIR DE + infinitive (recent past)
Mon mari n’est pas là ; il vient de sortir. (My husband is not here; he just left.)

To express duration:
ÊTRE EN TRAIN DE + infinitive
J’étais en train de faire le linge quand le lave-linge s’est brisé. (I was doing the laundry when the washer broke down.)

To express the beginning of an action:
COMMENCER À / SE METTRE À + infinitive
Les gens commencent à arriver.  (The people are starting to arrive.)
Tout le monde s’est mis à rire.  (Everybody started to laugh.)

To express the end of an action:
FINIR DE / CESSER DE / S’ARRÊTER DE + infinitive
J’ai fini d‘écrire le livre.  (I’ve finished writing the book.)
La neige a cessé de tomber.  (The snow has stopped falling.)
Je lui ai demandé de s’arrêter de fumer ; donc, il a éteint sa cigarette.  (I asked him to stop smoking so he put out his cigarette.)

**Be careful, cesser de and arrêter de in the negative form express duration.
Ex: La neige ne cesse de tomber.  (The snow keeps falling.)
Il n’arrête pas de fumer.  (He smokes all the time.)

To express probability:
DEVOIR + infinitive
J’ai faim; il doit être environ midi. (I’m hungry.  It must be around noon.)
POUVOIR + infinitive
La salle est pleine; il peut y avoir 500 personnes. (The hall is full; there could be 500 people here.)

To express obligation:
DEVOIR + infinitive
On doit éteindre les portables. (Cell phones must be turned off.)

But, be careful, some of these multi-word verbs may occur in other contexts in which they are not considered to be semi-auxiliaries.  You will know this when there is no other main verb.  For example:

DEVOIR: Je dois beaucoup à mes parents. (I owe a lot to my parents.)