Grammar Lessons

French Grammar

French grammarGrammaire

Learn about French grammar: parts of speech, negation, verb conjugations, and a whole lot more.

Lessons by level

A1 grammar  |  A2 grammar  |  B1 grammar  |  B2 grammar  |  C1 grammar    What’s my level?

Lessons by part of speech

Adjectives Adverbs
Articles Conjunctions
Nouns Prepositions
Pronouns Verbs

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Grammar Lessons

-ci Suffix

French suffix -ciUnlike other French suffixes, -ci does not create new words, but rather adds additional meaning to the nouns and pronouns it's attached to.

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Grammar Lessons

-issime Suffix

French suffix -issime
The French suffix -issime is added to adjectives and acts as an intensifier or superlative, adding meanings like "very," "extremely," or "most."

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Grammar Lessons

-là Suffix

French suffix là-Unlike other French suffixes, -là does not create new words, but rather adds additional meaning to the nouns and pronouns it's added to.

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Grammar Lessons

À

À - French prepositionThe French preposition à is generally summarized as "to, at, or in," but it has quite a few more meanings and uses than that.

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Grammar Lessons

À vs de

French prepositionsAs if the myriad possible translations of à and de aren't enough, these two French prepositions also have complementary and contrasting uses.

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Grammar Lessons

À vs De with Verbs

À vs de - French prepositionsThe prepositions à and de are found in many verbal constructions that look very similar, but the choice of preposition makes all the difference.

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Grammar Lessons

A- Prefix

French prefix a-
The French prefix a- is added to adjectives and nouns to create their antonyms; it's sometimes called the "alpha privative" (a privatif). The most common English equivalents are a- and non-.

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Grammar Lessons

Accented Capitals

French capitals with accents
There's a bit of debate with regard to accents on capital letters. Most everyone agrees that accents are required on lower case letters, but some French speakers claim that they are unneccessary or even incorrect on capital letters. Is this true? The answer depends in part on who you ask.

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Grammar Lessons

Adjective Position

French adjective positionFrench adjectives may be found before or after the nouns they modify, depending on various factors. Generally speaking, descriptive adjectives follow nouns, while limiting adjectives precede nouns.

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Grammar Lessons

Adjective Types

French adjectivesAn adjective is something like "a word that describes a noun." If asked to name some adjectives, you might come up with words like small, pretty, and blue - in other words, descriptive adjectives. But did you know that there are many other types of adjectives as well?

   

Grammar Lessons

Adjectives

French adjectivesOne of the eight parts of speech, adjectives are a type of modifier; that is, they modify or describe nouns in a certain way, letting you know the size, shape, weight, color, nationality, or any of a myriad other possible qualities of nouns.

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Grammar Lessons

Adjectives Functioning as Adverbs

French adjectives used as adverbsBy definition, adjectives modify nouns. But more than 30 French adjectives can sometimes modify verbs instead, thus taking on the role and characteristics of adverbs, including the fact that they are invariable.

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