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Accent tonique
There’s no word stress in French (see rhythm lesson), so you have two options for emphasizing a particular word. One has to do with pronunciation (affective accent) and the other is grammatical: the tonic accent.
There are a few different constructions that you can use for the French tonic accent. The word that would be stressed in the English equivalent is in bold.
1) Repetition
Put the important word (name, noun, pronoun) at the beginning or end of the sentence, and also refer to it with a pronoun within the sentence.
Par exemple…
Je ne connais pas Anne. | I don’t know Anne. | |
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I don’t know Anne. | |
Ce n’est pas bon. | That’s no good. | |
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That‘s no good. | |
Je l’ai fait. | I did it. | |
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I did it. |
2) C’est … que / qui
Put the word you want to emphasize between c’est and a relative pronoun:
- que (if it’s the object of the verb)
- qui (if it’s the subject)
Par exemple…
Je ne connais pas Anne. | I don’t know Anne. | |
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I don’t know Anne. | |
La pomme n’est pas bonne. | The apple is no good. | |
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The apple is no good. | |
Je l’ai fait. | I did it. | |
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I did it. |
* Why ai rather than a? See Verb misconjugation.
3) Supertonic accent
Use both of the above for even more emphasis.
Par exemple…
Anne, c’est elle que je ne connais pas. | Anne, she’s the one I don’t know. | |
La pomme, c’est ça qui n’est pas bonne. | The apple, that’s what’s no good. | |
C’est moi qui l’ai fait, moi ! | Really, I did it! |
Related lessons
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