Semi-Auxiliary Verbs: Word Order

French word orderIt's very common to have two verbs in a row in both English and French, as in J'aime danser. The word order can get very complicated when additional grammatical structures like object pronouns and negation are introduced.

   

   

Tonic Accent

French tonic accentThere's no word stress in French, 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.

   

Elections

French election vocabulary
In French election years, the news is filled with an array of specialized words and phrases you might not be familiar with. Here's some essential vocabulary to help you make sense of everything.

   

   

La morte amoureuse

La morte amoureuse
J'ai été pendant plus de trois ans le jouet d'une illusion singulière et diabolique. Moi, pauvre prêtre de campagne, j'ai mené en rêve toutes les nuits (Dieu veuille que ce soit un rêve !) une vie de damné, une vie de mondain et de Sardanapale.

   

Accentonyms

French accentonyms
Some French accents offer pronunciation clues, others refer back to old spellings, and still others differentiate between otherwise identically spelled words. For all of these reasons, accents matter and must be included when writing (or typing) in French - especially in the case of words that have different meanings with and without accents.

   

   

   

OI

French pronunciationThe letter combination oi is pronounced [wa], similar to the first two letters in "watt."

Par Expressions

Expressions with par
The French preposition par, "through, by," is found in many idiomatic expressions, including legally, out of habit, and over here. Learn these and dozens of other French expressions featuring par.