Most learners tell me they are struggling with French sentence structure. And it’s understandable.
French sentences tend to be longer, and more complex than English ones.
This is why when a French person is speaking English, the sentence never ends.
You just have to look at a translation of the same text in English and French to be convinced. The French text will almost always be longer.
So you end up a bit confused about it, and it makes speaking French hard. Adjectives, prepositions, the little words as you call them, it all becomes a mushy munchy in your head. And it’s seriously blocking you.
And it’s not just a question of vocabulary.
Although, as Gad Elmaleh, a famous French speaking comedian, is saying, English has some pretty handy dandy words. Anyone watched his American Dream show on Netflix?
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So today, I’m going to give you tricks to finally be comfortable with French sentence structure. So that you can feel more at ease when conversing in French.
All of that, WITHOUT using barbaric nouns like – clause, relative clause, subordinating, dependant clause, compound sentence, predicate, subordinating conjunctions, or gerund.
And this works for any type of sentence – at the passive voice, active voice. Or if you want to build a simple or a complete sentence.
En route!
To feel more at ease, you first need to understand why French sentence structure is a struggle.
And the answer is quite simple, yet kind of scary.
Nailing French sentence structure is basically mastering French grammar.
Don’t run off just yet. I have a plan of action!
But what do I mean by that?
I mean, mastering French sentence structure is not simply Sujet + Verbe + Complément.
Which is what most YouTube videos will teach you…
But then, if you dig deeper, you’ll hear things like this :
‘A composed sentence is composed of two prepositions that are independent to one another but linked’. Outch…
Adverbs, conjonctions, pronouns, adjectives épithètes,… Everywhere you turn there’s a new grammatical term, and its exceptions.
And I’m not even talking about tenses
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It’s either you have too little information, either you’re overwhelmed.
In the meantime, you’re still messing up word order…
The thing is though, you probably know most of it, just, it’s all messed up in your head.
So, FEAR NOT. I have a map!!
Looks good? Keep reading, I’m explaining how it work 👍
Dusting off the basics of French sentence structure
You have seen this before.
If not, you haven’t paid much attention… and you should start reading this article all over again 
Sujet + Verb + Complement
It is the base of a French affirmative sentence. Your concrete block if you will. With it you can already make millions of sentences.
In this article I won’t talk about interrogative sentences. Because you need to master affirmative clauses before anything else.
Je suis française. = I am French.Jonathan va dormir. = Jonathan is going to sleep.La France a gagné la coupe du monde. = France won the world cup. (Bear in mind I wrote this on the 13th of July)Nous allons mourir. (Very french) = We’re going to die.
It doesn’t matter what tense it is, what verbs you use, or who the subject is. It’s almost always (those damn exceptions), like this.
And you got the basic.
There’s not much more to it than that…
What am I saying… Of course there is!!!
Fancying up your French sentences
You might feel a tad restricted after a while with only simple sentences. Especially if you want to tell a story or express some abstract thoughts.
The next level is to create, what is called grammatically, a complex sentence.
Or to put it grammatically, a sentence that contains several clauses (your building blocks).
For that, you simply need to use several building blocks, so several ‘Sujet+Verbe+Complément’ combinations linked with a word, or a comma (or a semicolon if you feel fancy).
Je ne veux pas dormir parce que je ne suis pas fatiguée. = I don’t want to sleep because I’m not tired.Je suis d’accord mais le président a dit non. = I agree but the president said no.Hélène a tellement froid qu’elle veut rentrer à la maison. = Hélène is so cold she wants to go back home.
The linking words are called conjonctions:
Mais, Où, Que, Quand, Et, Or, Donc, Du coup,…
There’s two types, but I won’t expend on that. If you want to understand this, check out the end of this article.
But really, you know most of them already.
Now you’re going to tell me.
Is that all? You said 'sentence structure is grammar all together'...
Because, then, every detail you want to add will probably have a different place in the sentence, depending on its nature and its function.
Adverbs, pronoun, adjective, preposition…
And that’s why, when you’re saying ‘I struggle with sentence structure’, it really means ‘I struggle with grammar’.
From this point on, it’s a matter of case by case.
You have you building blocks in place, with your glue-words, now it’s time to add some decorations.
Want do add a notion of time? It’s generally found at the beginning.
Hier, j’ai pris un bain, et je me suis lavé les cheveux. = Yesterday I took a bath and washed my hair.
Demain, Thomas retourne au lycée parce qu’il redouble sa terminale. = Tomorrow, Thomas is going back to High-school because he’s repeating his senior year.
Your sentence need some adjectives? They are generally put after the noun it gives details on.
Mon père s’est acheté une voiture jaune. = My father bought himself a yellow car.Parfois, je bois du thé noir le matin. Mais généralement, je préfère un café léger. = Sometimes, I drink black tea in the morning. but usually, I prefer a light coffee.
And the way to remember all those rules, is to implement them in your practise as you learn them. That’s really how you learn anything, by doing.
Busy bee? Read this.
And in our case, by speaking, writing, and actively looking for the pattern when you’re listening and reading.
Is it clearer?
- Building blocks as a foundations.
- Linking words (prepositions) to glue them together.
- And decorations (with their own rules) to add details to your sentences, which are placed in the sentence depending on their grammatical function.
Perfect, now that you are on point with this. You can dig deeper, and start applying this with my complete French sentence structures guide👇
5 thoughts on “French sentence structure 🔨 French Sentence Building made easy”
Excellent, merci beaucoup
Thanks for the article:) as for me, you give the best explanation of French sentence construction. I’ve just started learning, and now everything in my head is a mess…..😂 But I hope to put it in order soon)
I like the humour you add to your teaching 😉 , very nice article as usual, keep it up and a la prochaine!
Merci Jon 😀 I hope you had a real laugh 🇫🇷
Thanks for the article:) as for me, you give the best explanation of French sentence construction. I’ve just started learning, and now everything in my head is a mess…..😂 But I hope to put it in order soon)