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French phrases, by meaning
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Common questions about French
What does this French page actually cover?
Thirty-four functional categories of meaning, with French examples in each: tense and aspect (présent, imparfait, passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur simple, futur antérieur), modality (pouvoir, devoir, falloir, vouloir), the wrap-around negation (ne...pas, ne...rien, ne...jamais, ne...personne), questions through inversion or est-ce que, comparison (plus...que, moins...que), the subjunctive after que, and 28 others. Every example carries a word-by-word gloss.
Why does French need both passé composé and imparfait?
They carve up past time differently. Passé composé reports a completed event ('J'ai mangé' = I ate, done); imparfait paints background or habitual action ('Je mangeais' = I was eating, used to eat). Most French past-tense narratives weave the two together: imparfait sets the scene, passé composé delivers the foreground events. Phrases on this page show the contrast in concrete sentences.
When does the subjunctive actually appear?
After que clauses governed by emotion, desire, doubt, necessity, or judgment: il faut que tu viennes, je veux que tu sois là, je doute qu'il sache. Also after certain conjunctions (avant que, bien que, pour que). Indicative covers what the speaker presents as fact; subjunctive covers what's filtered through someone's attitude. Examples in the Modality and Hypotheticals sections trace the boundary.
How does French handle formal versus informal address?
Through tu (familiar, singular) versus vous (formal singular and plural). Tu is for friends, family, children, animals; vous is the default with strangers, professionals, and elders. Choosing wrong feels rude — especially using tu unsolicited with someone older or in a formal setting. Verbs conjugate differently for the two (tu manges vs. vous mangez), so register is locked into the grammar.
Is this Metropolitan French or another variety?
Standard Metropolitan French, the Paris-centered variety used in education, broadcasting, and writing across France. Québécois, Belgian, Swiss, and African Frenches share most of this grammar but diverge in pronunciation, some vocabulary, and a few constructions; the structures shown here are the broadly understood standard. Where colloquial usage strongly diverges (e.g., the on = nous shift), it's noted in context.
Sources for French
The grammatical descriptions on this page are informed by the following published reference and descriptive grammars. Grammatical facts themselves are not subject to copyright; the scholars who documented them deserve attribution.
- Grevisse, Maurice & Goosse, André (2008). Le Bon Usage, 14e éd. De Boeck. — The definitive French grammar reference ("the grammar bible"), continuously updated since 1936; ~1600 pp covering all aspects of French grammar with extensive examples from literary and contemporary sources. [via static/grammar-library/fra/grevisse-goosse-2008-bon-usage-14e.pdf]
- Riegel, Martin; Pellat, Jean-Christophe & Rioul, René (2011). Grammaire méthodique du français, 4e éd. Paris: PUF (Quadrige Manuels). — Major university-level reference grammar, widely used in French linguistics departments; comprehensive, methodical approach to syntax, morphology, and semantics. [via static/grammar-library/fra/riegel-pellat-rioul-2011-grammaire-methodique.pdf]
- Hawkins, Roger & Towell, Richard (2015). French Grammar and Usage, 4th ed. Routledge Reference Grammars. ISBN 978-1-138-85110-8. — Practical usage-focused reference grammar. [via static/grammar-library/fra/hawkins-towell-2015-french-grammar-usage.pdf]
- Fagyal, Zsuzsanna; Kibbee, Douglas & Jenkins, Fred (2006). French: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. [via static/grammar-library/fra/fagyal-kibbee-jenkins-2006-french-linguistic-intro.pdf]
- Detey, Sylvain; Durand, Jacques; Laks, Bernard & Lyche, Chantal (eds.) (2016). Varieties of Spoken French. Oxford University Press. — PFC project methodology and global French varieties. [via static/grammar-library/fra/detey-durand-laks-lyche-2016-varieties-spoken-french.pdf]