Avoid These French Grammar Mistakes

Posted on 10. Apr, 2014 by Hichem in Culture, Grammar, Vocabulary

It is very often tempting to just think in your own native language and then try to express that in a different one you are trying to learn.

You probably noticed that already: It does not always work that way—especially not with French!

Today, we’ll be going through some examples that illustrate a sentence construction that is allowed in English grammar but is a definite non-non in la grammaire française.

Consider the two following sentence constructions in English:

Jacques sent a letter to Marie.

Jacques sent Marie a letter.

In both sentences, the word “letter” is l’object direct (the direct object) whereas “family” is l’object indirect (the indirect object.)

In a passive sentence, both ways are also correct in English:

A letter was sent to Marie by Jacques.

Marie was sent a letter by Jacques.

Now, if we move to French and try to say the same, we definitely can’t say:

Marie a été envoyée une lettre par Jacques.arie a été envoyée une lettre par Jacques.

But you could say:

Une lettre a été envoyée à Marie par Jacques.

The reason is that French grammar only allows this form of prepositional object construction: Envoyer <direct object> à <indirect object.>

“Jacques a envoyé une lettre à Marie” is correct.

But

“Jacques a envoyé Marie une lettre” is definitely incorrect.

Granted, you may hear the latter construction in French movies, for example. But don’t let that fool you, because that could be just a way to portray or hint at an uneducated character, for example!

Other common French verbs than “envoyer” (to send) for which the above applies are: apprendre… à… (to teach… to…); demander… à… (to ask… …); dire… à… (to tell… to…); écrire… à… (to write… to…); donner… à… (to give… to…); laisser… à… (to leave… to…); montrer… à… (to show… to…); pardonner… à… (to forgive… to…); promettre… à… (to promise… to…), etc.