139 Adjectives in French tend to follow the noun (e.g. un livre difficile ‘a difficult book’). However, some adjectives must and others may precede the noun (e.g. un petit garçon ‘a little boy’), and there is indeed an increasing tendency on the part of journalists and others to put in front of the noun adjectives that would more usually be found after it (e.g. une importante décision for une décision importante ‘an important decision’) (see 148). A safe principle to follow is that the adjective should be placed after the noun unless there is some reason for doing otherwise. The main rules and tendencies relating to contexts in which the adjective must or may come before the noun are set out in sections 140–151.
140 The following adjectives usually precede the noun:
| beau, beautiful, fine | mauvais, bad |
| bon, good | meilleur, better, best |
| bref, brief | moindre, less, least |
| grand, big, great | petit, little, small |
| gros, big | sot, foolish |
| haut, high | vaste, immense |
| jeune, young | vieux, old |
| joli, pretty | vilain, ugly, nasty |
This remains true even when these adjectives are preceded by one or other of the short adverbs assez ‘rather, quite’, aussi ‘as’, bien ‘very’, fort ‘very’, moins ‘less’, plus ‘more’, si ‘so’, très ‘very’, e.g. un assez bon rapport ‘quite a good report’, une plus jolie robe ‘a prettier dress’, un très grand plaisir ‘a very great pleasure’.
Note, however: (i) d’un ton bref ‘curtly’, une voyelle brève ‘a short vowel’; (ii) la marée haute ‘high tide’, à voix haute (or à haute voix) ‘aloud’; (iii) un sourire mauvais ‘a nasty smile’ (and also with various other nouns – consult a good dictionary).
If modified by a longer adverb or adverbial phrase these adjectives normally follow the noun, e.g. une femme exception-nellement jolie ‘an exceptionally pretty woman’, un homme encore jeune ‘a man still young’, des différences tout à fait petites ‘quite slight differences’.
141 Court ‘short’ and long ‘long’ tend to precede the noun (e.g. un court intervalle ‘a short interval’, une courte lettre ‘a short letter’, un long voyage ‘a long journey’, une longue liste ‘a long list’) except when (as frequently happens) there is a contrast or an implied contrast, i.e. ‘short as opposed to long’ or vice versa, e.g. une robe courte, une robe longue ‘a short/long dress’, des cheveux courts/longs ‘short/long hair’, une voyelle courte/longue ‘a short/long vowel’.
142 Dernier ‘last’ (see also 183) and prochain ‘next’ meaning ‘last or next as from now’ follow words designating specific moments or periods of time such as semaine ‘week’, mois ‘month’, an, année ‘year’, siècle ‘century’, names of the days of the week or of the seasons, and (in the case of dernier only) nuit ‘night’, e.g. la semaine dernière ‘last week’, le mois prochain ‘next month’, l’an dernier/prochain, l’année dernière/prochaine ‘last/next year’, le siècle dernier ‘last century’, lundi prochain ‘next Monday’, l’été dernier ‘last summer’, la nuit dernière ‘last night’. Otherwise they precede the noun, e.g. la dernière/prochaine fois ‘last time, next time’, la dernière semaine des vacances ‘the last week of the holidays’, la prochaine réunion ‘the next meeting’, le dernier mardi de juin ‘the last Tuesday in June’, le prochain village ‘the next village’.
143 Nouveau ‘new’ follows the noun when it means ‘newly created’ or ‘having just appeared for the first time’, e.g. du vin nouveau ‘new wine’, des pommes (de terre) nouvelles ‘new potatoes’, un mot nouveau ‘a new (i.e. newly coined) word’, une mode nouvelle ‘a new fashion’; otherwise – and most frequently – it precedes the noun, e.g. le nouveau gouvernement ‘the new government’, j’ai acheté une nouvelle voiture ‘I’ve bought a new (i.e. different) car’.
144 Faux ‘false’ usually precedes the noun, e.g. un faux problème ‘a false problem’, une fausse alerte ‘a false alarm’, une fausse fenêtre ‘a false window’, un faux prophète ‘a false prophet’, de faux papiers ‘false papers’, but follows it in certain expressions such as des diamants faux ‘false diamonds’, des perles fausses ‘false pearls’, un raisonnement faux ‘false reasoning’, des idées fausses ‘false ideas’.
145 Seul before the noun means ‘single, sole, (one and) only’, e.g. c’est mon seul ami ‘he is my only friend’, la seule langue qu’il comprenne ‘the only language he understands’. After the noun it means ‘alone, on one’s own’, e.g. une femme seule ‘a woman on her own’. Note too the use of the adjective seul in contexts where English uses ‘only’ as an adverb, e.g. Seuls les parents peuvent comprendre ‘Only parents can understand’, Seule compte la décision de l’arbitre ‘Only the referee’s decision (the referee’s decision alone) counts’.
146 Some other adjectives have one meaning when they precede the noun and a different one when they follow the noun. In some cases the two meanings are very clearly distinguishable. In other cases, the distinction is less sharp but there is a tendency for the adjective to have a literal meaning or to be used objectively when it follows the noun and to have a more figurative meaning or to be used more subjectively when it precedes the noun. It is not possible to give a full list of all such adjectives, nor is a grammar the place to attempt to cover the full range of meanings of each adjective that is listed – a dictionary should be consulted. The following list includes only the more common of the adjectives in question and some of their more usual meanings (others whose usage should be looked up in a dictionary include chic, digne, fameux, franc, maudit, plaisant, sacré, véritable):
| Meaning before the noun | Meaning after the noun | |
| ancien | former, ex- | old, ancient |
| brave | nice, good, decent | brave |
| certain | certain, some | sure, certain |
| cher | dear, beloved | dear, expensive |
| différent | (plural) various | (sing. and plural) different |
| divers | (plural) various, several | (sing. and plural) differing |
| méchant | poor, second-rate, nasty | malicious |
| même (see 300) | same | very, actual |
| pauvre | poor (pitiable, of poor quality) | poor, needy |
| propre | own | clean, suitable |
| sale | nasty | dirty |
| simple | mere | simple, single |
| triste | wretched, sad | sad, sorrowful |
| vrai | real, genuine | true |
Examples:
| un ancien cinéma a former cinema |
la ville ancienne the old city |
| au bout d’un certain temps after a certain time |
une preuve certaine definite proof |
| certains Français certain French people |
des indications certaines sure indications |
| différentes personnes various people |
des avis différents different opinions |
| un méchant petit livre a wretched little book |
des propos méchants malicious remarks |
| les mêmes paroles the same words |
ses paroles mêmes his very (actual) words |
| pauvre jeune homme! poor young man! |
un jeune homme pauvre a penniless young man |
| ma propre maison my own house |
une maison propre a clean house |
| le mot propre the right word |
|
| un sale tour a dirty trick |
des mains sales dirty hands |
| une simple formalité a mere formality |
une explication simple a simple explanation |
| un aller simple a single ticket |
147 A preceding adjective refers only to the noun that immediately follows; where there is, in English, an implication that an adjective refers to more than one following noun, it must be repeated in French, e.g.:
un beau printemps et un bel été
a fine spring and summer
les mêmes mots et les mêmes expressions
the same words and expressions
(On following adjectives qualifying more than one noun, see 127, iii.)
148 The following normally go after the noun:
(a) Adjectives denoting nationality or derived from proper names, or relating to political, philosophical, religious, artistic movements, etc., e.g.:
la langue française
the French language
une actrice américaine
an American actress
les provinces danubiennes
the Danubian provinces
la politique gaulliste
Gaullist policy (i.e. that of General de Gaulle)
un personnage cornélien
one of Corneille’s characters
les théories marxistes
Marxist theories
la religion chrétienne
the Christian religion
la peinture surréaliste
surrealist painting
(b) Adjectives denoting colour, shape or physical qualities (other than those, many of which relate to size, listed in 140), e.g.:
| une robe blanche | a white dress |
| une fenêtre ronde | a round window |
| un toit plat | a flat roof |
| une rue étroite | a narrow street |
| un oreiller mou | a soft pillow |
| une voix aiguë | a shrill voice |
| de l’or pur | pure gold |
| un goût amer | a bitter taste |
Some of these, however, may occur in front of the noun, particularly when they are used figuratively, e.g. le noir désespoir ‘black despair’, une étroite obligation ‘a strict obligation’, une molle résistance ‘feeble resistance’, la pure vérité ‘the plain truth’. But they by no means invariably precede the noun even when used figuratively (e.g. l’humour noir ‘sick humour’, une amitié étroite ‘a close friendship’).
(c) Present and past participles used as adjectives, e.g.:
| un livre amusant | an amusing book |
| du verre cassé | broken glass |
| la semaine passée | last week |
Note, however, that prétendu ‘so-called, alleged’ and the invariable adjective soi-disant ‘so-called’ (see 136, iii) precede the noun, e.g. mon prétendu ami ‘my so-called friend’, la prétendue injustice ‘the alleged injustice’, la soi-disant actrice ‘the so-called actress’.
149 In general, polysyllabic adjectives tend to follow rather than precede the noun. However, there seems to be an increasing tendency for such adjectives to be placed before the noun when they express a value judgement or, even more so, a subjective or emotional reaction. Such adjectives include adorable, affreux ‘dreadful’, délicieux ‘delightful’, effrayant ‘frightful’, effroyable ‘appalling’, énorme ‘enormous’, épouvantable ‘terrible’, excellent, extraordinaire ‘extraordinary’, important, inoubliable ‘unforgettable’, magnifique ‘magnificent’, superbe, terrible, and many others, e.g. un adorable petit village ‘a delightful little village’, une épouvantable catastrophe ‘a terrible catastrophe’, un magnifique coucher de soleil ‘a magnificent sunset’.
150 It is perfectly possible for a noun to take adjectives both before and after it, as in une belle robe bleue ‘a beautiful blue dress’, un jeune homme habile ‘a capable young man’.
151 A noun may be preceded and/or followed by two or more adjectives; except in the type of construction dealt with in 152 below, two adjectives preceding or following the noun are linked by et ‘and’ (or by ou ‘or’ if two following adjectives are presented as alternatives), e.g.:
une belle et vieille cathédrale
a beautiful old cathedral
un étudiant intelligent et travailleur
an intelligent, hard-working student
des journaux anglais ou français
English or French newspapers
Where more than two adjectives are associated in a similar way with the same noun, the last two are linked by et or ou, e.g. des étudiants intelligents, travailleurs et agréables ‘intelligent, hardworking, pleasant students’.
152 In the examples given in 151, each adjective modifies the noun so to speak independently and equally. Sometimes, however, one adjective modifies not just the noun but the group adjective + noun or noun + adjective, in which case there is no linking et, e.g. in un gentil petit garçon ‘a nice little boy’ the adjective gentil modifies the whole phrase petit garçon, and in la poésie française contemporaine ‘contemporary French poetry’ (in which the reference is not to poetry which happens to be both French and contemporary but to French poetry of the present time) contemporaine modifies the whole of the phrase la poésie française.
153 (i) When an adverb precedes the verb and governs a predicative adjective, English places the adjective immediately after the adverb it is linked to by grammar and sense, while French keeps the adjective in the usual position for predicative adjectives, viz. after the verb. This affects adjectives used with:
(a) the adverbs of comparison plus ‘more’ and moins ‘less’, e.g.:
Plus le problème devenait complexe, moins il paraissait inquiet
The more complex the problem got, the less worried he seemed
(b) with adverbs meaning ‘how’, viz. combien, comme and que, e.g.:
Je comprends combien vous devez être inquiet
I understand how worried you must be
Comme il est facile de se tromper!
How easy it is to be wrong!
Qu’il est bête!
How stupid he is!
(ii) French uses a parallel construction with tant, tellement ‘so’ where English tends to put the group ‘so’ + adjective after the verb, e.g.:
On aurait cru l’été, tant le soleil était beau (Loti)
You would have thought it was summer, the sun was so beautiful
(This could also be translated ‘so beautiful was the sun’ or, more idiomatically, ‘The sun was so beautiful that you would have thought it was summer’.)
Il n’y arrivera jamais, tellement il est nerveux
He’ll never manage to do it, he’s so nervous (He’s so nervous he’ll never manage)
154 In English, adjectives precede the adverb ‘enough’ but in French they follow the adverbs assez ‘enough’, suffisamment ‘enough, sufficiently’, e.g.:
Elle n’est pas assez intelligente pour comprendre
She isn’t intelligent enough to understand
Il est suffisamment grand pour voyager seul
He’s old enough to travel on his own
155 As adjectives and adverbs have the same degrees of comparison and as the constructions involved are the same in each case we shall discuss them together.
156 There are four degrees of comparison, but one, the comparative of equality or inequality, sometimes known as the equative, has no special forms in either English or French (see 157). They are:
| (i) | the absolute – e.g. (in English) good, hard, difficult, easily | |
| (ii) | the equative – e.g. (not) as good as, (not) as easily as | |
| (iii) | the comparative, which can be subdivided into: | |
| (a) | the comparative of superiority, e.g. better, harder, more difficult, more easily | |
| (b) | the comparative of inferiority, e.g. less good, less easily | |
| (iv) | the superlative – e.g. the best, the hardest, the most difficult, (the) most easily. | |
The comparative of equality or inequality (the equative)
157 In affirmative sentences the comparative of equality (English ‘as … as …’) is expressed by aussi … que … , e.g.:
Il est aussi grand que vous
He is as big as you (are)
Elle est aussi intelligente que belle
She is as intelligent as she is beautiful
Il comprend aussi facilement que vous
He understands as easily as you (do)
Ils sont aussi charmants que vous le dites
They are as charming as you say
In negative sentences, aussi is usually replaced by si, e.g.:
Il n’est pas si grand que vous
He is not as big as you (are)
Ils ne sont pas si charmants que vous le dites
They are not as charming as you say
though aussi is possible (Il n’est pas aussi grand que vous).
On constructions of the type Il est aussi grand que vous ‘He is as big as you (are)’, Vous travaillez aussi énergiquement que nous ‘You work as energetically as we (do)’, i.e. where English has the option of using after a comparative a verb that repeats or stands for that of the previous clause, see 173.
158 As in English, the second half of the comparison may be omitted, e.g.:
Je n’ai jamais vu un si (or aussi) beau spectacle
I never saw so fine a sight
The comparative and superlative of superiority or inferiority
159 The comparative of superiority or of inferiority is formed (apart from the cases noted in 161) by means of the adverbs plus ‘more’ or moins ‘less’, e.g.:
| absolute | comparative of superiority |
comparative of inferiority |
| intelligent intelligent |
plus intelligent more intelligent |
moins intelligent less intelligent |
| facilement easily |
plus facilement more easily |
moins facilement less easily |
| souvent often |
plus souvent more often |
moins souvent less often |
The adjective agrees in the normal way, e.g. Elle est plus grande que moi ‘She is taller than me’, dans des circonstances moins heureuses ‘in less happy circumstances’.
160 (i) The superlative of adjectives of superiority or of inferiority is formed (apart from the cases noted in 161) by placing the definite article, in the appropriate gender and number, before the comparative, e.g.:
| absolute | superlative of superiority |
superlative of inferiority |
| intelligent | le plus intelligent | le moins intelligent |
| intelligent | the most intelligent | the least intelligent |
Adjectives that normally precede the noun (see 140) also do so in the superlative, e.g.:
| le plus jeune garçon | the youngest boy |
| la moins belle vue | the least beautiful view |
| les plus grandes difficultés | the greatest difficulties |
With adjectives that follow the noun, the superlative is constructed as follows:
| l’homme le plus intelligent | the most intelligent man |
| la femme la plus intelligente | the most intelligent woman |
| les hommes les moins intelligents | the least intelligent men |
| les femmes les moins intelligentes | the least intelligent women |
Note that, with either a preceding or a following adjective, a possessive determiner (see 223) may be substituted for the definite article according to the following models:
(a) with a preceding adjective:
| mon plus grand plaisir | my greatest pleasure |
| sa moins belle sœur | his least beautiful sister |
| nos plus vieux amis | our oldest friends |
(b) with a following adjective:
| son livre le plus célèbre | his most famous book |
| ma cousine la moins intelligente | my least intelligent cousin |
| nos montagnes les plus élevées | our highest mountains |
(ii) The superlative of adverbs is formed by placing le before the comparative, e.g.:
| le plus agréablement | the most pleasantly |
| le moins souvent | the least often |
Note that, since adverbs cannot agree (like adjectives) with nouns or pronouns, these forms are invariable, i.e. the article is always le, e.g.:
C’est elle qui travaille le plus intelligemment
She is the one who works the most intelligently
(For the superlative adverb modifying an adjective, see 170.)
161 The comparative and superlative of the adjectives bon ‘good’, mauvais ‘bad’, petit ‘small’ and of the corresponding adverbs have the following irregular forms (but see also 163 and 164):
| absolute | comparative | superlative |
| bon, good | meilleur, better | le meilleur, best |
| mauvais, bad | pire, worse | le pire, worst |
| petit, small | moindre, less(er) | le moindre, least |
| bien, well | mieux, better | le mieux, best |
| mal, badly | pis, worse | le pis, worst |
| peu, little | moins, less | le moins, least |
The adjectives agree in gender and number with their nouns as follows:
The adverbs are of course invariable.
Note that some, but not all, of these forms are subject to certain restrictions and that, for some of them, ‘regular’ comparatives and superlatives such as (le) plus mauvais occur – see 163–164.
162 The comparative and superlative of bon and bien are always (le) meilleur and (le) mieux respectively, e.g.:
Ce pain est meilleur que l’autre
This bread is better than the other
Leurs meilleurs amis
Their best friends
Il chante mieux que vous
He sings better than you (do)
C’est le matin que je travaille le mieux
It’s in the morning that I work (the) best
The rule applies even to expressions such as bon marché ‘cheap’ (meilleur marché ‘cheaper’, le meilleur marché ‘cheapest’) and de bonne heure ‘early’ (de meilleure heure ‘earlier’ – though a more usual rendering for ‘earlier’ is plus tôt).
163 The comparative and superlative of mauvais are either (le) pire or (le) plus mauvais. The two are often interchangeable, but in so far as there is any distinction it is (a) that (le) pire occurs more widely in literary than in spoken usage, and (b) that (le) pire in any case tends to be restricted to contexts in which it refers to abstract nouns, e.g.:
Votre attitude est pire que la sienne
Your attitude is worse than his
le pire danger
the worst danger
but:
Ce vin est plus mauvais que l’autre
This wine is worse than the other
le plus mauvais restaurant de la ville
the worst restaurant in town
(Note, however, that French often says moins bon ‘less good’ where English says ‘worse’, e.g. Cette route est moins bonne que l’autre ‘This road is worse than (or not as good as) the other’.)
The adverb (le) pis ‘worse, worst’ is even less used than pire and, for practical purposes, it can be assumed that the normal comparative and superlative of mal ‘badly’ are plus mal and le plus mal. Pis can never be used as an alternative to plus mal in, for example, a context such as Il chante plus mal que vous ‘He sings worse than you’. Apart from the one expression tant pis (pour vous, pour lui, etc.) ‘so much the worse (for you, for him, etc.)’, it is rarely heard in conversational usage and even in literary usage it is confined to a few expressions like aller de mal en pis ‘to go from bad to worse’, qui pis est ‘what is worse’, rien de pis ‘nothing worse’, le pis ‘the worst thing’, mettre les choses au pis ‘to put things at their worst, to assume the worst’, and even in some of these it can be replaced by pire, e.g. ce qui est pire ‘what is worse’, rien de pire, le pire, mettre les choses au pire. (Note too the use of moins bien ‘less well’ as a frequent alternative to plus mal.)
164 As the comparative and superlative of petit, the form (le) plus petit must always be used when reference is to physical size, e.g.:
Il est plus petit que je ne croyais
He is smaller than I thought
le plus petit verre
the smallest glass
The form moindre occasionally occurs as the equivalent of ‘less’, e.g. des choses de moindre importance ‘things of less importance’, but is more common as a superlative, particularly as the equivalent of English ‘least, slightest’, e.g.:
| son moindre défaut | his slightest failing |
| les moindres détails | the smallest details |
| sans la moindre difficulté | without the slightest difficulty |
| Je n’ai pas la moindre idée | I haven’t the slightest idea |
| la loi du moindre effort | the law of least effort |
On the other hand, the comparative and superlative of the adverb peu are invariably moins and le moins ‘less, (the) least’, e.g.:
moins difficile
less difficult
J’ai moins de temps que vous
I have less time than you
C’est lui que j’aime le moins
He is the one I like (the) least
Note that where English uses ‘the least’ with a noun, meaning ‘the least amount of’, French uses le moins de (with the optional addition, as in English, of the adjective possible), e.g.:
C’est comme ça qu’on le fait avec le moins de difficulté
That’s the way to do it with the least difficulty
Do not confuse this with constructions involving a negative or sans ‘without’, e.g.:
| De cette façon vous n’aurez pas la moindre difficulté | In this way you will not have the slightest difficulty |
| De cette façon vous le ferez sans la moindre difficulté | In this way you will do it without the slightest difficulty |
in which the meaning is not ‘the least amount of difficulty’ but ‘the smallest difficulty’.
165 The adverb beaucoup ‘much, many, a lot’ has as its comparative and superlative plus and le plus, e.g.:
J’ai plus de temps que vous
I have more time than you (have)
C’est le soir que je travaille le plus
It’s in the evening that I work most
166 ‘Than’ (except when followed by a numeral, see 167) is translated by que. In an affirmative sentence ne is often put before the following verb (see 563), e.g.:
Il est plus fort que son frère
He is stronger than his brother
Il travaille mieux que je (ne) croyais
He works better than I thought
167 Except in the type of sentence referred to in 168 below, ‘than’ followed by a numeral (including fractions) is translated by de instead of que, e.g.:
J’en ai plus de trente
I have more than thirty of them
Cela coûte plus de dix mille euros
That costs more than ten thousand euros
Il en a mangé plus de la moitié
He has eaten more than half of it
Il a vécu moins de dix ans
He lived less than ten years
168 In the type of sentence discussed in 167, ‘more than’ means ‘in excess of’ and ‘less than’ means ‘a quantity less than’. There is, however, a totally different construction in which ‘than’ is followed by a numeral and in which it is translated not by de but, as in most other contexts, by que, e.g.:
Un seul œuf d’autruche pèse plus que vingt œufs de poule
A single ostrich egg weighs more than twenty hen’s eggs
The reason is that this does not, of course, mean ‘more than twenty’ in the sense of ‘at least twenty-one’. What is being compared is the weight of an ostrich egg and the weight of hen’s eggs; vingt œufs de poule is in fact the subject of a clause whose verb is understood but which could have been expressed, in either French or English:
Un seul œuf d’autruche pèse plus que vingt œufs de poule ne pèsent
A single ostrich egg weighs more than twenty hen’s eggs weigh
The sentence in question is therefore an exact parallel with a sentence such as the following which does not involve a numeral:
Cet œuf pèse plus que celui-là
This egg weighs more than that one
169 When a comparative or superlative relates to two or more adjectives or adverbs, (le) plus or (le) moins is repeated with each, even if the corresponding adverb is not repeated in English e.g.:
Il est plus intelligent et plus travailleur que son frère
He is more intelligent and hard-working than his brother
Elle parle moins couramment et moins correctement que vous
She speaks less fluently and correctly than you
le problème le plus compliqué et le plus difficile
the most complicated and difficult problem
170 (i) When le plus ‘the most’, le moins ‘the least’, le mieux ‘the best’ followed by an adjective or a participle have the value of ‘to the highest (lowest, best) extent’, i.e. when the comparison is not between different persons or things but between different conditions relating to the same person(s) or thing(s), the article is invariable (i.e. always le), e.g.:
C’est en été qu’elle est le plus heureuse
She is happiest in summer (It is in summer that she is happiest)
(i.e. in summer ‘she’ is happier than the same ‘she’ in other conditions)
C’est quand ils sont fatigués qu’ils sont le moins tolérants
It’s when they are tired that they are (at their) least tolerant
C’est ici qu’elles seront le mieux placées pour voir
This is where they’ll be best placed (i.e. in the best position) to see
(ii) When other adverbs in the superlative (i.e. adverbs themselves qualified by le plus or le moins) qualify an adjective or participle, either construction is sometimes possible, with a slight (almost negligible) difference in meaning, e.g. les soldats les plus gravement blessés ‘the most seriously wounded soldiers’ interpreted as a parallel construction to les soldats les plus malades (i.e. the construction is les plus + gravement blessés), or les soldats le plus gravement blessés, interpreted as ‘the soldiers who are wounded to the most serious extent’ (i.e. le plus gravement + blessés). However, it seems that in practice, and regardless of logic, the former construction, with a definite article agreeing with the noun, is the usual one.
171 Note the following uses of de in comparative or superlative constructions:
(i) to express the ‘measure of difference’ (i.e. the extent to which the items compared differ), e.g.:
Il est plus grand que vous de trois centimètres
He is three centimetres taller than you
Ce dictionnaire est de beaucoup le plus cher
This dictionary is by far the most expensive
(this is not restricted to comparative and superlative constructions – cf. dépasser quelqu’un d’une tête ‘to be a head taller than someone’, gagner de trois longueurs ‘to win by three lengths’)
(ii) as the equivalent of English ‘in’ in such contexts as:
l’élève le plus paresseux de la classe
the laziest boy in the class
le meilleur restaurant de Paris
the best restaurant in Paris
172 Le plus and le moins are always superlatives in French, never comparatives. Consequently, plus and moins alone, with no article, are used in such contexts as the following where English uses the definite article ‘the’ with a comparative:
Plus il gagne, moins il est content
The more he earns, the less contented he is
Plus tôt vous arriverez, plus tôt vous pourrez partir
The earlier you arrive the earlier you’ll be able to get away
In literary usage, the second term of the comparison is sometimes introduced by et, e.g.:
Plus je vieillis, et moins je pleure (Sully Prudhomme)
The older I grow, the less I weep
173 After a comparative of equality (see the end of section 157), superiority or inferiority, French normally does not use a second verb that merely repeats or stands for (like ‘did’ in the third example below) the verb of the previous clause, e.g.:
Il est aussi grand que moi
He is as tall as I (am)
J’ai plus de temps que vous
I have more time than you (have)
Il a chanté mieux que son frère
He sang better than his brother (did)
Absolute superlative
174 (i) There is an important distinction to be made between the type of superlative adjective discussed in 160 (i.e. the type l’enfant le plus intelligent ‘the most intelligent child’) and a not dissimilar construction in which English uses not the definite article ‘the’ but the indefinite article (e.g. ‘a most intelligent child’) or, in the plural, no article (e.g. ‘those are most dangeous ideas’). The former, which characterizes a noun in relation to others of the same kind, is known as the ‘relative superlative’. The latter, which expresses the idea that the person or thing denoted by the noun is characterized by a high degree of the quality denoted by the adjective, is known as the ‘absolute superlative’.
The absolute superlative in French is constructed as follows:
un enfant des plus exaspérants
a most exasperating child
une situation des plus difficiles
a most difficult situation
Ces idées-là sont des plus dangereuses
Those ideas are most dangerous
The use of a plural adjective even when the noun is in the singular will be understood if it is appreciated that un enfant des plus exaspérants, for example, means something like ‘a child from among the most exasperating ones of his kind’.
Alternatively (and very frequently), an intensifying adverb may be used, e.g. un enfant tout à fait exaspérant, Ces idées-là sont extrêmement dangereuses.
Ambiguity may arise in English from the fact that ‘most’ can express either a relative or an absolute superlative. For example, the sentence ‘The situation is most difficult in Paris’ may mean either
(a) ‘It is in Paris that the situation is (the) most difficult’, i.e. we have a relative superlative, C’est à Paris que la situation est le plus difficile (see 170), or
(b) ‘The situation in Paris is extremely difficult’, i.e. we have an absolute superlative, La situation à Paris est des plus difficiles.
In such contexts, care must be taken to select the appropriate French equivalent.
(ii) Unlike English ‘most’, plus is not used in French to express the absolute superlative with adverbs; various other equivalents exist, however, e.g.:
Il conduit avec beaucoup de prudence
He drives most carefully
Elle s’exprime d’une manière extrêmement intelligente
She expresses herself most intelligently
175 (i) Many adjectives of colour and some others are used as nouns with a variety of meanings for which a dictionary must be consulted, e.g.:
| le beau | the beautiful, that which is beautiful |
| le blanc | the white (of an egg, of the eye) |
| un bleu | a bruise |
| le noir | darkness |
176 (ii) Some adjectival nouns originate in expressions of the type noun + adjective; as a result of ellipsis of the noun, the adjective has taken on the function of a noun carrying the meaning of the whole expression, e.g.:
| du bleu | for du fromage bleu, ‘blue cheese’ |
| un (petit) noir | for un café noir, ‘a black coffee’ |
| du rouge | for du vin rouge, ‘red wine’ |
| un complet | for un costume complet, ‘a suit’ |
| la capitale | for la ville capitale, ‘capital (city)’ |
| la majuscule | for la lettre majuscule, ‘capital (letter)’ |
177 (iii) Adjectives can be used as nouns with reference to humans more freely in French than in English. Note in particular that, whereas in English a nominalized adjective with reference to humans is normally plural (e.g. ‘the poor’ = ‘poor people’, ‘the blind’ = ‘blind people’), the fact that French has distinct masculine singular, feminine singular, and plural articles and other determiners (see 23) means that one can have, e.g., un pauvre ‘a poor man’, une pauvre ‘a poor woman’, des pauvres ‘poor people’, le muet ‘the dumb man’, la muette ‘the dumb woman’, cet aveugle ‘this blind man’, cette aveugle ‘this blind woman’, les aveugles ‘blind people’, and, in cases where there are distinct forms for the masculine and feminine adjectives, a distinction in the plural between, for example, les sourds ‘the deaf men’ or ‘the deaf (in general)’ and les sourdes ‘the deaf women’.
178 Cardinal numbers express numerical quantity, i.e. ‘one, two, three, etc.’, while ordinal numbers express numerical sequence, i.e. ‘first, second, third, etc.’.
The French cardinals and ordinals are:
179 Notes on pronunciation (for phonetic symbols, see 2):
(a) Cinq is pronounced [s
k] when final (e.g. j’en ai cinq ‘I have five of them’) and [sk] in liaison (e.g. cinq enfants ‘five children’) but [s] before a consonant (see note c) (e.g. cinq jours ‘five days’, though there is an increasing tendency in conversational speech to pronounce [sk] even there).
(b) Six and dix are pronounced [sis] and [dis] when final (e.g. j’en ai six ‘I have six of them’), [siz] and [diz] in liaison (e.g. dix ans ‘ten years’), and [si] and [di] before a consonant (see note c), (e.g. six jours ‘six days’, dix jours ‘ten days’).
(c) ‘Before a consonant’ in notes a and b relates only to contexts in which the numeral directly governs a following noun (as in cinq jours) or adjective (as in dix beaux livres ‘ten beautiful books’); in contexts such as dix pour cent ‘ten per cent’ this does not apply and the numerals are pronounced [sk, sis, dis].
(d) Neuf is pronounced [nœf] except in the two phrases neuf ans [nœvã] ‘nine years’ and neuf heures [nœvœr] ‘nine o’clock’, so neuf jours [nœf 3ur] ‘nine days’, neuf arbres [nœf arbr] ‘nine trees’, etc.
(e) Vingt on its own is pronounced [v] but it is pronounced [vt] not only in liaison (i.e. vingt et un [vt e 
]) but also before a consonant in the numbers ‘22’ to ‘29’ (e.g. vingt-quatre [vtkatr]); but note that the -t of quatre-vingt(s) is never pronounced, not even in quatre-vingt-un.
(f) In Belgium and Switzerland, ‘70’ and ‘90’ are septante (pronounced [sεptãt] – contrast sept [sεt] and septième [sεtjεm]) and nonante respectively, and hence septante et un ‘71’, nonanterois ‘93’, etc. However, ‘80’ is usually quatre-vingts though huitante does exist in some parts of Switzerland (but not in Belgium).
180 Remarks:
(a) Hyphens are used in compound numbers except before or after et, cent (or centième), mille (or millième), e.g.:
| vingt-deux, twenty-two | vingt et un, twenty-one |
(b) Et is used in vingt et un ‘21’ and likewise in ‘31’, ‘41’, ‘51’ and ‘61’ and also in soixante et onze ‘71’ (and in ‘121’, ‘237’, ‘371’, etc.), but not in other numerals ending in ‘1’, quatre-vingt-un ‘81’, quatre-vingt-onze ‘91’, cent un ‘101’, deux cent un ‘201’, etc.
(c) Quatre-vingts ‘80’ loses its -s before another numeral, e.g. quatre-vingt-trois ‘83’.
(d) Cent ‘100’ takes a plural -s in round hundreds, e.g. deux cents ‘200’, but not before another numeral, e.g. deux cent trois ‘203’, while mille ‘1000’ never takes an -s, e.g. deux mille ‘two thousand’.
(e) Un is not used with cent ‘100’ or mille ‘1000’, e.g. Il vécut cent ans ‘He lived for a hundred years’, Il possède mille hectares de vignes ‘He owns a thousand hectares of vines’.
(f) The normal form for ‘1100’ is onze cents ‘eleven hundred’ (mille cent is virtually unused); from ‘1200’ to ‘1900’ (and particularly from ‘1200’ to ‘1600’), the forms douze cents ‘twelve hundred’, etc., are preferred to mille deux cents, etc. The same is true of dates of the Christian era, but note in addition that in this case, if the form in ‘one thousand’ is used, then the spelling is mil, e.g. en l’an mil huit cent (no -s – see 182) ‘in the year 1800’ (but ‘the year one thousand’ is l’an mille).
(g) When ‘a thousand and one’ means a large indefinite number (‘umpteen’), it is mille et un(e), e.g. J’ai mille et une choses à faire ‘I have a thousand and one things to do’; note too as an exception, Les Mille et une nuits ‘The Thousand and One Nights (i.e. The Arabian Nights)’.
(h) For the translation of ‘than’ before a numeral, see 167.
(i) Apart from a few fixed expressions, such as (apprendre quelque chose) de seconde main ‘(to learn something) at second hand’, en second lieu ‘secondly’, second and deuxième are interchangeable; the ‘rule’ that second is preferred with reference to the second of two (only) and deuxième when there are more than two can safely be ignored. Note that second is pronounced [s
g
].
181 Note that de is used after un millier ‘(about) a thousand’, un million ‘a million’ and multiples thereof and un milliard ‘a thousand million’ (or a ‘billion’ in American and now generally in British usage – the older sense of ‘a billion’ in British usage is ‘a million million’, which is also now the official definition of un billion in French, though it used to be the equivalent of un milliard), e.g.:
des milliers de dollars
thousands of dollars
cinquante millions de Français
fifty million Frenchmen
deux milliards de dollars
two billion dollars
182 Cardinal numbers (not ordinals as in English) are used:
(a) in dates, e.g.:
| le trois janvier | the third of January |
| le vingt et un juin | the twenty-first of June |
(b) with names of monarchs, popes, etc., e.g.:
| Louis XV (= ‘quinze’) | Louis XV (= ‘the Fifteenth’) |
| Élisabeth II (= ‘deux’) | Elizabeth II (= ‘the Second’) |
| le pape Jean XXIII (= ‘vingt-trois’) | Pope John XXIII (= ‘the Twenty-third’) |
In both such contexts, however, the ordinal premier is used, e.g.:
| le premier mai | the first of May |
| François premier | Francis the First |
The ordinal is invariably used with reference to the arrondissements (districts) of Paris, e.g. habiter dans le seizième (arrondissement) ‘to live in the sixteenth arrondissement’, and usually with reference to floors, e.g. habiter au troisième (étage) ‘to live on the third floor’. It may also be used, as in English, with reference to chapters, etc., e.g. au dixième chapitre ‘in the tenth chapter’. However, as in English the cardinal is normally used in contexts such as the following:
| la page vingt-cinq | page twenty-five |
| le chapitre dix | chapter ten |
| habiter au (numéro) trente | to live in (house) number thirty |
| Je suis au vingt-quatre | I’m in (room) number twenty-four |
Note that in such contexts, i.e. when they serve as the equivalent of ordinals, quatre-vingt ‘80’ and cent ‘100’ (in the plural) do not take a final -s (contrast 178, and 180 c and d), e.g.:
| à la page quatre-vingt | on page eighty |
| habiter au numéro trois cent | to live in number three hundred |
| l’an sept cent | the year seven hundred |
(For ‘every other, every third’, etc., see 317,ii,b.)
183 Conversely to what happens in English, cardinals precede premier ‘first’ and dernier ‘last’, e.g.:
| les dix premières pages | the first ten pages |
| les trois derniers mois | the last three months |
184 For ‘both’, ‘all three’, etc., see 317,ii,f.
185 The following ten nouns ending in -aine express an approximate number:
une huitaine, about eight
une dizaine, about ten
une douzaine, a dozen
une quinzaine, about fifteen
une vingtaine, a score, about twenty
une trentaine, about thirty
une quarantaine, about forty
une cinquantaine, about fifty
une soixantaine, about sixty
une centaine, about a hundred
e.g. J’ai écrit une vingtaine de lettres
I’ve written about twenty letters
Une huitaine is used particularly in the expression une huitaine de jours (i.e. ‘a week’) and une quinzaine whether or not followed by de jours frequently means ‘a fortnight’. As in English, une douzaine ‘a dozen’ can mean ‘precisely twelve’ in such expressions as une douzaine d’œufs ‘a dozen eggs’. The terms trentaine, quarantaine, cinquantaine and soixantaine can refer to age in such expressions as atteindre la quarantaine ‘to reach the age of forty’, Elle a dépassé la cinquantaine ‘She is over fifty’.
Note that similar forms based on other numerals either do not exist or are no longer in use (apart from une neuvaine which is used only in the sense of ‘novena’).
186 French has no adverbs to express numerical frequency (corresponding to English ‘once, twice, thrice’). The word fois ‘time’ is used, e.g. une fois ‘once’, deux fois ‘twice’, trente-six fois ‘thirty-six times’. Note the construction dix fois sur vingt ‘ten times out of twenty’.
187 The multiplicatives double ‘double, twofold’, triple ‘triple, treble, threefold’, quadruple ‘quadruple, fourfold’, centuple ‘hundredfold’ are used both as adjectives (in which case they often precede the noun), e.g. une consonne double ‘a double consonant’, un triple menton ‘a treble chin’, and (preceded by the definite article) as nouns, e.g. le double de ce que j’ai payé ‘double what I paid’, le quadruple de la récolte de l’an dernier ‘four times (as much as) last year’s harvest’.
Apart from the forms quoted above, only the following exist, and some of these are not much used: quintuple ‘fivefold’, sextuple ‘sixfold’, septuple ‘sevenfold’, octuple ‘eightfold’, nonuple (very rarely used) ‘ninefold’, décuple ‘tenfold’.
188 A ‘half’ is either (un) demi or la moitié, but the two are by no means interchangeable (and see also 189). We can distinguish three types of function, viz. (i) as nouns, (ii) as adjectives, (iii) as adverbs:
(i) Apart from a few contexts in which it is a nominalized adjective (see ii,c, below), un demi exists as a noun only as a mathematical term, e.g. Deux demis font un entier ‘Two halves make a whole’. Otherwise, la moitié must be used (and note that, when it is the subject of the verb, the verb may be either singular or plural, depending on the sense – the same is also true of other fractions), e.g.:
Il n’a écrit que la moitié de son roman
He has only written half his novel
couper une orange en deux moitiés
to cut an orange into two halves
La moitié de la ville a été inondée
Half the town was flooded
La moitié de mes amis habitent à Paris
Half my friends live in Paris
la première (seconde) moitié
the first (second) half
(ii) Demi occurs in the following circumstances:
(a) before a noun in the sense of ‘half (a) …’; it is then invariable and is linked to the noun by a hyphen, e.g. un demi-pain ‘half a loaf’, un demi-frère ‘a half-brother’, une demi-heure ‘half an hour’, une demi-bouteille ‘half a bottle’, des demi-mesures ‘half-measures’;
(b) after the noun and preceded by et, meaning ‘… and a half’; it is then written as a separate word and takes an -e if the noun is feminine, e.g. un kilo et demi ‘a kilo and a half, one and a half kilos’, une heure et demie ‘an hour and a half, one and a half hours, half past one’, trois heures et demie ‘three and a half hours, half past three’;
(c) with an implied noun (as in a above), in contrast to a noun expressing a whole object, e.g. Vous voulez un pain? Non, un demi ‘Do you want a loaf? No, a half (half a loaf)’; note (in contrast to une demi-bouteille, etc., see a above) that demi takes -e in agreement with a feminine noun when the noun itself is omitted, e.g. Nous allons commander une bouteille de vin? – Une demie suffira ‘Shall we order a bottle of wine?’ ‘A half (bottle) will be enough’. Note too the following instances in which the noun has been completely dropped and the adjective has therefore become fully nominalized (see 176):
un demi ‘glass of beer’ (originally un demi-litre, but now contains less)
un demi ‘half-back’ (in football – for un demi-arrière)
(iii) As adverbs, à demi and à moitié are in most cases interchangeable (but see below), in particular:
(a) before an adjective or participle, e.g.:
à demi plein/vide, à moitié plein/vide
half full/empty
à demi ouvert/pourri, à moitié ouvert/pourri
half open/rotten
(b) after a verb, e.g.:
ouvrir la porte à demi/à moitié
to half-open the door
Vous avez fait le travail à demi/à moitié
You have (only) half done the work
remplir un verre à demi/à moitié
to half-fill a glass
Note, however, the use of à moitié (but not of à demi) in a small number of expressions with nouns, in particular à moitié prix ‘(at) half-price’ and à moitié chemin ‘half-way’ (but à mi-chemin, see below, is more usual). Moitié (without à) also occurs in various other expressions such as moitié moitié ‘half-and-half, fifty-fifty’, (diviser quelque chose) par moitié ‘(to divide something) in half, in two’, être pour moitié dans quelque chose ‘to be half responsible for something’ (for other such expressions, consult a good dictionary).
189 The old noun mi ‘a half’ is still used adverbially in such constructions as mi pleurant et mi souriant ‘half weeping and half smiling’, mi-fil et mi-coton ‘half linen and half cotton’; in the expression mi-clos ‘half-shut’, and in a number of expressions with à mi including the following (for others, consult a dictionary):
à mi-chemin, half-way
à mi-distance, half-way, midway
à mi-hauteur, half-way up
à mi-pente, half-way up or down the slope
(travailler) à mi-temps, (to work) half-time
à mi-voix, in an undertone
190 ‘A third’ and ‘a quarter’ are un tiers and un quart respectively, e.g.:
| un tiers des votants | one third of those voting |
| un quart d’heure | a quarter of an hour |
La bouteille est aux trois quarts vide
The bottle is three-quarters empty
Other fractions have (as in English) the same form as the ordinals, e.g. un cinquième ‘a fifth’, sept huitièmes ‘seven eighths’, un centième ‘a hundredth’, etc.
191 When a fraction refers to part of a specific whole (i.e. to one introduced by the definite article or by a demonstrative or possessive determiner), French uses the definite article where English uses the indefinite article or (especially in the plural) no article, e.g.:
Il a perdu le quart de ses biens
He lost a quarter of his possessions
la moitié de la classe
half (of) the class
les sept huitièmes de la population
seven eighths of the population
192 The decimal system as used in France is based not on the point but on the comma, and the figures coming after the comma are often expressed as if they were whole numbers, e.g. 2.35 ‘two point three five’ becomes 2,35 deux virgule trente-cinq.
Introduction
193 Personal pronouns in French are either ‘conjunctive’ or ‘disjunctive’.
Conjunctive pronouns (see 198–213) are used only in direct association with a verb. They include (a) subject pronouns, e.g. Je vois ‘I see’, (b) direct and indirect object pronouns, e.g. (Pierre) la connaît ‘(Peter) knows her’, (Marie) leur écrit ‘(Mary) writes to them’, and (c) the adverbial pronouns y (see 200) and en (see 201).
Disjunctive pronouns (see 215–220) usually stand independently of the verb, e.g. Moi (je sais) or (Je sais) moi ‘I know’, avec eux ‘with them’, though they are directly associated with the verb in imperative constructions such as Pardonnez-moi ‘Forgive me’ (see 207).
194 Je ‘I’ and nous ‘we’ are known as the first person singular and the first person plural respectively; tu ‘you’ and vous ‘you’ (see 196) are the second person singular and the second person plural respectively; il ‘he, it’ and elle ‘she, it’ are the third persons singular, masculine and feminine, and ils and elles ‘they’ are the third persons plural, masculine and feminine.
195 Je can be either masculine or feminine, depending on the sex of the speaker, e.g. Je suis heureux (masc.), Je suis heureuse (fem.) ‘I am happy’. Likewise, nous can be either masculine or feminine, e.g. Nous sommes heureux/heureuses ‘We are happy’ (when nous includes persons of both sexes, the masculine agreement is used).
Similarly with the direct object forms, e.g. Il me croit intelligent(e) ‘He considers me (masc., fem.) intelligent’, Il nous croit intelligent(e)s ‘He considers us (masc., fem.) intelligent’.
196 Tu refers to one person only and is normally used only when addressing a friend, a relative, a child, God, or an animal; used in other contexts it can (and can be intended to be) offensive. Note that, whereas the corresponding English form thou has long since gone out of use (except in some dialects and sometimes in poetic or religious style), the use of tu is on the increase, particularly among young people. It may take either masculine or feminine agreement, depending on the sex of the person addressed, e.g. Tu es heureux (masc.)/heureuse (fem.) ‘You are happy’; likewise with the direct object pronoun te, e.g. Il te croit intelligent(e) ‘He considers you (masc., fem.) intelligent’.
Those to whom one does not say tu are addressed as vous, which is therefore either singular or plural depending on whether one is addressing one person or more than one; whether it is singular or plural makes no difference to the verb, but adjectives and participles vary both for gender and for number, e.g. Vous êtes fou (masculine singular)/folle (feminine singular)/fous (masculine plural)/folles (feminine plural) ‘You’re crazy’. Likewise with the direct object pronoun, e.g. Il vous croit fou (masc. sing.)/folle (fem. sing.)/fous (masc. plur.)/folles (fem. plur.) ‘He thinks you crazy’. (As with nous, when vous includes persons of both sexes, the masculine agreement is used.)
197 Masculine nouns, whether relating to humans, animals, abstractions or inanimate objects, are referred to as il and feminine nouns as elle; il and elle therefore both mean ‘it’ as well as ‘he’ and ‘she’ respectively, e.g. Où est ma cuiller? Elle est sur la table ‘Where is my spoon? It’s on the table’. When ‘they’ refers to persons of both sexes or to nouns of both genders, ils is used.
‘Impersonal’ il is the equivalent of the English impersonal ‘it’ or, in some contexts, of English ‘there’ in such expressions as il pleut ‘it is raining’, il fait chaud ‘it’s hot’, il est trois heures ‘it is three o’clock’, il faut ‘it is necessary’, il semble que ‘it seems that’, il y a ‘there is, there are’, il soufflait un vent du nord ‘there was a north wind blowing’ (see 343). For the distinction between il est and c’est, see 253–261.
198 (i) The forms of the conjunctive personal pronouns are:
| subject | direct | indirect |
| object | object | |
| je, I | me, me | me, to me |
| tu, you | te, you | te, to you |
| il, he, it | le, him, it |  |
| elle, she, it | la, her, it | |
| nous, we | nous, us | nous, to us |
| vous, you | vous, you | vous, to you |
| Us, they (masc.) | les, them | leur, to them |
| elles, they (fem.) | les, them | leur, to them |
(For the terms ‘direct object’ and ‘indirect object’, see 17, 18 and 21.)
Je, me, te, le and la become j’, m’, t’ and l’ before a verb beginning with a vowel or mute h and before y or en, e.g. J’arrive ‘I arrive’, J’y habite ‘I live there’, M’aimes-tu? ‘Do you love me?’, Il t’en envoie ‘He’s sending you some’, Il l’achète ‘He buys it’.
(ii) The indirect object pronouns are used:
(a) with such verbs as dire ‘to say’, donner ‘to give’, and other verbs of comparable meaning, e.g. avouer ‘to admit’, confier ‘to entrust’, envoyer ‘to send’, offrir ‘to offer’, parler ‘to speak’, recommander ‘to recommend’, rendre ‘to give back’:
| Il me dit que c’est vrai | He tells me it’s true |
| Donnez-lui cette lettre | Give him this letter |
| Il va nous l’envoyer | He is going to send it to us |
| Je vous recommande ce restaurant | I recommend this restaurant to you |
(b) with a number of other verbs, among the most common being appartenir ‘to belong’, écrire ‘to write’, falloir ‘to be necessary’, paraître ‘to seem’, pardonner ‘to forgive’, plaire ‘to please’, sembler ‘to seem’, e.g.:
| Ce livre m’appartient | This book belongs to me |
| Cela me paraît difficile | That seems difficult to me |
| Il lui faut un bureau | He needs an office |
| Je leur pardonne tout | I forgive them everything |
| Cette robe vous plaît? | Do you like this dress? |
For verbs taking à + the disjunctive pronoun (e.g. Je pense à vous ‘I am thinking of you’), see 220.
(iii) With reference to things, the indirect object is often expressed by y rather than by lui or leur – see 200.
199 As a reflexive pronoun (for reflexive verbs see 379–381), se replaces all the third person pronouns, singular and plural (i.e. le, la, les, lui, leur), e.g.:
| elle se lave | she washes (herself) |
| ils s’écrivent | they write to one another |
In the first and second persons, the forms me, te, nous and vous also function as reflexive pronouns, e.g.:
| je me lave | I wash (myself) |
| tu te laves | you wash (yourself) |
| nous nous écrivons | we write to each other |
| vous vous fatiguez | you are tiring yourselves |
For the reciprocal use of reflexive pronouns see 292.
For the full conjugation of a reflexive verb see 381.
For the use of soi see 219.
200 (i) The adverbial conjunctive pronoun y corresponds to the preposition à + noun, when the noun refers to an animal, a thing, a place or an abstract idea (or any of these in the plural), e.g. Je réponds à la lettre ‘I reply to the letter’ and J’y réponds ‘I reply to it’, Il travaille à Paris ‘He works in Paris’ and Il y travaille ‘He works there’. (On y with reference to people, see ii below.)
(a) It frequently has the meaning ‘there’, e.g.:
Connaissez-vous Dijon? – Oui, j’y suis né
Do you know Dijon? – Yes, I was born there
However, it can be so used only to refer back to a place mentioned or implied in what has gone before. It does not have a demonstrative value, i.e. it does not, so to speak, ‘point’ to the place indicated by ‘there’ (or, to put it differently, it does not express the idea of ‘there’ as opposed to ‘here’); in such circumstances, là is used, e.g. Ton parapluie est là ‘Your umbrella is there’.
(b) With many verbs, y has the meaning ‘to it, to them’, e.g.:
Il s’y accrochait
He was hanging on to it (or them)
Je suis flatté de cet honneur, d’autant plus que je n’y avais jamais aspiré
I am flattered by this honour, the more so since I had never aspired to it
Ses observations ne me dérangent pas : je n’y fais pas attention
His remarks don’t bother me: I pay no attention to them
In such instances as the following, the French verb takes à where the corresponding English verb either has a direct object (e.g. renoncer à quelque chose ‘to give something up’, succéder à ‘to succeed, follow’) or takes a preposition other than ‘to’ (e.g. viser à ‘to aim at’, penser à, songer à, réflèchir à ‘to think about’):
Vous ne fumez plus? – Non, j’y ai renoncé
Don’t you smoke any more? – No, I’ve given it up
la IIIe République et tous les régimes qui y ont succédé
the Third Republic and all the regimes that succeeded it
Il y réfléchit
He is thinking about it (considering it)
Note that, with reference to people, these verbs take à and the disjunctive pronouns, lui, elle, eux, elles, not the conjunctive indirect object pronouns, lui and leur, e.g. Elle a renoncé à lui ‘She has given him up’, Je pensais à eux ‘I was thinking of them’.
(c) Y is sometimes the equivalent of sur and a noun, e.g. écrire sur une feuille de papier ‘to write on a sheet of paper’ and Il y écrit une lettre d’amour ‘He’s writing a love-letter on it’, Je compte sur sa discrétion ‘I am counting on his discretion’ and Vous pouvez y compter ‘You can count on it’.
(d) Y sometimes corresponds to à + a verb, as in obliger quelqu’un à faire quelque chose, hence:
Ne partez pas. Rien ne vous y oblige
Don’t go. Nothing obliges you to (do so)
(ii) Y sometimes refers to people, particularly in substandard French, e.g. J’y pense souvent ‘I often think of him (her, them)’, for Je pense souvent à lui (à elle, à eux, à elles). This construction occasionally occurs in literary French, especially in that of a somewhat archaic kind, but it should not be imitated.
(iii) Lui and leur are sometimes used instead of y with reference to animals, things or abstract ideas, particularly:
(a) when it is necessary to make it clear that the meaning is ‘to it’ or ‘to them’ and not ‘there’, e.g.:
Les dames de la ville lui donnaient leur clientèle (Theuriet)
The ladies of the town gave it [= a shop] their custom
or (b) when the noun is to some extent personified, e.g.:
dois votre amitié
your friendship
201 (i) The conjunctive pronoun en (not to be confused with the preposition en which is a totally different word, see 654–658) corresponds to the preposition de + a noun, especially with reference to animals, things, places and abstract ideas, e.g. Nous parlons souvent de votre visite ‘We often talk about your visit’ and Nous en parlons souvent ‘We often talk about it’, Il est arrivé hier de Paris ‘He arrived yesterday from Paris’ and Il en est arrivé hier ‘He arrived from there yesterday’. (On en with reference to people, see ii below.)
(ii) In partitive constructions, it serves as a pronominal equivalent of de + a noun, with the value of ‘some of it (or of them)’, or ‘any of it (or of them)’; and note that, though ‘of it, of them’ is frequently omitted in English, en must be inserted in French, e.g.:
Avez-vous du pain? – Oui, j’en ai acheté
Have you any bread? – Yes, I’ve bought some
Voulez-vous de la bière? – Oui, s’il y en a
Do you want some beer? – Yes, if there is any
Si vous voulez des billets, je peux vous en donner
If you want tickets, I can give you some
Il n’y en a pas
There isn’t (or aren’t) any
Il a plus d’argent qu’il n’en veut
He has more money than he wants
This construction frequently occurs with numerals and expressions of quantity, e.g.:
Combien de timbres pouvez-vous me prêter? – Je vais vous en prêter dix
How many stamps can you lend me? – I’ll lend you ten
Voulez-vous du fromage? – J’en prends cent grammes
Do you want (any) cheese? – I’ll take a hundred grammes
Note that, in this construction, en is used (and must be used) with reference to people just as with reference to animals, things, etc. (cf. i above and iv below), e.g.:
Combien d’enfants avez-vous? – J’en ai quatre
How many children have you? – I have four
(iii) In contexts such as the following, where in English one often (but not always) has the option of using either ‘of it, of them’ or the possessive determiner ‘its, theirs’, en is used in French, e.g.:
Je n’en aime pas la forme
I don’t like the shape of it (or its shape)
Regarde ces fleurs! La couleur en est si jolie
Look at those flowers! The colour of them (their colour) is so pretty
(iv) Except in partitive constructions (see ii above), de lui, d’elle, d’eux and d’elles rather than en are normally used with reference to people, e.g.:
Il rêve d’elle chaque nuit
He dreams of her every night
J’ai reçu de lui une très longue lettre
I have had a very long letter from him
However, en is used much more widely than y (see 200,ii) with reference to people, not only in colloquial French (e.g. Il en rêve chaque nuit ‘He dreams of her every night’) but also in the literary language, e.g.:
Il s’efforçait de lier conversation avec lui, comptant bien en tirer quelques paroles substantielles (A. France)
He tried to engage him in conversation, fully expecting to extract from him a few words of substance
Je le vois rarement, mais j’en reçois de très longues lettres
I rarely see him, but I get very long letters from him
On n’a d’ouverture sur un être que si on en est aimé (Chardonne)
One can have no real understanding of another person unless one is loved by him (or by her)
202 Conjunctive pronouns are used in French in such contexts as the following, where their equivalents may be merely implied in English:
Qui vous l’a dit?
Who told you?
Quand allez-vous à Paris? – J’y vais demain
When are you going to Paris? – I’m going (there) tomorrow
(For examples with en, see 201,ii.)
The position of conjunctive personal pronouns
Subject
203 The subject pronoun normally comes before the verb; however, it follows the verb
(i) in certain types of questions (see 583–584, 589–592)
(ii) in certain non-interrogative constructions (see 476–478, 596, 599–600).
As a rule the subject pronoun is best repeated with each verb; but, provided both verbs are in the same tense, it may be omitted with et, mais and ou (see examples in 210), and generally is with ni ‘nor’ (see 571).
No subject is expressed with verbs in the imperative (see 514).
Pronouns other than subject pronouns
204 Except with the affirmative imperative (see 207), the pronouns stand immediately before the verb of which they are the object, e.g.:
| Je t’aime | I love you |
| La connaissez-vous? | Do you know her? |
| Mon frère leur écrit souvent | My brother often writes to them |
| J’en prends six | I’ll take six of them |
| Nous n’y allons pas | We are not going there |
| Ne les perdez pas | Don’t lose them |
| Nous voulons les vendre | We want to sell them |
(In the last of the above examples, ‘them’ is the object of ‘sell’ not of ‘wish’ and so, in accordance with the rule, comes immediately before the infinitive vendre ‘to sell’.)
In the case of compound tenses (see 448–456) the pronouns come before the auxiliary and are never placed immediately before the past participle, e.g.:
| Je vous ai écrit | I have written to you |
| Ne les avez-vous pas trouvés? | Haven’t you found them? |
| Mon père y est allé | My father has gone there |
205 In a negative sentence, the ne stands immediately before the object pronouns, e.g. Je ne les aime pas ‘I don’t like them’.
206 When there is more than one object pronoun, they stand in the following order:
| 1 | me, te, se, nous, vous |
| 2 | le, la, les |
| 3 | lui, leur |
| 4 | y |
| 5 | en |
Examples:
| Il me les donne | He gives me them (them to me) |
| Je le lui ai donné | I gave it to him (to her) |
| Les y avez-vous vus? | Did you see them there? |
| Vous en a-t-il offert? | Did he offer you any? |
| Ne me l’envoyez pas | Don’t send it to me |
| Ne les lui donnez pas | Don’t give them to him |
Note:
(a) that is not possible for more than one member of any one of groups 1 to 3 above to occur with the same verb (see 208)
(b) that, though it is possible for up to three of the above pronouns to occur together provided they are from different groups (e.g. Je m’y en achète ‘I buy some for myself there’), in practice this very rarely happens.
207 With the affirmative imperative (see 514):
(a) all pronouns follow the verb
(b) moi and toi are used instead of me and te except with en and y (see below)
(c) direct object precedes indirect object
(d) y and en come last
(e) except for elided forms (m’, t’, l’), pronouns are linked to the verb and to one another by hyphens.
Examples:
| Croyez-moi | Believe me |
| Prends-en | Take some (of it, of them) |
| Donnez-le-moi | Give it to me |
| Menez-nous-y | Take us there |
| Offrez-lui-en | Offer him some |
| Donnez-m’en | Give me some |
| Menez-l’y | Take him (or her) there |
| Va-t’en! | Go away! |
Note, however, that the theoretically possible forms m’y and t’y are avoided in practice after an imperative, as are, in the literary language and in careful speech, the alternatives y-moi and y-toi that occur in colloquial speech (e.g. Menez-y-moi ‘Take me there’). The solution is to use a different construction, e.g. Voulez-vous m’y mener? ‘Will you take me there?’ or Pourriez-vous m’y mener? ‘Could you take me there?’
208 It is not possible to combine:
(i) any two of me, te, se, nous, vous (see 206, note a), or
(ii) any of me, te, se, nous, vous as direct object with lui or leur as indirect object.
In circumstances that might seem to require one of these impossible constructions, the direct object pronoun follows the ordinary rule but the indirect object is expressed by à ‘to’ and a disjunctive pronoun (see 215–220), e.g.:
Il vous présentera à moi
He will introduce you to me
Voulez-vous me présenter à elles?
Will you introduce me to them?
Ils se sont rendus à moi
They surrendered to me
Nous ne nous rendrons pas à eux
We shall not surrender to them
Présentez-moi à lui
Introduce me to him (to her)
209 When an infinitive is governed by a modal verb (e.g. devoir, pouvoir, vouloir) or some other verb such as aller, compter, oser, préférer (see 529), any conjunctive pronouns precede the infinitive, e.g.:
| Je veux lui écrire | I want to write to him |
| Il doit y aller demain | He is to go there tomorrow |
| Vous allez le regretter | You are going to regret it |
| Il ose me contredire | He dares to contradict me |
| Je compte vous les envoyer demain | I expect to send them to you tomorrow |
(In a somewhat archaic style, which should not be imitated, the pronoun sometimes precedes the modal verb, e.g. Ils la peuvent apercevoir (H. Bordeaux) ‘They can see her’.)
For the constructions used when faire, laisser, envoyer, verbs of the senses, and certain other verbs, are followed by an infinitive, see 430–438.
210 In English, the same pronoun may serve as the direct or indirect object of more than one verb, e.g. ‘He loves and understands her’. In such circumstances, conjunctive pronouns in French are repeated with each verb, e.g.:
| Il l’aime et la comprend | He loves and understands her |
(In compound tenses, in which the pronoun always precedes the auxiliary verb, see 204, the pronoun cannot be repeated if the auxiliary is not repeated, e.g. Il l’a toujours aimée et respectée ‘He has always loved and respected her’.)
211 French makes much greater use than English of conjunctive pronouns referring either back or forward to nouns occurring in the same clause.
(i) This is normal (i.e. the conjunctive pronoun should be used) when attention is drawn to any element in the sentence by bringing it forward from its more usual position after the verb, e.g.:
Ce poème je le connais par cœur
I know this poem by heart
A mon cousin je ne lui écris jamais
I never write to my cousin
A Paris j’y vais souvent
I often go to Paris
De ces romans-là j’en ai plusieurs
I have several of those novels
(In examples such as these last three, the introductory preposition is sometimes omitted.)
(ii) In spoken French, anticipation of a direct or indirect object or of a prepositional phrase (introduced by à or de) by a conjunctive pronoun is very frequent, e.g.:
Je la connais ta soeur
I know your sister
Je lui écris souvent à mon frère
I often write to my brother
Il n’y va jamais à Paris
He never goes to Paris
J’en ai plusieurs de ces romans-là
I have several of those novels
See also 602, ‘Dislocation and fronting’.
212 Le frequently refers not to a specific noun but to a concept. This may be:
(i) a quality or status expressed by an adjective, participle or noun (but see also 213), e.g.:
En sont-ils contents? – Je suis sûr qu’ils le sont
Are they pleased with it? – I am sure they are
Ce livre qui vient d’être publié n’aurait pas dû l’être
This book which has just been published ought not to have been
Est-elle étudiante? – Elle le sera l’année prochaine
Is she a student? – She will be next year
Cet édifice était autrefois une église mais il ne l’est plus
This building used to be a church but it is not (one) any more
(ii) the idea expressed in a previous clause, e.g.:
Est-ce qu’il arrive aujourd’hui? – Je l’espère
Is he arrive today – I hope so
Si vous comptez réserver des places, je vous conseille de le faire sans tarder
If you want to book seats, I advise you to do so without delay
Je viendrai dès qu’on me le permettra
I shall come as soon as I am allowed to
Son explication n’est pas très lucide, je l’avoue
His explanation is not very clear, I admit
Note that after comme and after comparatives the use of le is optional, e.g.:
Je suis essoufflé comme vous (le) voyez
I am out of breath, as you see
Il est plus intelligent que je ne (le) croyais
He is more intelligent than I thought
213 The literary language sometimes uses the pronouns le, la, les, with the verb être (or occasionally with other verbs such as rester ‘to remain’) to refer back to a noun used with the definite article or another ‘definite’ determiner (such as a demonstrative, interrogative or possessive). The pronoun agrees with this noun in gender and number, e.g. Tu devrais être ma femme, n’est-ce pas fatal que tu la sois un jour? (Zola) ‘You ought to be my wife, is it not inevitable that one day you will be?’ (la agrees with ma femme). This, however, is an exclusively literary construction. In speech, one would be likely either to use the invariable le (see 212,i), e.g.:
Elle n’est pas sa femme et elle ne le sera jamais
She is not his wife and never will be
or to use some other construction, such as repeating the noun, e.g.:
Vous êtes son fils? – Oui, je suis son fils
Are you his son? – Yes, I am
214 Note, on the other hand, that in contexts such as the following where English uses an anticipatory ‘it’ with reference to a following clause or infinitive serving as the direct object of the preceding verb, there is no equivalent pronoun in French:
J’estime essentiel que tu lui écrives
I consider it essential that you write to him
J’ai entendu dire qu’il va démissionner
I have heard it said that he is going to resign
Je crois préférable de ne pas y aller
I think it best not to go there
Il a jugé bon de partir tout de suite
He thought it advisable to leave at once
Il s’est mis dans la tête d’aller à Paris
He got it into his head to go to Paris
This is particularly common after a verb of thinking + an adjective, as in some of the above examples.
215 The disjunctive pronouns are:
| moi, I, me | lui, he, him |
| toi, you | elle, she, her |
| nous, we, us | eux, they, them (masc.) |
| vous, you | elles, they, them (fem.) |
They can be combined with -même(s) as follows:
| moi-même, myself | nous-mêmes, ourselves |
| toi-même, yourself | vous-même, yourself |
| vous-mêmes, yourselves | |
| lui-même, himself | eux-mêmes, themselves (masc.) |
| elle-même, herself | elles-mêmes, themselves (fem.) |
as in Je le ferai moi-même ‘I’ll do it myself’.
In addition to these there is the reflexive disjunctive pronoun soi (see 219).
The disjunctive pronouns can be used either as a subject of a verb (e.g. Mon frère et moi partons demain ‘My brother and I are leaving tomorrow’), or as the object (e.g. Je la connais, elle ‘I know her’), or after prepositions (e.g. avec eux ‘with them’) (see succeeding paragraphs).
216 The disjunctive pronouns (other than soi, see 219) are used in the following circumstances:
(i) whenever the personal pronoun is to be emphasized (see also 602, ‘Dislocation’) or is contrasted with another pronoun or noun; in such circumstances, the disjunctive pronouns are used in addition to the conjunctive pronouns (this applies even when the two forms are the same, i.e. to nous and vous) (but see also 217), e.g.:
Toi, tu ne peux pas venir or Tu ne peux pas venir, toi
You can’t come
Mon frère part demain mais moi je reste ici
My brother is leaving tomorrow but I’m staying here
Vous, vous ne pouvez pas comprendre
You can’t understand
Il ose m’accuser, moi!
He dares to accuse me!
Lui, je l’aime beaucoup
I like him very much
If the conjunctive pronoun expresses an indirect object, the disjunctive is preceded by à, e.g.:
Il te l’a donné à toi
He gave it to you
Je leur obéirai à eux mais pas à mon oncle
I will obey them but not my uncle
Note too the use of disjunctive nous, vous + autres as emphatic forms, particularly when there is an expressed implied distinction between ‘us’ or ‘you’ on the one hand and some other group (or other people in general) on the other, e.g.:
Nous autres Français, nous mangeons beaucoup de pain
We French eat a lot of bread
Vous n’êtes jamais contents, vous autres fermiers
You farmers are never content
Nous n’aimons pas ça, nous autres
We do not like that
(ii) when there are two or more coordinate subjects (i.e. the type ‘X and Y’ or ‘X, Y and Z’), e.g.:
Mon frère et moi nous partons demain
My brother and I are leaving tomorrow
Lui et moi nous savons que ce n’est pas vrai
He and I know it isn’t true
Je croyais que ton frère et toi vous n’arriveriez jamais
I thought your brother and you would never arrive
Son père et lui ne s’entendent pas très bien
His father and he don’t get on very well together
In this construction, the conjunctive pronouns nous and vous are usually inserted (as in the first three examples above), particularly in speech, though Mon frère et moi partons demain, etc., are also possible, especially in writing. This insertion of the conjunctive pronoun is less usual, especially in writing, with the third person pronouns ils and elles (cf. the fourth example above where no conjunctive pronoun is used).
When the word-order is inverted (i.e. the subject follows the verb) in questions or after one of the adverbs or adverbial expressions that cause inversion (see 600), the conjunctive pronoun must be used, e.g.:
Ton frère et toi comptez-vous partir demain?
Do you and your brother expect to leave tomorrow
Sans doute Anne et lui en seront-ils contents
Anne and he will doubtless be pleased
(iii) as the complement of c’est, c’était, etc., e.g. C’est moi ‘It’s me’ (see also 255 and 258)
(iv) after prepositions, e.g. pour moi ‘for me’, sans lui ‘without him’, avec vous ‘with you’
(v) after ne … que ‘only’, e.g.:
Je ne connais que lui
I only know him (i.e. him only)
Je ne le dis qu’à toi
I’m only telling you (you only)
(vi) as the subject or object of an unexpressed verb:
(a) subject (note that in the corresponding English utterances a verb, which may be just the verb ‘to do’ standing in for another verb, often is expressed), e.g.:
Qui a dit ça? – Moi
Who said that? – I did (or Me)
Qui le fera? – Lui
Who will do it? – He will
Je suis plus grand que toi
I am taller than you (are)
Jean va peut-être rester, mais moi non (or moi pas)
John may be staying, but I’m not
(b) object, e.g.:
Qui a-t-il vu? – Toi
Whom did he see? – You
(vii) as the subject of an infinitive in exclamations (see 429), e.g.:
| Lui, nous trahir! | He betray us! |
217 The third person disjunctive pronouns are sometimes used as the direct subjects of a verb (i.e. in the absence of the corresponding conjunctive pronoun), e.g.:
Les autres l’ignoraient, mais lui le savait
The others were unaware of it, but he knew
Nous, nous étions trop loin, mais eux l’ont vu
We were too far away, but they saw it
This is not possible in the case of the other disjunctive pronouns, with which the corresponding conjunctive pronoun must be inserted as grammatical subject (see examples in 216,i, above).
218 The functions of the reflexive disjunctive pronoun soi are much more restricted than those of the corresponding conjunctive pronoun se. Except in the circumstances referred to below (see 219), the third person disjunctives, lui, elle, eux, elles, are used instead. So, whereas, corresponding to Je me lave ‘I wash (myself)’, Tu t’habilles ‘You dress (yourself), you get dressed’, we have Je ne suis pas fier de moi ‘I am not proud of myself’, Tu ne penses qu’à toi(-même) ‘You only think of yourself’, Vous l’avez acheté pour vous(-même) ‘You bought it for yourself’, the forms that correspond to Ils/Elle se lave ‘He/she washes (himself/herself)’, Ils/Elles s’habillent ‘They get dressed’ are, for example, Il n’est pas fier de lui ‘He is not proud of himself’, Elle ne pense qu’à elle(-même) ‘She only thinks of herself’, Ils/Elles l’ont acheté pour eux-mêmes/elles-mêmes ‘They bought it for themselves’.
If there is any possibility of ambiguity, i.e. if it might otherwise not be clear whether the pronoun is being used reflexively (with reference to the subject) or not (i.e. with reference to someone else), the form with -même(s) should be used.
219 (i) In normal usage, soi and soi-même are used only:
(a) with reference to an indefinite pronoun such as chacun ‘each (one)’, personne ‘no one’, on ‘one’, quiconque ‘whoever’, or to a noun introduced by one of the indefinite determiners chaque ‘each’ or aucun ‘no’, e.g.:
| On le ferait pour soi(-même) | One would do it for oneself |
| Chacun pour soi | Every man for himself |
or (b) when no antecedent is expressed, e.g.:
| Il faut tout faire soi-même | One has to do everything oneself |
| aimer son prochain comme soi-même | to love one’s neighbour as oneself |
| Pourquoi toujours penser à soi-même? | Why always think of oneself? |
and likewise in a number of noun phrases such as respect de soi ‘self-respect’, contentement de soi ‘self-satisfaction’, confiance en soi ‘self-confidence’.
(ii) Lui, etc., are usually used, however, when chacun, chaque refer to ‘each (of a specific set)’, e.g.:
Après la réunion, chacun (chaque membre du comité) rentra chez lui
After the meeting, everyone (each member of the committee) went home
(iii) Some modern authors affect the faintly archaic use of soi with reference to a definite subject, e.g. Elle pense toujours à soi ‘She is always thinking of herself’, but this usage should not be imitated.
220 ‘To me, to him, etc.’ are frequently expressed by the conjunctive pronouns me, lui, etc., e.g. Je lui écris ‘I write to him’ (see 198). However, with certain verbs, à and the disjunctive pronoun are used instead. This construction is found in particular:
(a) with être ‘to belong’, e.g. Ce livre est à moi ‘This book belongs to me (This book is mine)’ (but note that appartenir ‘to belong’ takes a conjunctive pronoun, Ce livre m’appartient)
(b) with verbs of motion, e.g. Il courut à moi ‘He ran to me’, Il viendra à nous ‘He will come to us’ – but L’idée me vient que … ‘The idea comes to me that …’, etc., when no physical motion is implied.
(c) with penser, songer ‘to think’ and rêver ‘to dream’, e.g. Je pensais à toi ‘I was thinking of you’
(d) with a few miscellaneous verbs including en appeler ‘to appeal’, recourir ‘to have recourse’, renoncer ‘to give up’, e.g. J’en appelle à vous ‘I appeal to you (i.e. to your judgement)’, Elle recourt toujours à lui ‘She always turns to him (i.e. for help)’, J’ai renoncé à elle ‘I have given her up’; note too such expressions as Il aura affaire à moi ‘He will have me to deal with’, Prends garde à toi! ‘Watch out!’
221 In English, an adverb of place is often used instead of a preposition + ‘it’ (or, less frequently, ‘them’, with reference to things), e.g. ‘Here’s the table but there’s nothing underneath (or under(neath) it)’. A similar possibility exists in French and it should be noted that in some contexts French uses the adverb where the prepositional construction is more likely in English.
The following adverbs are particularly common in this construction (the forms in là have a slightly stronger demonstrative value than those without and can sometimes, but not always, be translated ‘in there, under there, on there’):
| dedans, là-dedans | inside, in it |
| dessous, là-dessous | underneath, under it |
| dessus, là-dessus | on top, on it |
Examples:
Il n’y a personne là-dedans
There is no one in there
J’ai ouvert la boîte mais il n’y avait rien dedans
I opened the box but there was nothing inside (in it)
Voici l’enveloppe: son adresse est dessus
Here’s the envelope: his address is on it
In spoken French, avec ‘with’ (and, to a lesser extent, pour ‘for’ and sans ‘without’) are similarly used, e.g. Il a emprunté mon parapluie et il est parti avec ‘He borrowed my umbrella and went off with it’.
Introduction
222 French, like English, has two sets of possessives, each having different functions, viz.:
(i) possessive determiners (see 23) (more frequently but less satisfactorily known as ‘possessive adjectives’), corresponding to English my, your, etc. (see 223–226)
(ii) possessive pronouns, corresponding to English mine, yours, etc. (see 231–233).
223 The possessive determiners in French are:
These forms function in a similar way to the definite article, agreeing in gender and number with the noun they introduce (e.g. mon livre ‘my book’, ma maison ‘my house’, mes crayons ‘my pencils’) and preceding not only the noun but any accompanying adjectives (e.g. ma nouvelle voiture ‘my new car’). The only member of a noun phrase that can normally precede the possessive (but see also feu, 135) is the predeterminer tout ‘all, whole’ (see 317), e.g. toute ma vie ‘my whole life’, tous vos amis ‘all your friends’.
Before a noun or adjective beginning with a vowel or mute h, mon, ton, son, are used in the feminine instead of ma, ta, sa, e.g. mon idée ‘my idea’, son habileté ‘his skill’.
The distinction between ton, etc., and votre, etc., corresponds to that between tu and vous (see 196).
224 Like the definite article (see 30) the possessive determiner is repeated with each of a series of nouns referring to different entities, e.g. mon frère et ma sœur ‘my brother and sister’, but not with nouns referring to the same item or individual, e.g. mon collègue et ami Jean Dubois ‘my colleague and friend Jean Dubois’, leur appartement ou studio à Paris ‘their flat or flatlet in Paris’.
In a few fixed expressions, a single determiner refers to two or more nouns, e.g. (with any possessive determiner) mes allées et venues ‘my comings and goings’, vos nom, prénom(s) et qualité ‘your full name and occupation’, à ses risques et périls ‘at his own risk’.
225 The possessive determiners cannot be stressed. When any degree of emphasis is required, the appropriate disjunctive pronoun preceded by à is used, in addition to the determiner, e.g. mon frère à moi ‘my brother’, leur maison à eux (à elles) ‘their house’.
The same procedure may be used to distinguish between ‘his’ and ‘her’ where the determiner alone could be unclear or ambiguous, e.g.:
Sa mère à lui est plus jeune que sa mère à elle
His mother is younger than her mother
Il conduisait sa voiture à elle
He was driving her car
226 The first person singular possessives mon, etc., are used in certain circumstances when addressing someone; in particular:
(i) as a sign of familiarity or affection; e.g. a parent speaking to his or her son or daughter may well use the forms mon fils and ma fille (where English would probably just use their names), or, speaking to one’s children in general, mes enfants (which could also be used by a teacher addressing a class); likewise mon amour ‘darling’, etc.
(ii) as a sign of respect or deference, e.g. mon père ‘father’ (i.e. when one of his children is speaking), or ‘Father’ (i.e. with reference to a Catholic priest), mon oncle ‘uncle’, ma tante ‘aunt’, etc., and, in the army, when addressing those of higher rank (i.e. where ‘Sir!’ would be used in English), e.g. a captain and a colonel would be addressed as mon capitaine and mon colonel respectively by their inferiors, but as capitaine and colonel by their superiors and by civilians. This practice is at the origin of the forms monsieur (originally = ‘my lord’), madame, mademoiselle (whose plurals are still formed in mes, viz. messieurs, mesdames, mesdemoiselles) and the ecclesiastical title monseigneur, plur. messeigneurs.
227 Just as ‘of it, of them’ may sometimes be substituted in English for ‘its’ or ‘their’ (with reference to things), so, in French, the conjunctive pronoun en ‘of it, of them’ (see 201) may be substituted for the possessive determiners in the following circumstances (but the possessive is also fully acceptable and, in speech at least, more usual):
(a) with reference to the subject of être or another ‘linking verb’ (e.g. devenir, paraître, see 518), e.g.:
Vous devriez visiter le château. Les jardins en sont superbes
You ought to visit the château. Its gardens (the gardens of it) are superb
Cette robe est jolie mais les manches en paraissent trop courtes
That dress is pretty but its sleeves seem too short
(b) with a direct object, e.g.:
J’ai reçu sa lettre mais je n’en comprends pas le premier paragraphe
I have had his letter but I don’t understand the first paragraph of it (its first paragraph)
Le proviseur du lycée en connaît tous les élèves
The headmaster of the school knows all its pupils
Il achetait des livres afin d’en dévorer le contenu plutôt que d’en admirer la reliure
He bought books in order to master their contents rather than to admire their bindings
(but not when the possessive refers back to the subject of the same clause, e.g. en could not be substituted for the possessive determiner in Le château domine ses jardins ‘The castle towers above its gardens’).
228 With reference to parts of the body, French commonly uses the definite article where English uses the possessive determiner. Two different constructions have to be noted:
(i) When the reference is to something the subject does with a part of his or her body, the definite article alone is used, e.g.:
J’ai ouvert les yeux
I opened my eyes
Elle hausse les épaules
She shrugs her shoulders
Ils étendirent les bras
They stretched out their arms
and likewise with fermer la bouche (les yeux) ‘to close one’s mouth (eyes)’, lever le doigt ‘to put one’s hand up’, secouer la tête ‘to shake one’s head’, etc. Cf. too expressions such as avoir mal aux dents, … à la gorge, … à la tête, … aux reins ‘to have toothache, a sore throat, a headache, backache’, etc. However, when the part of the body is in any way qualified, the possessive is used, e.g. Elle ouvrit ses grands yeux bleus ‘She opened her big blue eyes’.
(ii) When the reference is to something one does to a part of one’s body, the reflexive pronoun (functioning as an indirect object) is used, as in Elle se lave les cheveux ‘She washes her hair (lit. She washes the hair to herself)’; cf.:
| Vous vous êtes cassé le bras | You have broken your arm |
| Je me suis coupé le doigt | I have cut my finger |
| Elle s’est tordu le bras | She wrenched her arm |
A similar construction, using the indirect object pronoun referring to the person affected, occurs when the action is something one does to a part of someone else’s body, e.g.:
| Il m’a tordu le bras | He twisted my arm |
| Elle lui lave les cheveux | She washes his hair |
| Il lui a craché à la figure | He spat in his face |
229 With some verbs two different constructions are possible, e.g.:
(lit. ‘she has hurt/burnt herself in the knee’ – se is a direct object and so the past participle agrees with it, see 461), or alternatively:
(lit. ‘She has hurt/burnt the knee to herself’ – se is an indirect object and so the past participle does not agree.)
230 For the use of the definite article in expressions of the type le chapeau sur la tête ‘with his hat on his head’, see 29, ii.
231 The French possessive pronouns are
232 (i) The possessive pronouns take the gender and number of the noun they stand for, e.g.:
tes enfants et les miens
your children and mine
Notre maison est en face de la leur
Our house is opposite theirs
(ii) After the verb être, ‘mine, yours’, etc. are usually rendered by à moi, à vous, etc. (i.e. ‘it belongs to me’ rather than ‘it is mine’), e.g.:
Ces livres-ci sont à moi
These books are mine
Laquelle de ces clefs est à vous?
Which of these keys is yours?
However, when a contrast is being drawn not so much between two possessors (as in, for example, Ces livres-ci sont à lui, les autres sont à nous ‘These books are his, the others are ours’) as between two sets of things possessed, le mien, etc., are used, e.g.:
Ces livres-ci sont les vôtres; les miens sont en bas
These books are yours; mine are downstairs
233 The forms listed in 231 also occur very occasionally without the definite article as adjectives, in particular:
(i) in such expressions as faire sien ‘to adopt as one’s own’, regarder comme sien ‘to consider as one’s own’, e.g. Je fais mienne votre réponse ‘I adopt your answer as my own’, Il regardait comme siens tous les revenus de sa femme ‘He considered all his wife’s income as his own’;
(ii) in the archaic construction that one still sometimes comes across, un or ce + demonstrative + noun, e.g. un mien ami ‘a friend of mine’, ce mien ami ‘this friend of mine’; the normal equivalents of these are un ami à moi (or, with a slightly different meaning, un de mes amis ‘one of my friends’) and cet ami à moi.
234 Unlike English, which uses this and that, these and those, both as determiners (see 23) and as pronouns, French (as in the case of the possessives, see 222, 223, 231) has two sets of demonstratives, each having different functions, viz.:
(i) demonstrative determiners (more usually but less satisfactorily known as demonstrative adjectives) (see 235–237)
(ii) demonstrative pronouns (see 238).
235 The demonstrative determiners in French, meaning both ‘this/these’ and ‘that/those’ (see 237) are:
| masc. sing. | fem. sing. | plur. |
| ce, cet | cette | ces |
In the masculine singular, ce is used except before a vowel or mute h when cet is used, e.g. ce livre ‘this/that book’, cet arbre ‘this/that tree’, ce soldat ‘this soldier’, cet ancien soldat ‘this former soldier’, cet homme ‘this man’.
Note that, as in the case of the other principal determiners, viz. the articles les and des (24) and the possessives, mes, nos, etc. (223), there is no distinction of gender in the plural.
236 The demonstrative determiners agree in gender and number with the noun they introduce, e.g. cette maison ‘this house’, ces idées ‘those ideas’.
Like other determiners (cf. the definite article, 30, and the possessive, 224), the demonstrative is repeated with each of two or more nouns referring to separate entities, e.g. ce pain, ce jambon et cette bière ‘this bread, ham and beer’, ces femmes et ces enfants ‘these women and children’.
Also like the definite article and the possessive determiner, the demonstrative determiner may be preceded by the predeterminer tout ‘all (of), whole’ (see 317,ii,b), e.g. tous ces enfants ‘all these/those children’, toute cette foule ‘this whole crowd’.
237 The French determiners mean both ‘this/these’ and ‘that/those’. It is possible to make a distinction comparable to the English one by adding after the noun either -ci (an archaic form of ici ‘here’) for ‘this/these’ or -là (= ‘there’) for ‘that/those’, e.g. ces jours-ci ‘these days’, ce jour-là ‘that day’, but this is usually not necessary. Indeed, it is frequently not only unnecessary but incorrect to add -ci or -là to the noun. They should be used only in the following circumstances:
(i) to express emphasis
(ii) to mark a contrast between ‘this’ and ‘that’, or ‘these’ and ‘those’
(iii) when an object is, literally, pointed out.
Examples:
Je déteste cette couleur-là
I hate that colour
Prenez ce livre-ci plutôt que l’autre
Take this book rather than the other (one)
C’est bien ce train-ci pour Paris, n’est-ce pas?
It is this train for Paris, isn’t it?
Qui est ce monsieur-là?
Who is that gentleman (there)?
Note that, in familiar speech, the forms in -là are frequently used instead of the forms in -ci when the context makes it clear what particular item is being referred to, e.g.:
| Ce train-là va à Paris? | Does this train go to Paris? |
If necessary, là-bas ‘over there’ can be used to make it clear that the meaning is ‘that’ not ‘this’, e.g. ce train là-bas ‘that train (over there)’.
238 Whereas, in the case of the demonstrative determiners, French often does not distinguish between ‘this/these’ and ‘that/ those’ (see 237), in the case of the demonstrative pronouns strictly so called (see 245–246 for other pronouns that are sometimes also considered to be demonstratives) the distinction is compulsory and is expressed, as in the case of the determiners (see 237), by adding -ci or -là to the pronoun itself. The forms of the demonstrative pronouns are:
Note that, in the singular, English frequently uses ‘this one, that one’ instead of ‘this, that’; in French, celui-ci, celle-là, etc., are all that is required – do not attempt to translate the English ‘one’. The gender of the pronoun is determined by that of the noun it refers to – ‘this one’ with reference to a book (le livre), for example, is celui-ci but with reference to a bottle (la bouteille) the feminine, celle-ci, is required. Celui-ci, etc., also mean ‘the latter’ (i.e. the one just mentioned, so, in that sense, the nearer, ‘this one’), while celui-là, etc., mean ‘the former’. Examples:
J’ai acheté deux journaux. Celui-ci est pour vous et celui-là est pour votre père
I have bought two newspapers. This one is for you and that one is for your father
A qui sont ces disques? – Ceux-ci sont à moi mais ceux-là sont à mon frère
Whose are these records? – These are mine but those are my brother’s
Laquelle de ces chemises préférez-vous? – Je préfère de beaucoup celle-ci
Which of these shirts do you prefer? – I much prefer this one
Marlborough et Eugène étaient presque comme deux frères; celui-ci avait plus d’audace, celui-là l’esprit plus froid et calculateur
Marlborough and Eugene were almost like two brothers; the latter was more impetuous, the former more coldly calculating
Celui-là, etc., are frequently used in familiar speech instead of celui-ci, etc., when the meaning is clear from the context (cf. 237), e.g.:
Quelle robe as-tu choisie? – Je prends celle-là
Which dress have you chosen? – I’ll take this one
239 French has three so-called ‘neuter’ demonstrative pronouns, viz. ce, ceci and cela (note that the -a of cela does not have an accent).
240 Ce. Although ce is very widely used (i) when followed by a relative clause and meaning ‘what, that which’ (see 274), and (ii) as the subject of être and meaning ‘it’ (see 248–261), it has almost entirely gone out of use as a real demonstrative. It survives as such only in a few phrases (all of them characteristic of literary rather than of spoken usage) such as:
sur ce
thereupon, whereupon
pour ce, pour ce faire
to this end, for this purpose
ce disant
saying this, so saying, with these words
ce faisant
doing this, doing which
and et ce ‘and that’ (in the sense of ‘for the reason that’, or ‘and I did so’, etc.) as in, for example, J’ai promis de l’aider, et ce pour le convaincre de mon amitié ‘I promised to help him, and that (or and I did so) in order to convince him of my friendship’.
241 Whereas celui-ci, celui-là, etc. refer to specific nouns and can usually be translated as ‘this one, that one’ (see 238), ceci and cela (or its reduced form ça, see 242,i) do not. These so-called ‘neuter’ pronouns refer:
(i) to the general content of a statement, in which case ceci generally refers forward to something that still has to be stated, whereas cela refers back to something already stated, e.g.:
Écoutez ceci
Listen to this (i.e. to what I have to say)
Si vous croyez cela, vous êtes fou
If you believe that, you’re crazy
On dit qu’il est parti mais cela me paraît bizarre
They say he’s left but that seems odd to me
Note, however, that ceci refers back in the expression ceci dit ‘that said’, as in Ceci dit, parlons d’autre chose ‘That said, let us talk about something else’.
Note too the construction ceci/cela + de + adjective + a noun-clause, e.g.:
Le problème a ceci (cela) d’intéressant que personne ne sait ce qu’elle fera demain
The problem is interesting in this respect that (or What is interesting about the problem is that) no one knows what she will do tomorrow
(ii) to some unspecified object, i.e. meaning ‘this, that’ not ‘this one, that one’ (which must be celui-ci, etc.), e.g.:
| Je prends ceci | I’ll take this |
| Ceci est son chef d’œuvre | This is his masterpiece |
| Jetez cela! | Throw that away! |
242 Note:
(i) that frequently in speech and sometimes, in an informal style, in writing, cela is reduced to ça, e.g. Ça suffit! ‘That’s enough!’
(ii) that ceci is characteristic particularly of literary usage and is not very much used in conversational French in which it tends to be replaced by cela (ça).
On the widespread use of ça in colloquial French instead of the personal pronoun(s) il(s), (elle)s, see R. Ball, Colloquial French Grammar (Oxford, Blackwell, 2000), pp. 70–77.
243 Cela (ça) is widely used as a strengthening particle in what would otherwise be one-word questions, e.g.:
Je l’ai vu ce matin. – Où cela?
I saw him this morning. – Where?
Quelqu’un me l’a dit. – Qui ça?
Someone told me. – Who (did)?
and likewise Comment ça? ‘How?’, Pourquoi ça? ‘Why (so)?’, Quand ça? ‘When?’ (but it is not used with quoi? ‘what?’).
244 With the verb être and a following noun phrase, the two parts of which cela originally consisted are still frequently separated, with ce serving as the subject of the verb and là coming between the verb and the noun phrase (without a hyphen); the meaning, however, is still ‘that’ (with sometimes a slight degree of emphasis), e.g.:
C’est là le problème
That’s (just) the problem
C’était là ce qu’il voulait dire
That was what he meant
Est-ce là la maison dont vous parlez?
Is that the house you are talking about?
Note that this construction can also occur with a plural verb (cf. 255), e.g.:
Ce sont là les messieurs qui sont arrivés hier
Those are the gentlemen who arrived yesterday
(but the form sont-ce should be avoided.)
245 The simple demonstrative pronouns, i.e. celui, celle, ceux, celles without -ci or -là, can no longer be used as demonstratives in the strict sense of the word, i.e. meaning ‘this one, that one, these’, etc. They are used as the equivalent of English ‘the one(s)’ (or, in the literary language, ‘that, those’) when standing for some previously expressed noun and followed by a defining clause or phrase. The pronoun agrees in gender and number with the noun it stands for, e.g. ‘these letters and the ones I wrote yesterday’ is ces lettres et celles que j’ai écrites hier (celles because it stands for lettres which is feminine plural).
The defining element may be:
(i) a prepositional phrase introduced by de, corresponding to an English phrase of the type ‘that of my brother’ (or, more frequently, ‘my brother’s’ with no expressed pronoun), e.g.:
sa décision et celle du président
his decision and that of the President
Son jardin est plus grand que celui de Jean
Her garden is bigger than John’s
J’aime mieux les romans de Balzac que ceux de Zola
I prefer the novels of Balzac to those of Zola
Nous mangeons ces pommes-ci ou celles de mon frère?
Shall we eat these apples or my brother’s?
(ii) a relative clause (see also 246), e.g.:
Votre maison est plus grande que celle que je viens d’acheter
Your house is bigger than the one I have just bought
ces messieurs et ceux qui arrivent demain
these gentlemen and those (the ones) who are arriving tomorrow
Ce parc n’est pas celui dont je vous ai parlé
This park isn’t the one I told you about
Quelle dame cherchez-vous? Celle à qui j’ai parlé hier
Which lady are you looking for? The one I spoke to yesterday
(iii) a phrase introduced by a preposition other than de or by a past participle, e.g.:
ces livres-ci et ceux sur la table
these books and the ones on the table
les nouvelles mesures et celles adoptées l’an dernier
the new measures and those adopted last year
However, such constructions are often considered stylistically inelegant and, for that reason, it is as well to avoid them, at least in writing. This can be done by means of a relative clause (e.g. ceux qui sont sur la table, celles qui furent adoptées). It is even more advisable to avoid the use of other defining elements even though these occur (but only rarely) in the French of good writers, e.g. Elle le dégoûta … des tomates, même de celles comestibles (Proust) ‘She put him off tomatoes, even edible ones’.
246 Celui qui (que, etc.) and ceux qui (que, etc.) can also be used in a general sense, i.e. ‘he who(m) …’, e.g.:
Heureux celui qui craint le Seigneur!
Blessed is he who fears the Lord!
Ceux qui voyagent beaucoup ont de la chance
Those who travel a lot are lucky
ceux que les dieux aiment
those whom the gods love
247 In a similar construction to the use of celui qui, etc., in a general sense (245), the ‘neuter’ pronoun ce, which now rarely serves as a strict demonstrative (see 240), frequently occurs as the antecedent of a relative clause with the meaning ‘what, that which’, e.g. ce que je veux ‘what I want’ (for fuller details see 274).
248 It is a curious fact that such a basic problem as how to translate the expression ‘it is’ into French is the source of considerable uncertainty and difficulty. No French grammar deals with it entirely adequately. Fortunately, for at least part of the problem, namely the use of c’est or il est + adjective, we have an illuminating study in Professor Samuel N. Rosenberg’s book, Modern French Ce (Paris and The Hague: Mouton, 1970), to which section 250 below in particular owes a lot.
The basic problem, i.e. that of distinguishing between c’est and il est as equivalents of ‘it is’, is complicated by two others. One is the fact that il (est) in French may be the equivalent either of the English impersonal ‘it is’, as in ‘It is easy to understand him’, or of ‘he is’, or of ‘it is’ with reference to a specific object, as in ‘If you want my dictionary, it is on the desk’. The other is the fact that in some contexts French uses c’est where English uses ‘he is’ or ‘she is’ (see 251).
We cannot hope in a few pages to deal with all facets of the problem but what follows will cover the majority of cases in which it arises.
In what follows, ‘complement’ refers to what comes after the verb ‘to be’ and ‘referent’ to whatever the pronoun (ce, il, elle, etc.) stands for; for example, in Jean ne vient pas, il est malade ‘John isn’t coming, he’s ill’ and C’est beau, la neige ‘Snow is beautiful’, malade and beau respectively are the complements and Jean and la neige the referents.
Finally note that (as in, for example, C’est beau, la neige, above), an adjectival complement after c’est always agrees with ce, i.e. it is masculine, even if the referent is a feminine noun or a plural noun (e.g. C’est important, les traditions ‘Traditions are important’).
249 As the subject is a complicated one and a number of different rules and sub-rules are involved, it may help to simplify matters if we give a summary of the contents of sections 250–261:
I. C’est or personal il est, elle est, etc.?
250 (i) The complement is an adjective:
(a) The referent is a person
(b) The referent is a thing
(c) The referent is an unspecified object, a neuter pronoun, an adverbial expression of place, or a phrase including a numeral
251 (ii) The complement is a noun or pronoun:
(a) C’est
(b) Il est, elle est, etc.
(c) The difference between a and b
(d) Some exceptions
252 (iii) The complement is neither an adjective nor a noun or pronoun:
(a) The referent is a person or thing
(b) The referent is ceci or cela, a noun phrase introduced by ce qui, etc., or the name of a place
II. C’est or impersonal il est?
253 (i) The complement is an adjective
254 (ii) With reference to the time of day
255 (iii) The complement is a noun or pronoun
256 (iv) The complement is an indirect object, adverb, adverbial phrase, prepositional phrase, or verb phrase
257 Ce doit être, ce peut être, etc.
III. C’est or est?
258 C’est is compulsory
259 C’est is preferred to est
260 Free choice between c’est and est
261 C’est + que de + infinitive
I. C’est or personal il est, elle est, etc.?
250 (i) The complement is an adjective
(a) The referent is a person:
Use il est, elle est, etc., e.g.:
(b) The referent is a thing – either c’est or il est, elle est, etc., is possible, but with a difference in meaning. Generally speaking, if il est, elle est, etc., are used, then the adjective relates strictly to the referent, whereas, if c’est is used, the adjective has a somewhat wider application, referring for example, as the following examples will show, to the context of the referent as well as to the referent itself, or to the referent in a general rather than in a specific sense, or to what is implied by the referent:
Both of these could be translated ‘Do you like this dress? – Yes, it is very pretty’, but whereas, in 4, elle est très jolie refers only to the dress itself, there is an implication in 5, c’est très joli, that the general effect is pretty (the meaning borders on something like ‘It looks very pretty on you’).
Both 6 and 7 mean ‘Look at that table! It’s awful!’, but 6 refers rather to the table itself as a piece of furniture and 7 to the table and whatever is on it, the way it is laid or decorated, etc.
In 8, the reference is to the quality of the particular cognac that is being offered; in 9, to a quality attributed to cognac in general.
In 10, the speaker is commenting on the snow that is on the ground, or falling, as he speaks and that he can see; in 11, to snow in general (and note the use of the English definite article ‘the’ in 10 but not in 11).
12 means specifically that the idea itself is simple; 13 has rather the meaning of ‘what I have in mind is simple’.
Whereas 14 refers to the physical appearance of the book, 15 refers to its contents.
refers by implication to all that traditions represent.
(c) The referent is an unspecified object (as in sentence 17 below), or a ‘neuter’ pronoun such as cela (ça), ce (qui, que, dont), or le, or a clause introduced by comme, or an adverbial expression of place or the name of a locality (in which case the explanation of the use of ce is similar to that given for sentence 15 above), or a phrase including a numeral (including un) (and this list is not necessarily complete), e.g.:
In 17, the speaker and his hearer(s) know of course what it is that is heavy (e.g. a rock, a box, a piece of furniture) but the speaker has not specifically mentioned it, hence the use of ce.
In 24, the reference is to all that is conjured up by the name of Provence.
In 26, note that English uses a singular not a plural verb after ‘twenty euros’ – a further indication that the adjective refers not so much to the nominal referent as to what is implied by it.
251 (ii) The complement is a noun or pronoun
(a) The general rule is that one uses c’est when the complement is introduced by a determiner (article, possessive or demonstrative) or when it is a pronoun such as un, celui, quelqu’un, e.g.:
C’est un médecin
He is a doctor
C’est l’ami dont je vous parlais
He is the friend I was telling you about
Je connais cette étudiante; c’est ma cousine
I know that student; she’s my cousin
Qui est ce monsieur? – C’est celui qui vous a écrit
Who is that gentleman? – He’s the man who wrote to you
C’était quelqu’un d’important
He was someone important
(b) With nouns indicating a long-term state in life, such as profession or family status, it is possible to use il est, elle est, etc., with no article before the complement, e.g.:
| Il est médecin | He is a doctor |
| Elle est étudiante | She is a student |
| Il est grand-père | He is a grandfather |
(c) The distinction between types a and b above is basically that in type b (Il est médecin) the noun has a primarily adjectival function, it serves only to characterize the person, e.g.:
Puis-je présenter mon mari ? Il est médecin
May I introduce my husband? He is a doctor
whereas, once any other idea is introduced, type a (C’est un médecin) is likely to be used, e.g.:
Mon mari n’aime pas qu’on fume. C’est un médecin
My husband doesn’t like people to smoke. He’s a doctor
Elle fait beaucoup de gestes lorsqu’elle parle. Après tout, c’est une Italienne
She makes a lot of gestures when she speaks. After all, she’s an Italian
Consequently, type a must be used whenever the noun is qualified, e.g.:
C’est un excellent médecin
He is an excellent doctor
C’est un étudiant qui travaille bien
He is a student who works well
(d) In spite of a and b above, the construction il est, elle est + complement introduced by a determiner sometimes occurs, e.g. when the subject pronoun is strengthened by a disjunctive pronoun, e.g.:
Elle, elle était une petite veuve de trente-trois ans (Courteline)
She was a little thirty-three-year-old widow
or when the uniqueness of the complement is stressed, e.g.:
| Elle est la reine | She is the Queen |
| Après tout, il est mon père | After all, he is my father |
But such nuances are delicate and difficult to define and, in general, it is advisable to follow the rules set out in a and b above.
252 (iii) The complement is neither an adjective nor a noun or pronoun
(a) The referent is a person or a thing expressed by a noun or pronoun – use il est, elle est, etc., e.g.:
Où est votre frère ? – Il est en France
Where is your brother? – He is in France
Où est mon dictionnaire ? – Il est sur la table
Where is my dictionary? – It is on the table
A qui est cette voiture ? – Elle est à moi
Whose is this car? – It’s mine
Si vous cherchez le chat, il est dans le jardin
If you are looking for the cat, he (it) is in the garden
Je ne comprends pas cette lettre. Elle est en allemand
I don’t understand this letter. It’s in German
(b) The referent is ceci or cela (ça), or a noun phrase introduced by ce qui, etc., or the name of a place, or the idea contained in a preceding clause – use c’est, e.g.:
Ça, c’est à voir
That remains to be seen
Je ne comprends pas ce qu’il a écrit. C’est en allemand
I don’t understand what he has written. It’s in German
Où est Neuchâtel ? C’est en Suisse
Where is Neuchâtel? It is in Switzerland
J’aime jouer aux échecs. C’est très intéressant
I like playing chess. It’s very interesting
II. C’est or impersonal il est?
253 (i) The complement is an adjective (see also the end of this section)
When the referent has already been expressed, i.e. when the adjective refers back to it, c’est must be used, but when the referent follows, i.e. when the adjective refers forward to it, il est is used (but see below), e.g.:
| 1 | Pourquoi est-il parti ? – Je ne sais pas; c’est difficile à comprendre Why has he left? – I don’t know; it’s difficult to understand |
| 2 | Il est difficile de comprendre pourquoi il est parti It is difficult to understand why he has left |
| 3 | C’est lui qui l’a cassé – Oui, c’est évident It is he who broke it. – Yes, it’s obvious |
| 4 | Il est évident que c’est lui qui l’a cassé It is obvious that it was he who broke it |
In 1 and 3, the adjectives difficile and évident refer back to what is difficult to understand (viz. his departure) or obvious (the fact that he broke the window) and so c’est is used, but in 2 and 4 the adjectives refer forward to the same events and so il est is used.
However, in speech c’est is widely used instead of il est with reference forward (e.g. C’est difficile de comprendre pourquoi il est parti) and this is usual even in literary usage when the adjective expresses a subjective reaction or carries any kind of emphasis, e.g. C’est curieux qu’il ne soit pas venu ‘It is strange that he has not come’.
Other adjectives with which both constructions occur include agréable ‘pleasant’, certain, essentiel ‘essential’, étonnant ‘surprising’, facile ‘easy’, impossible, juste ‘fair’, nécessaire ‘necessary’, possible, probable, rare, regrettable, surprenant ‘surprising’, triste ‘sad’, vrai ‘true’, etc.
Though these constructions occur mainly with adjectival complements, they also apply when the complement is an infinitive governed by the preposition à, e.g.:
Est-il sain et sauf ? C’est à espérer
Is he safe and sound? It is to be hoped so
Il est à espérer qu’il est sain et sauf
It is to be hoped that he is safe and sound
254 (ii) With reference to the time of day, il est is used, e.g.:
| Quelle heure est-il ? | What time is it? |
| Il est trois heures et demie | It is half past three |
255 (iii) The complement is a noun or pronoun, which may or may not be qualified by a relative clause – c’est must be used, e.g.:
| 1 | Qui est-ce ? – C’est moi Who is it? – It’s me |
| 2 | C’est lui qui l’a fait (It’s) he (who) did it |
| 3 | C’est vous que je cherche It’s you I’m looking for |
| 4 | C’est Jean qui travaille le mieux (It’s) John (who) works best |
| 5 | Avez-vous trouvé votre livre ? – Oui, c’est celui-ci Have you found your book? – Yes, it’s this one |
If the complement is a plural noun or pronoun, then, in the literary language, ce sont is used, e.g.:
| 6 | Ce sont mes frères qui le feront (It is) my brothers (who) will do it |
| 7 | Ce sont eux qui le feront (It is) they (who) will do it |
In speech, however, c’est is normally used, e.g. C’est mes frères qui le feront, and, even in the literary language, c’est is always used with nous and vous even with reference to more than one person, e.g. (C’est) nous (qui) le ferons ‘(It is) we (who) will do it’. (Note that the verb of the relative clause agrees in person with the complement of the preceding clause, as in the example just given or as in C’est moi qui l’ai dit ‘It is I who said so’.)
This construction must be used when, in English, the subject is emphasized with the value ‘it is … who’, as in ‘John is coming’ (= ‘It is John who is coming’) and sentences 2, 4, 6 and 7 above. Likewise with the direct object, except that in English the word-order is different and the form of the personal pronoun may change, e.g.:
| 8 | C’est Paul qu’elle aime It is Paul she loves, or She loves Paul |
| 9 | C’est lui que je cherchais It is he I was looking for, or I was looking for him |
Note that c’est generally remains in the present tense even though the tense of the relative clause may be different, as in sentences 2, 6 and 9 above. The present tense would still be used in French even if one were translating ‘It was he who did it’, ‘It will be my brothers who will do it’, and ‘It was he I was looking for’. However, sentences like C’était lui qui chantait ‘It was he who was singing’, Ce sera Jean qui le fera ‘It will be John who will do it’, are not impossible.
256 (iv) The complement is an indirect object, an adverb or adverbial phrase, a prepositional phrase, or a verb phrase (either a subordinate clause or a phrase based on an infinitive other than one governed by à – see 253, end – or on a present participle) – c’est … que … must be used, e.g.:
| 1 | C’est à Pierre que je l’ai donné It was Peter I gave it to, or I gave it to Peter |
| 2 | C’est là qu’il habite It’s there (that) he lives, or He lives there |
| 3 | C’est à Paris que nous l’avons rencontré It was in Paris (that) we met him, or We met him in Paris |
| 4 | C’est aujourd’hui qu’il va venir It is today that he is coming, or He is coming today |
| 5 | Ce n’est pas assez (que) de vous excuser: il faut vous expliquer It is not enough to apologize: you must explain yourself |
| 6 | C’est avec le plus grand plaisir que je vous accompagnerai It is with the greatest of pleasure that I will go with you |
| 7 | C’est parce qu’il est bête qu’il a fait ça It is because he is a fool that he did that |
| 8 | C’est pour vous protéger que je l’ai dit It was to protect you that I said it, or I said it to protect you |
| 9 | C’est après vous avoir vu que votre frère est parti It was after seeing you that your brother left |
| 10 | C’est en travaillant dur que vous y arriverez It’s by working hard that you’ll get there |
As in the construction discussed in 255, c’est … que … serves to emphasize the complement (see all the above examples) and the tense of c’est generally remains unchanged (see sentences 1, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10).
The following idioms are exceptions to what has been said above:
Il en est ainsi
It is so, that is how things are
il en est de même pour …
the same is true of …
257 (i) In all the examples given in 248–256, the verb is être. Note, however, that ce can still be used when the modal verbs devoir and pouvoir (and occasionally aller and, in the conditional tense only, savoir) are followed by être, e.g.:
Ce doit être un gros problème
It must be a big problem
Ce ne peut être que lui
It can only be he
Ce pourrait être vrai
It could be true
Ç’allait être difficile
It was going to be difficult
Ce ne saurait être que lui
It could only be he
(Note the cedilla on ç’ before the a- of allait; the same is true before the a- of avoir in compound tenses of être, e.g. ç’avait été ‘it had been’.)
(ii) Note that c’est can be combined with other tenses in a following clause introduced by qui or que, e.g.:
offenserez tout le monde
offend everybody
C’est moi (or C’était moi) qu’elle attendait
It is me (or It was me) she was waiting for
C’est (or Ce fut) Zola qui prit la défense de Dreyfus
It was Zola who defended Dreyfus
But if c’est is not used, then the tense of the two verbs must be the same; in particular, avoid the trap that foreigners often fall into of beginning with C’était … and then continuing with a preterite or a perfect in the following clause.
III. C’est or est?
258 Note that c’est rather than est alone must be used
(i) when the complement is a personal pronoun, e.g.:
| Mon meilleur ami c’est vous | My best friend is you |
(ii) when the referent is singular and the complement plural (in which case ce sont would be preferred in literary usage, see 255), e.g.:
Ce que je crains, c’est (or ce sont) mes prétendus amis
What I fear is (the reaction of) my so-called friends
(iii) when both referent and complement are positive infinitives, e.g.:
| Voir c’est croire | Seeing is believing |
Tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner
To understand all is to forgive all
(but, if the second infinitive is negative, either c’est or est may be used, e.g. Consentir (ce) n’est pas approuver ‘To consent is not to approve’).
259 C’est, though not absolutely compulsory, is generally used:
(i) when the referent is a clause introduced by celui, etc., or ce and a relative pronoun, or by a nominalized adjective conveying the same sense as a clause with ce qui (e.g. l’essentiel = ce qui est essentiel); this is particularly true whenever a superlative is involved, in which case c’est rather than est should always be used, e.g.:
Celui qui travaille le mieux, c’est Paul
The one who works best is Paul (it’s Paul who works best)
and, without a superlative:
Celui qui travaille bien c’est Paul
The one who works well is Paul
Ce qui m’agace, c’est (or est) sa paresse
What infuriates me is his idleness
However, when the complement is an element (usually an adjective) that could not function as the subject, est not c’est is used, e.g.:
Ce qu’il propose est tout à fait raisonnable
What he suggests is perfectly reasonable
(it would be impossible to turn this round and make tout à fait raisonnable the subject – contrast Ce qui m’agace, c’est sa paresse ‘What infuriates me is his idleness’ and Sa paresse est ce qui m’agace ‘His idleness is what infuriates me’).
(ii) when the complement is an infinitive or a clause introduced by que, e.g.:
Le problème (c’)est de le persuader que tout ira bien
The problem is to persuade him that all will be well
La difficulté (c’)est qu’il ne comprend rien
The difficulty is that he understands nothing
260 In various circumstances, there is virtually a free choice between c’est and est, e.g.:
Se moquer de lui (c’)est très facile
To make fun of him is very easy
This is particularly so when the two halves of the sentence are virtually interchangeable, e.g.:
Son grand défaut (c’)est la paresse
His great defect is laziness
La paresse (c’)est son grand défaut
Laziness is his great defect
In such cases, the insertion of ce gives slightly more emphasis.
But when such a sentence is negative, it is more usual not to insert ce, e.g.:
Son grand défaut n’est pas la paresse, mais l’obstination
His great defect is not laziness, but obstinacy
261 In the construction c’est + complement + infinitive, when the infinitive is the ‘logical subject’ of the verb (as in ‘It would be a mistake to leave’ which is the equivalent of ‘To leave would be a mistake’), the infinitive is introduced by de or que de, e.g.:
C’est une erreur (que) de répondre à cette lettre
It is a mistake to reply to that letter
Ce serait manquer de tact (que) de partir maintenant
It would be tactless (lacking in tact) to leave now
C’est agaçant (que) d’être mécompris
It is infuriating to be misunderstood