French sentences you can build yourself, step by step

French sentences are built the way English ones are: a subject, then a verb, then whatever completes it. The small differences are where a pronoun, an adjective or the two halves of a negation land. This page walks through them one at a time, so you can build your own French sentences from a few patterns. For ready-made lines, see common French phrases. For the question words themselves, see French question words.

How do you make a sentence in French?

A sentence in French starts with a subject, then the verb, then the rest. In “Le chien mange”, le chien is the subject and mange is the verb. A pronoun can be the subject too: “Elle va à la banque”.

Many French sentences follow this order. The OQLF says the direct object, the word that completes the verb without a preposition, usually sits to the right of the verb: “Il étudie les langues anciennes à l’université” [3].

Learn the small words first. French words and sentences fit together through these building blocks, each with a recording:

For the pronouns themselves, read French pronouns.

Where do adjectives and adverbs go in a French sentence?

An adjective can sit before or after its noun, depending on the word. The OQLF’s own examples are “un grand pont” and “un pont surélevé” [5]. Its adjective page adds that an adjective expressing a quality can go after the noun (“un hiver interminable”) or before it (“un gros fumeur”) [4]. Adjectives that classify a noun, such as “provincial” in “le gouvernement provincial”, always go after it [4].

An intensity adverb such as très goes in front of the adjective: “une très sage décision” [4]. For which adjectives go where, see French adjectives.

Adverbs of time or frequency include souvent, toujours and déjà, as in “Elle voit souvent son frère”. In a negation, the OQLF says some adverbs can sit between the verb and pas: “Il n’a même pas pu parler à son fils” [1].

Where do object pronouns go in French language sentences?

An object pronoun goes before the verb. That is different from English, and it is the pattern learners miss most.

The OQLF gives “Elle vous voit souvent les fins de semaine”, where the pronoun is a direct object placed to the left of the verb [3]. It also shows a direct object replaced by a pronoun: “J’espérais partir à l’étranger” becomes “Je l’espérais”, and “Vous mangerez des salades-repas au restaurant” becomes “Vous en mangerez au restaurant” [3].

The first row is our own illustration. The second row is the OQLF’s example [3]. Pronoun order gets harder with two pronouns, so keep to one for now.

How does ne… pas work in French sentences?

In a French negative sentence, ne and pas go around the verb. The OQLF says that with a conjugated verb, ne and pas surround the auxiliary or the verb form: “Ce petit garçon n’aime pas le poisson” [1].

A pronoun that completes the verb slips in between ne and the verb: “Ne vous offusquez pas pour si peu” [1]. So the order is ne, pronoun, verb, pas.

With an infinitive in the present, the OQLF says ne pas goes before the verb and before any pronoun: “Mes grands-parents essaient de ne pas sortir quand il neige” and “Ne pas lui parler est encore ce qui est préférable pour l’instant, le temps qu’il se calme” [1]. For the yes and no words themselves, see yes and no in French.

What are the ways to ask a question in French?

You can ask a question with a statement, with est-ce que, or with inversion. The OQLF lists the ways a direct question is formed: inversion of subject and verb, repeating the subject as a pronoun after the verb, a question word, or the phrase est-ce que [2]. A question can also keep the exact form of a statement, with only the question mark to show it is a question [2].

The first two examples come from the OQLF’s page, which says the question mark stands in for the intonation the sentence would have when spoken [2]. The inversion example follows its model “Voulez-vous me faire l’honneur de présider ?” [2].

A question word is another way, and the OQLF’s examples start with it: “Combien vaut ton ordinateur portable ?” and “Pourquoi cette voisine est-elle fâchée ?” [2]. Hear pourquoi, où and comment, then see French question words for the full list.

What are common French sentences built from these patterns?

Common French sentences reuse the same few patterns. Each line below is the pattern, not a rule to memorize.

Say each one aloud, then change one word. Swapping the verb or the noun trains the pattern faster than reading a list. When you are ready for greetings and set phrases, go to common French phrases.

Try the four questions below.

Common mistakes

• Putting the object pronoun after the verb. English says “I see it”; French says “Je le vois”, with the pronoun first [3].
• Forgetting half of the negation. Ne and pas go around the verb, not both before it [1].
• Putting the pronoun after ne… pas. The pronoun sits between ne and the verb [1].
• Treating every adjective as “after the noun”. Some qualifying adjectives go before it (“un gros fumeur”), and classifying ones always follow [4].
• Inverting a question when you do not need to. The OQLF lists statement order with intonation, and est-ce que, as possible ways to ask [2].
• Trusting a grammar page from a blog, including this one. The official pages change. Check each page’s own date against ours.

See also: the French grammar guide.

See also: French negation.

Sources