Inversion
French Word Order ~ Ordre des mots
The order of words in a French sentence can be very confusing, due to dual-verb constructions; object, adverbial, and reflexive pronouns; and negative structures. The basics of this are discussed in the compound verb and dual-verb lessons, but inversion further complicates matters.
| Inversion is commonly used to ask questions: the subject and verb are inverted and joined by a hyphen. |
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| Tu lis - Lis-tu ? Vous voulez - Voulez-vous ? |
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| A. Simple (single) verb constructions | ||||||
| The pronouns precede the verb and the negative structure surrounds that group: ne + pronouns + verb-subject + part two of negative structure. | ||||||
| Lis-tu ? | Are you reading? | |||||
| Le lis-tu ? | Are you reading it? | |||||
| Ne lis-tu pas ? | Aren't you reading? | |||||
| Ne le lis-tu pas ? | Aren't you reading it? | |||||
| Ne me le lis-tu pas ? | Aren't you reading it to me? | |||||
| B. Compound verbs (conjugated auxiliary verb + past participle) | ||||||
| The pronouns directly precede the inverted auxiliary/subject and the negative structure surrounds that: ne + pronouns + auxiliary verb-subject + part two of negative structure +past participle. | ||||||
| As-tu mangé ? | Did you eat? | |||||
| L'as-tu mangé ? | Did you eat it? | |||||
| T'es-tu habillé ? | Did you get dressed? | |||||
| N'as-tu pas mangé ? | Didn't you eat? | |||||
| Ne l'as-tu pas mangé ? | Didn't you eat it? | |||||
| Ne t'es-tu pas habillé ? | Didn't you get dressed? | |||||
| Ne l'y as-tu pas mangé ? | Didn't you eat it there? | |||||
| C. Dual-verb constructions (conjugated verb + infinitive) | ||
| The negative structure surrounds the inverted conjugated verb/subject and the pronouns are placed between the second negative word and the infinitive: ne + conjugated verb-subject + part two of negative structure + preposition (if any) + pronoun(s) + infinitive. | ||
| Veux-tu manger ? | Do you want to eat? | |
| Veux-tu le manger ? | Do you want to eat it? | |
| Veux-tu te doucher ? | Do you want to take a shower? | |
| Ne veux-tu pas manger ? | Don't you want to eat? | |
| Ne veux-tu pas le manger ? | Don't you want to eat it? | |
| Ne veux-tu pas te doucher ? | Don't you want to take a shower? | |
| Continuerons-nous à travailler ? | Will we continue to work? | |
| Continuerons-nous à y travailler ? | Will we continue to work there? | |
| Ne continuerons-nous pas à travailler ? | Won't we continue to work? | |
| Ne continuerons-nous pas à y travailler ? | Won't we continue to work there? | |
| Sometimes the object pronoun precedes the first verb - in French, the object pronoun has to go in front of the verb it modifies (see dual-verb lesson for more info). If there is a second pronoun, that gets placed as in C above. | ||
| Promets-tu d'étudier ? | Do you promise to study? | |
| Me promets-tu d'étudier ? | Do you promise me that you'll study? | |
| Ne promets-tu pas d'étudier ? | Don't you promise to study? | |
| Ne me promets-tu pas d'étudier ? | Don't you promise me that you'll study? | |
| Ne me promets-tu pas de l'étudier ? | Don't you promise me that you'll study it? | |
| Test on word order with inversion Using inversion
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