French Grammar

A quick reference guide to French grammar terms, including verb forms, pronouns, and much more. Each definition has links to further information, and you can search by the French or English name.

When you start learning a foreign language, you'll have a head start if you're already familiar with grammar terms related to things like parts of speech in your own language. If you don't know these terms, you'll have more trouble learning French, because grammar is a key component in language study. My French Grammar Glossary can help you understand dozens of grammatical terms, but to give you a head start, I've complied this list of the essentials with links to more info.

These French expressions are both used in impersonal expressions as well as for general comments.

Learn about two ways to report what another person said.

Exclamations are words or phrases that express a desire, an order, or a strong emotion.

You probably know how to use the imperative mood to give orders, but what about other verb forms? Have you ever seen another verb form used and figured it was a mistake? Take a look at this lesson to learn about the different ways to give orders in French.

Il y a (there is/are) is one of the most important expressions in the French language.

Learn about informal French negation, pronoun usage, and questions.

Learning French is hard, and it's even harder if you don't understand the basics of grammar in your own language. If your mind boggles when people start talking about nouns, adjectives, and other parts of speech, this lesson is for you.

There are four grammatical constructions used to express possession in French: adjectives, pronouns, and two different prepositions.

French presentatives are terms which introduce something at the same time that they emphasize it.

Learn about French sentences, including sentence parts and the four different types of sentences.

If-then clauses, also known as si clauses, conditionals, or conditional sentences, are sentences with one clause stating a condition or possibility, and a second clause naming a result which is dependent upon that condition.

Find conjugations for hundreds of verbs with my French verb conjugator - just type the verb or choose it from the list.

Just for fun - grammar rules whose descriptions break the very rule they are describing (en français).

There are hundreds of French grammar books - how can you know which is the best? That's where I come in - here are my favorite grammar books: the ones I use every day as well as those I've grown beyond, but keep because they once helped me so much.