Avoid These French Grammar Mistakes

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

It is very often tempting to just think in your own native language and then try to express that in a
different one you are trying to learn.
You probably noticed that already: It does not always work that wayespecially not with French!
Today, well be going through some examples that illustrate a sentence construction that is allowed
in English grammar but is a definite non-non in la grammaire franaise.


Consider the two following sentence constructions in English:
Jacques sent a letter to Marie.
Jacques sent Marie a letter.
In both sentences, the word letter is lobject direct (the direct object) whereas family is lobject
indirect (the indirect object.)

In a passive sentence, both ways are also correct in English:
A letter was sent to Marie by Jacques.
Marie was sent a letter by Jacques.

Now, if we move to French and try to say the same, we definitely cant say:
Marie a t envoye une lettre par J acques.
arie a t envoye une lettre par Jacques.
But you could say:
Une lettre a t envoye Marie par Jacques.

The reason is that French grammar only allows this form of prepositional object
construction: Envoyer <direct object> <indirect object.>
Jacques a envoy une lettre Marie is correct.
But
Jacques a envoy Marie une lettre is definitely incorrect.
Granted, you may hear the latter construction in French movies, for example. But dont let that fool
you, because that could be just a way to portray or hint at an uneducated character, for example!

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