Basic Sentence Structure

French basic sentence structure can be intimidating since it may seem like it defies its own logic at times. The basic sentence structure for French is SVO, which is the same as English’s.
“I love French” becomes “J’aime le Francais”.

In French, pronouns that end in a vowel (je, tu) will shorten themselves if the word that comes after them starts in a vowel. This helps preserve flow when speaking.
Therefore “Je aime” becomes “J’aime”.

There is a common exception to this general SVO rule in French (not really sure if it should be called an exception or just an alternate rule due to how frequently it is used in colloquial French).
When the object of the sentence is a pronoun, it comes after the subject and before the verb.
So “I love you” becomes “Je t’aime” (te aime becomes t’aime).

Vocab

Text/Story

Bonjour!
Je m’appelle Chris.
Voici, c’est mon blog de langage.
J’utilise ce pour practice mon français.
J’espère que vous apprendez avec moi!

Translation

Hello!
My name is Chris.
This is my language blog.
I use this to practice my French.
I hope you can learn with me!

Bonjour!

Hello!
– This is the most common and neutral way to say hello.

Je m’appelle Chris

My name is Chris
Je (I), me (me), appeller (to call)
– Here is an example of a pronoun preceding the verb. This literally translates to “I call myself Chris”. It is the most common way of introducing yourself in French.

J’espère que vous apprendez avec moi!

I hope that you all can learn with me
Je (I), espèrer (Hope), que (that), vous (you all), apprendre (learn), avec (with), moi (me)
– Espèrer conjugates to espère
– Que functions virtually the same as in English. It is put after verbs to help connect the verb and the object to another verb.
– Vous is the plural form of tu. It can also act as a more respectful version of tu. For example, if you were talking to the president of the U.S. or your boss, you would use vous instead of tu (unless you were close with them).
– Avec functions the same as “with” in English.