FlexiLingoIn one line
Subject, then verb, then object — and French breaks that order far less often than you might expect, because without it there is no way to tell who did what.
The table
| Slot | What goes there | Example | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | subject | Marie | /ma.ʁi/ |
| 2 | object pronouns | me le | /mə lə/ |
| 3 | the conjugated verb | donne | /dɔn/ |
| 4 | direct object | un livre | /œ̃ livʁ/ |
| 5 | indirect object | à Paul | /a pɔl/ |
| 6 | place | à la maison | /a la mɛ.zɔ̃/ |
| 7 | time | demain | /də.mɛ̃/ |
Marie donne un livre à Paul à la maison demain.
In practice all seven slots are never filled at once, but the relative order always holds.
The backbone is the same as English — subject, verb, object — so most sentences transfer directly. Only three things move, and they are listed further down: object pronouns go before the verb, adjectives go after the noun, and adverbs go after the verb rather than between subject and verb.
One difference in the table itself: English puts time before place as often as not ("tomorrow at home"), while French prefers place then time. It is a preference, not a rule.
The negative sentence
ne and pas wrap around the conjugated verb, and the pronouns stay inside that loop:
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
| simple | Marie ne donne pas le livre. | /ma.ʁi nə dɔn pa lə livʁ/ |
| with a pronoun | Marie ne le donne pas. | /ma.ʁi nə lə dɔn pa/ |
| past | Marie ne l'a pas donné. | /ma.ʁi nə la pa dɔ.ne/ |
| with an infinitive | Marie ne va pas le donner. | /ma.ʁi nə va pa lə dɔ.ne/ |
| a negative infinitive | Ne pas fumer. — both together, before the infinitive | /nə pa fy.me/ |
The question
| Type | Order | Example | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|
| intonation | unchanged | Tu viens ? | /ty vjɛ̃/ |
est-ce que | unchanged | Est-ce que tu viens ? | /ɛs kə ty vjɛ̃/ |
| inversion | verb + subject | Viens-tu ? | /vjɛ̃.ty/ |
| question word + inversion | word + verb + subject | Où habites-tu ? | /u a.bit ty/ |
The detail is in questions.
Place and time — the only free part
These two can move to the front of the sentence, and doing so is entirely natural in French:
| Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|
Demain, je pars. | time in front | /də.mɛ̃ ʒə paʁ/ |
À Paris, il pleut souvent. | place in front | /a pa.ʁi il plø su.vɑ̃/ |
Je pars demain. | neutral | /ʒə paʁ də.mɛ̃/ |
But unlike German, fronting an adverb does not swap the verb and the subject:
Demain je pars, not. English behaves the same way — "Tomorrow I'm leaving", not "Tomorrow am I leaving" — so this needs no adjustment.Demain pars je
Three places where the order differs from English
| English | French | Pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| object pronoun | after the verb — "I see him" | before the verb — Je le vois. | /ʒə lə vwa/ |
| adjective | before the noun — "a red car" | after the noun — voiture rouge | /vwa.tyʁ ʁuʒ/ |
| adverb | often between subject and verb — "he often comes" | after the verb — Il vient souvent. | /il vjɛ̃ su.vɑ̃/ |
The third row is the one that slips through. English happily says "he often comes", "she never eats", "I always work" — adverb between subject and verb. French does not allow it:
Il vient souvent,Elle mange jamais→Elle ne mange jamais,Je travaille toujours. The adverb goes after the verb, and in a compound tense it usually goes between the auxiliary and the participle:J'ai souvent mangé.
When the subject follows the verb
Three situations where French inverts:
| Situation | Example | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| an inverted question | Où va-t-il ? | /u va.t‿il/ |
| a quotation tag | « Oui », dit-il. | /wi di.t‿il/ |
| after certain adverbs in formal writing | Peut-être viendra-t-il. | /pø.tɛtʁ vjɛ̃.dʁa.t‿il/ |
That
tinva-t-ilexists only for pronunciation — it separates two vowels.va-ilis awkward;va-t-ilflows.The quotation tag will look familiar: English inverts there too — "Yes," said he — although it now prefers "he said".
Examples
| English | French | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| Marie gives the book to Paul tomorrow. | Marie donne le livre à Paul demain. | /ma.ʁi dɔn lə livʁ a pɔl də.mɛ̃/ |
| I'm not giving it to him. | Je ne le lui donne pas. | /ʒə nə lə lɥi dɔn pa/ |
| Tomorrow I'm leaving. | Demain, je pars. | /də.mɛ̃ ʒə paʁ/ |
| Where do you live? | Où habites-tu ? | /u a.bit ty/ |
| No smoking. | Ne pas fumer. | /nə pa fy.me/ |
| He often comes. | Il vient souvent. | /il vjɛ̃ su.vɑ̃/ |
| A lovely red car. | Une belle voiture rouge. | /yn bɛl vwa.tyʁ ʁuʒ/ |
| Where is he going? | Où va-t-il ? | /u va til/ |
| Yesterday I was in Paris. | Hier, j'étais à Paris. | /jɛʁ ʒe.tɛ.z‿a pa.ʁi/ |
| I don't want to go. | Je ne veux pas partir. | /ʒə nə vø pa paʁ.tiʁ/ |
Common mistakes
| ❌ | ✅ | Why |
|---|---|---|
Je vois le. | Je le vois. | The pronoun goes before the verb |
Il souvent vient. | Il vient souvent. | No adverb between subject and verb |
Je ne pas veux. | Je ne veux pas. | pas goes after the verb |
Demain pars je. | Demain, je pars. | A fronted adverb does not invert |
Une rouge voiture. | Une voiture rouge. | A colour adjective goes after the noun |
Ne fumer pas. | Ne pas fumer. | With an infinitive, ne pas stays together |
Why French does not break the order
when the endings went, word order took over
In Latin every noun carried an ending that showed its role:
| Latin | Role | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
Marcus | subject | /maʁ.ky/ |
Marcum | object | /maʁ.kɔm/ |
So the order was free — Marcus Paulum videt and Paulum Marcus videt both mean "Marcus sees Paul".
On the road to French those endings wore away and fell off. Now Marc is both subject and object, and the only thing that distinguishes them is position:
Marc voit Paul.≠Paul voit Marc.
So French had to fix its word order. The freedom Latin had was paid for by keeping its endings.
English did exactly the same thing, and you can still see the wreckage. Old English had case endings and free word order; they collapsed between about 1100 and 1400, and English fixed its order in response — which is why "the dog bit the man" and "the man bit the dog" are different sentences. The only endings English kept are on the pronouns: he/him, she/her, who/whom. French kept exactly the same fragment, which is why its pronouns are the one place it can still move things around.
The practical point: whenever you are tempted to rearrange a French sentence for emphasis, remember that French has no case markings on nouns, so position is the only signal. To emphasise something, use mise-en-relief (C'est … que …) rather than moving the words.