Japanese Verb Conjugation: All Types and Tenses

Learning French can be exciting even as you begin with basic conversational phrases and find yourself progressing quickly. As you pick up more vocabulary, you’ll aspire to more sophisticated ways of expressing your ideas. Creating your own sentences unlocks a whole new level of language proficiency. To reach that next step in your language learning, you’ll want to understand the basics of how a sentence is put together.

Learning some language concepts, such as French parts of speech, can help you build your sentences and speak French with confidence. No language learning journey looks the same, but Rosetta Stone has features for every learner, so you can create a personalized experience that is both fun and engaging.

What are French parts of speech?

Parts of speech are categories of words that have specific functions in a sentence. Knowing which category to use and how they connect together can help you build a sentence that expresses your idea clearly—and also sounds correct. Certain parts of speech work together, follow an order, and influence the meaning of the sentence. 

Being familiar with the parts of speech in French can help when you’re studying French grammar rules. This guide will help clarify the important French parts of speech so you can feel confident knowing how to construct sentences in French. 

How many parts of speech are there in the French language?

English has eight parts of speech, according to Britannica. Some grammarians group them differently, but we will cover these eight basic categories of parts of speech in the French language as well. 

How can I identify the French part of speech for a word? 

In many French vocabulary lists and dictionaries, you’ll see the French word followed by some extra letters or abbreviations. It might look like one of these examples: 

• magie nf 
• magie, n. f. 

The “nf”  or “n.f.” refers to “noun, feminine.”  This is useful to distinguish the noun magie (magic) from the adjective magique (magical). It’s a quick way to know the French part of speech the word belongs to when you need quick help.

There are also commonly used abbreviations for other parts of speech and characteristics.

• magique adj.  (adjective) 
• manger v. (verb) 
• mon adj poss (possessive adjective)
• même adv (adverb)

Le nom/le substantif (noun) 

If hearing the word “noun” brought to mind the common definition “person, place, thing, or idea,” then you’re on the right track already! Here are a few more features of nouns in French: 

Nouns are usually accompanied by a déterminant (determiner). These can be typical articles (a, an, the) or other words like (each, some, this, my).

• la chaussette = the sock (definite article) 
• une chaussette = a sock (indefinite article) 
• cette chaussette = this sock (demonstrative) 
• mes chaussettes = my socks (possessive) 

Singular or plural nouns are used to demonstrate the number of persons, places, things, or ideas.

• La chemise = the shirt 
• Les chemises = the shirts

Nouns have grammatical gender of either masculine or feminine. The gender can change the meaning of the noun, which is why it’s important to learn their gender and not just the meaning.

• Le chèvre = the goat cheese 
• La chèvre = the goat

Serving two purposes, nouns can function as subjects or objects in a sentence. 

• La chèvre a mangé la chaussette. = The goat ate the sock. (The goat is the subject.)
• J’ai mangé le chèvre. = I ate the goat cheese. (The goat cheese is the object.) 

Le pronom (pronoun)

This popular Romance language has several different types of French pronouns, which are used to replace a noun in order to avoid repetition. Your reader or listener can get annoyed pretty quickly if you repeat a name or noun excessively while you tell a story. Compare these examples in English:

• Without pronouns: I looked for my cousin, but I didn’t see my cousin because my cousin went to the store with my cousin’s friend. 
• With pronouns: I looked for my cousin, but I didn’t see him because he went to the store with his friend.

Le pronom sujet (subject pronoun)

Subject pronouns are often one of the French parts of speech learners will memorize. You can use subject pronouns to replace a noun when it is the subject of the sentence. Remember, not all nouns are grammatically the subject, so you’ll have to ask “who or what is doing the verb, or the action?” to determine the subject.

Nous mangeons beaucoup de pizza. = We eat a lot of pizza. 

Who eats a lot of pizza? “We” do. So “we” is the subject pronoun.

Le pronom réfléchi (reflexive pronoun) 

Reflexive verbs are used when the subject of the verb receives the action of the verb. To accomplish this in English we sometimes use words like “myself.” Sometimes the reflexive pronoun doesn’t translate to English at all, as French has lots of verbs that are used reflexively.

• Je me lave les mains. = I wash my hands. 
• Elle se regarde dans le miroir. = She looks at herself in the mirror. 
• Nous nous amusons. = We have fun. 

Le pronom objet direct (direct object pronoun)

Direct object pronouns replace the noun as the object of the sentence, receiving the action of the verb.