If you hate grammar you may think this entry is beside the point learning French. In fact, if you don't like grammar, but want to learn French, I can attest to the fact that it's possible to learn French by ear. But if reading French is a goal, understand that there is probably no language in which it is more essential to grasp its grammar.
My basic English grammar from junior high school is all very vague to me after muddling it up with other language study. I have been exposed to two very different systems studying Latin and German. My Latin teacher once said that, while it may not be the preferred approach, one could write a Latin sentence in any word order and it was still comprehensible. This is not true of French, nor English for that matter.
Conjugating verbs (as in an earlier form of English) is now no longer as necessary. We like to regularize as many verbs as possible. However, remnants of an older system are found in our irregular verbs. An example is the verb 'to go': I go, he goes, you go, we go, you go, they go. In this case only third person singular retains a conjugated ending. We mostly dropped these old forms from our speech and our written language while French retains them primarily in the written word.
French utilizes the Latin and Germanic systems in one language. Latin generally uses no pronouns just mostly suffixes to convey both number and tense. German, like English, primarily relies upon pronouns to do the heavy lifting with first, second, and third person. Yet, if you listen to French, one can't help but notice that in the spoken French, one just simply does not pronounce many of the endings of verbs that one sees in the written French. Why? Because it is very cumbersome. Understanding the spoken French does not require retention of all those archaic endings. But for whatever reason, the French retain them in the written word.
While French and English have similarities, there are great differences. We learn about dependent and independent clauses but, while it is clear that French uses this concept vigorously, that terminology doesn't match up with their rules about when to choose que versus qui. Our relative pronouns (who, whom, which, that) serve multiple uses. But this flexibility gives English an undesirable ambiguity.
Correct American English usage of relative pronouns is debated by scholars, editors, students, and teachers alike. It's been delightful exploring relative clause topics on the Internet for the last year. U.S. education teaches us to learn the currently accepted grammar... until time passes and one's next teacher inflicts the latest and greatest changes of the grammar and punctuation as well on his/her student. Many educated people avoid using dependent clauses (in English) because of the disagreement over which relative pronoun choice is appropriate.
Originally, I was taught to separate a sequence with commas, 3 years later retaught to not use a comma before the 'and', then later in college I found the rule had reverted to using that extra comma. Sure, it is not the equivalent of the discipline of chemistry reversing the valence numbers (electron charge) on the periodic table, but it's close. (Yes, the periodic table was actually revised between my high school and college years.)
Yet, French grammar isn't that different from English in many ways. For comprehension, both depend heavily on word order. The adverbs, adjectives, and pronouns all use proximity in a sentence to do their work although the rules are slightly different. The tenses are pretty much the same (past, present, future). Prepositional use is extremely similar. So far in my studies, I've found the greatest difference is that the French uses the subjunctive where we have almost totally abandoned it. And French people often say they just avoid using the subjunctive form rather than misspeak.
French grammar is a subject that is necessary to study intensively to get right, even for native speakers. French academic studies contrast starkly with American English. We get a dash of grammar here and there in our schooling. Yet, while it's useful for us to understand our grammar, grammar is easy enough that, even without studying it much, one can learn to read and write reasonably well.
My basic English grammar from junior high school is all very vague to me after muddling it up with other language study. I have been exposed to two very different systems studying Latin and German. My Latin teacher once said that, while it may not be the preferred approach, one could write a Latin sentence in any word order and it was still comprehensible. This is not true of French, nor English for that matter.
Conjugating verbs (as in an earlier form of English) is now no longer as necessary. We like to regularize as many verbs as possible. However, remnants of an older system are found in our irregular verbs. An example is the verb 'to go': I go, he goes, you go, we go, you go, they go. In this case only third person singular retains a conjugated ending. We mostly dropped these old forms from our speech and our written language while French retains them primarily in the written word.
French utilizes the Latin and Germanic systems in one language. Latin generally uses no pronouns just mostly suffixes to convey both number and tense. German, like English, primarily relies upon pronouns to do the heavy lifting with first, second, and third person. Yet, if you listen to French, one can't help but notice that in the spoken French, one just simply does not pronounce many of the endings of verbs that one sees in the written French. Why? Because it is very cumbersome. Understanding the spoken French does not require retention of all those archaic endings. But for whatever reason, the French retain them in the written word.
While French and English have similarities, there are great differences. We learn about dependent and independent clauses but, while it is clear that French uses this concept vigorously, that terminology doesn't match up with their rules about when to choose que versus qui. Our relative pronouns (who, whom, which, that) serve multiple uses. But this flexibility gives English an undesirable ambiguity.
Correct American English usage of relative pronouns is debated by scholars, editors, students, and teachers alike. It's been delightful exploring relative clause topics on the Internet for the last year. U.S. education teaches us to learn the currently accepted grammar... until time passes and one's next teacher inflicts the latest and greatest changes of the grammar and punctuation as well on his/her student. Many educated people avoid using dependent clauses (in English) because of the disagreement over which relative pronoun choice is appropriate.
Originally, I was taught to separate a sequence with commas, 3 years later retaught to not use a comma before the 'and', then later in college I found the rule had reverted to using that extra comma. Sure, it is not the equivalent of the discipline of chemistry reversing the valence numbers (electron charge) on the periodic table, but it's close. (Yes, the periodic table was actually revised between my high school and college years.)
Yet, French grammar isn't that different from English in many ways. For comprehension, both depend heavily on word order. The adverbs, adjectives, and pronouns all use proximity in a sentence to do their work although the rules are slightly different. The tenses are pretty much the same (past, present, future). Prepositional use is extremely similar. So far in my studies, I've found the greatest difference is that the French uses the subjunctive where we have almost totally abandoned it. And French people often say they just avoid using the subjunctive form rather than misspeak.
French grammar is a subject that is necessary to study intensively to get right, even for native speakers. French academic studies contrast starkly with American English. We get a dash of grammar here and there in our schooling. Yet, while it's useful for us to understand our grammar, grammar is easy enough that, even without studying it much, one can learn to read and write reasonably well.
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