JCE French 32 key terms

A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. In French it carries gender and number, and is usually accompanied by a determiner such as le, la, un, or une.

The word that expresses an action, a state, or a process. French verbs change form for person, number, tense, and mood, and must agree with their subject.

A word that describes or qualifies a noun, giving information about quality, size, colour, or origin. In French it normally agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies.

An invariable word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, expressing manner, time, place, or degree, for example lentement, très, or ici.

A word that replaces a noun or noun phrase to avoid repetition, such as il, elle, celui-ci, or le nôtre. Pronouns vary by person, gender, number, and function.

A word placed before a noun to mark its gender, number, and specificity, including articles, possessives, demonstratives, and quantifiers such as le, mon, ce, and quelques.

The determiner le, la, l', or les, used when the noun refers to something already known, unique, or previously mentioned, or to a whole category.

The determiner un, une, or des, used to introduce a non-specific or newly mentioned noun, or one of a category rather than a particular instance.

The form du, de la, de l', or des used before a mass noun to mean an unspecified quantity, as in boire du café or manger de la soupe.

The grammatical category, masculine or feminine, that every French noun possesses. Gender controls the form of determiners, adjectives, and past participles that agree with the noun.

The grammatical category distinguishing singular from plural. In French, plural is usually marked on the noun, its determiner, and any agreeing adjective, though the plural ending is often silent.

The matching of grammatical features such as gender and number between related words, for example between a noun and its adjective, or between a subject and its verb.

The system of changing a verb's form to show person, number, tense, and mood. French verbs are grouped into regular patterns and many irregular forms must be memorised.

A verb category locating an action in time relative to the moment of speaking or to another event, for example présent, imparfait, passé composé, futur simple, or plus-que-parfait.

A verb category reflecting the speaker's attitude toward the action, such as fact, wish, doubt, or command. French modes include indicatif, subjonctif, conditionnel, impératif, and infinitif.

A past tense used for ongoing, habitual, or descriptive situations in the past, and for background action, as opposed to a single completed event.

A compound past tense formed with an auxiliary verb, avoir or être, plus a past participle. It typically presents a completed action or a result relevant to the present.

The verb form used with an auxiliary to build compound tenses, or as an adjective. It agrees in gender and number under specific rules, especially with être and preceding direct objects.

The helping verb avoir or être used with a past participle to form compound tenses such as the passé composé and plus-que-parfait. Choice of auxiliary affects agreement rules.

A verb mode expressing subjectivity such as doubt, desire, necessity, emotion, or evaluation. It is typically introduced by que after expressions like il faut que or bien que.

A verb mode used for hypothetical situations, polite requests, and reported future events. The present form often appears in si-clauses paired with an imperfect condition.

The element of a clause that performs or undergoes the action and controls verb agreement. It may be a noun phrase, a pronoun, or an infinitive.

A noun phrase or pronoun that completes the verb's meaning, either directly without a preposition or indirectly with one such as à or de.

A pronoun replacing an object noun phrase, such as le, la, les, lui, leur, or y and en. Its position relative to the verb follows strict rules in French.

A pronoun such as qui, que, dont, or où that links a subordinate clause to a preceding noun phrase called the antecedent, filling a role inside the relative clause.

The noun phrase placed before a relative pronoun that the relative clause describes or refers back to, determining the pronoun's form and meaning.

A clause embedded within a larger sentence and dependent on it, introduced by a conjunction, a relative pronoun, or que, and unable to stand alone grammatically.

An invariable word joining words or clauses, such as et, mais, parce que, or bien que. Some conjunctions require the indicative while others require the subjunctive.

The grammatical construction expressing denial, usually built with ne plus a second marker such as pas, jamais, rien, or personne around the conjugated verb.

A construction in which the subject receives the action rather than performing it, formed with être plus a past participle that agrees with the subject, often followed by par.

The level of formality a speaker chooses, ranging from formal or literary through standard to familiar or colloquial. Vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation all signal register.

A word with a meaning close or identical to another word. True synonyms are rare, since each term usually carries subtle differences in register, intensity, or usage.

A word expressing the opposite meaning of another, such as grand and petit. Antonyms may be formed by prefixes like in-, dé-, or mal-.

One of two or more words pronounced the same but written differently or having different meanings, such as mer, mère, and maire, a frequent source of spelling errors.

A word identical to another in spelling, pronunciation, or both, but different in meaning, for example the noun and adjective senses of certain French words.

A fixed group of words functioning as a single unit whose meaning is not simply the sum of its parts, such as avoir besoin de or tout à fait.

A conditional statement about what might happen or might have happened, expressed in French with si plus the appropriate tense and a matching main clause.

A word whose form never changes for gender, number, or person, such as adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions, in contrast with nouns, adjectives, and verbs.