French and Chinese/Contrastive Grammar

French and Standard Chinese are far-removed linguistically. This page gives a brief background on some important grammatical differences.

Pronouns

Case marking

French displays a case distinction for personal pronouns.

• (fr) Je le vois. → I see him.
• (fr) Il me voit. → He sees me.

Note the alteration between je 'I' and me 'me.'

Standard Chinese does not display a case distinction; meaning is conveyed through word order. Note that some varieties of Chinese do mark case on pronouns.

• (zh) 我在看他。 → I see him.
• (zh) 他在看我。 → He sees me.

2nd-person pronouns

French displays two 2nd-person pronouns:

• tu (singular informal)
• vous (singular formal, plural informal and formal)

Chinese displays four 2nd-person pronouns:

• 你 (singular informal)
• 您 (singular formal)
• 你們 (plural informal)
• 您們 (plural formal)

Possessives

French possessives are marked through the preposition de. The possessed noun is the head word, while the possessor comes after the preposition.

• (fr) le chien de la fille → the girl's dog (literally: the dog of the girl)

Chinese possessives are marked through the particle 的, also coincidentally pronounced de. In a reversal of the French word order, the possessor is the head word, while the possessed noun comes after the preposition.

• (zh) 女孩的狗 → [the] girl's dog (literally: girl 的 dog)

Verbs

Person

French verbs display conjugations for person. However, person is not implicit; unlike most Romance languages, the subject is never dropped.

• (fr) Je pense. → I think.
• (fr) Nous pensons. → We think.
• (fr) Tu penses. → You (singular informal) think.

Chinese verbs do not display conjugations for person.

• (zh) 我想。 → I think.
• (zh) 我們想。 → We think.
• (zh) 你想。 → You (singular) think.

Person is indicated by the subject only, which may be dropped.

• (zh) 不知道。 → I don't know. (literally: don't know)

Tense

French verbs mark tense through verb conjugation. Tense is obligatorily marked.

• (fr) Je pense. → I think.
• (fr) Je pensai. → I thought.
• (fr) Je penserai. → I will think.

Chinese verbs are marked by verb-prefixing or verb-suffixing particles. These particles are optional; tense is sometimes not marked.

• (zh) 我想。 → I think (without tense)
• (zh) 我在想。 → I am thinking.
• (zh) 我想了。 → I have thought.
• (zh) 我會想。 → I will think.

Interrogatives

Wh-questions

French displays three paradigms for *wh*-questions:

1. (formal|fronting of the interrogative pronoun and an inversion of the subject-verb order:

• (fr) Que voulez-vous? → What do you want? (formal)

2. (informal|fronting of the interrogative pronoun, followed by the particle est-ce que:

• (fr) Qu'est-ce que vous voulez? → What do you want? (informal)

3. (very informal|standard SVO sentence order, with the interrogative pronoun substituted in the normal position.

• (fr) Vous voulez quoi? → What do you want? (very informal)

Chinese has only one paradigm for wh-questions, matching in structure the last, very informal paradigm of French. The interrogative pronoun is not fronted.

• (zh) 你要什麼？ → What do you want?

Yes/no questions

French displays two paradigms for yes/no questions:

1. (formal) inversion of the subject-verb order:

• (fr) Êtes-vous prêt? → Are you ready? (formal)

2. (informal) use of the sentence-initial particle est-ce que:

• (fr) Est-ce que vous êtes prêt? → Are you ready? (informal)

Chinese displays several paradigms for yes/no questions, including the following main ones:

1. the sentence-final particle 嗎 ma:

• (zh) 你準備好了嗎？ → Are you ready?

2. the so-called A-not-A construction, only usable with certain verbs:

• (zh) 西瓜甜不甜？ → Is the watermelon sweet? (literally: Watermelon sweet-not-sweet?)