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?)
