Word order in French : complete course

Learning a new language means learning new habits — including how to put words in the right order. In French, sentences follow specific patterns that may feel unfamiliar at first. Understanding l’ordre des mots en français (word order in French) is one of the first steps to building clear and correct sentences.

Simple Examples to Get Started

Let’s look at a few basic French sentences:

• Je mange une pomme. — I eat an apple.
• Elle parle français. — She speaks French.
• Nous aimons le chocolat. — We love chocolate.

Notice how each sentence follows the same logic: who does the action, then the action itself, then what or who is affected. Simple, right? Let’s explore this more.

Les Éléments de l’Ordre des Mots en Français

French sentence structure is built around a few key components. Once you understand each one, building sentences becomes much easier.

The Basic SVO Structure

French, like English, follows a Subject – Verb – Object (SVO) pattern in most sentences. This means you first say who is doing something, then what they are doing, then what they are doing it to.

Subject	Verb	Object
Je (I)	mange (eat)	une pomme (an apple)
Tu (You)	lis (read)	un livre (a book)
Il (He)	regarde (watches)	un film (a movie)

Where Adjectives Go

In English, adjectives almost always come before the noun. In French, most adjectives come after the noun. This is one of the biggest differences for English speakers.

• Un chat noir — A black cat (literally: a cat black)
• Une voiture rapide — A fast car (literally: a car fast)

However, some common adjectives do come before the noun:

• Un grand homme — A tall man
• Une petite fille — A little girl
• Un bon repas — A good meal

These exceptions include adjectives describing beauty, age, goodness, and size — often remembered with the acronym BAGS.

Adverbs and Their Placement

In French, short and common adverbs usually come directly after the verb they modify.

• Il parle bien français. — He speaks French well.
• Nous mangeons souvent ensemble. — We often eat together.
• Elle travaille beaucoup. — She works a lot.

This is slightly different from English, where adverbs can move around more freely in a sentence.

Pourquoi l’Ordre des Mots est Important — Why Word Order Matters

Getting word order wrong in French can change the meaning of a sentence — or make it hard to understand. French speakers rely on word order to know who is doing what to whom. Unlike some languages, French does not use case endings on nouns to show the role of each word, so position in the sentence is crucial.

For example:

• Le chien mange le chat. — The dog eats the cat.
• Le chat mange le chien. — The cat eats the dog.

Same words, different order — completely different meaning!

Comparaison avec d’autres langues — Comparison with Other Languages

Looking at how French compares to English and Spanish can help you see the patterns more clearly.

Feature	English	French	Spanish
Basic sentence order	SVO	SVO	SVO (flexible)
Adjective placement	Before the noun	Usually after the noun	Usually after the noun
Adverb placement	Flexible	After the verb	Flexible
Negation placement	Before the verb	Around the verb (ne…pas)	Before the verb (no)

French and Spanish are quite similar in structure, which is great news if you already speak Spanish. English speakers will find the adjective placement the trickiest part to adjust to.

Exemple Complet — A Full Example

Let’s build a sentence step by step:

• Subject: Mon ami (My friend)
• Verb: achète (buys)
• Object: une voiture (a car)
• Adjective: rouge (red) — placed after the noun
• Adverb: souvent (often) — placed after the verb

Full sentence: Mon ami achète souvent une voiture rouge.
Translation: My friend often buys a red car.

Notice how every element has its natural place. Once you internalize these patterns, forming sentences in French will start to feel instinctive.

Points à Retenir — Key Takeaways

• French follows a Subject – Verb – Object structure, just like English.
• Most adjectives come after the noun in French, not before.
• Short adverbs are placed directly after the verb.
• Word order in French is important because it shows the role of each word in the sentence.
• Some common adjectives (BAGS: Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size) come before the noun.
• Practice building simple sentences and gradually add more elements.

Sources

• Grevisse, M. & Goosse, A. (2011). Le Bon Usage. De Boeck Supérieur.
• Riegel, M., Pellat, J.-C. & Rioul, R. (2009). Grammaire méthodique du français. Presses Universitaires de France.
• Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Cambridge University Press.