How French works
As we saw in Unit 3, a clause can be made up of five basic elements: subject , verb , object , complement and adverbial . The noun phrase is the principal grammatical unit that can serve as three of these elements, subject, object and complement. It contains a noun or pronoun which acts as the phrase's focus or head noun. This noun may appear on its own: in syntax a single noun is referred to as a noun phrase, even though a phrase is usually defined as a group of two or more words.
In the sentence Pierre a rencontré Marie en ville, for example, Pierre is a noun phrase acting as the subject of the sentence, and Marie is a noun phrase acting as a direct object .
More usually, however, a noun phrase contains one or more elements serving to give added information about the head noun. The determiner is a word appearing before a noun that gives information about the scope of reference of that noun. In French determiners include the articles le, un, des and so on, and certain types of adjective :
| Determiner | Example |
|---|---|
| possessive | mon livre |
| demonstrative | cette maison |
| indefinite | quelques personnes |
| interrogative | quelle rue? |
| numerical | cinquante francs |
For example, in the sentence Mon père a rencontré quelques amis en ville the phrase mon père is a noun phrase acting as the subject of the sentence, and quelques amis is a noun phrase acting as a direct object .
The remaining elements of a noun phrase are called modifiers, and they are words or phrases giving information about specific attributes of the head noun rather than about its scope of reference. They can come before or after the head noun, but in French they tend to come after it.
These elements can be qualificative adjectives, that is adjectives that do not fall under the heading of determiner :
un chapeau rouge
a red house
[head = chapeau, adjective = rouge]
ta nouvelle maison
your new house
[head = maison, adjective = nouvelle]
Sometimes a noun phrase can contain adjectives in succession, as in ta jolie nouvelle maison, or it might be qualified by an adverb , as in ta très jolie maison. In both cases the modifying words are said to form an adjective phrase. As with noun phrases, for the purposes of analysis a single adjective can also be said to constitute an adjective phrase.
ta nouvelle maison
your new house
[head = maison, adjective phrase = nouvelle]
ta jolie nouvelle maison
your pretty new house
[head = maison, adjective phrase = jolie nouvelle]
ta très jolie maison
your very pretty house
[head = maison, adjective phrase = très jolie]
These are nouns that modify other nouns. In French they are usually introduced by a preposition . In this case the resultant expression is called a preposition phrase:
un cours d’anglais
an English class
[head = cours, prepositional phrase = d’anglais]
un sac à main
a hand bag
[head = sac, prepositional phrase = à main]
Sometimes a noun can modify another noun without the presence of a preposition . Unlike in English, this is quite rare in French except in set expressions :
La rue Balzac, le roi Louis
rue Balzac / Balzac Road, King Louis
[heads = rue, roi, noun complements = Balzac, Louis]
Côté sécurité, on n’a rien à craindre
Safety-wise, we have nothing to worry about
[head = côté, noun complement = sécurité]
These are introduced by que in French, and function as a noun . As such they can be seen as similar to noun complements mentioned in 3.2 above:
J’ai l’impression qu’il ment
I've got a feeling he's lying
[head = impression, completive clause = qu’il ment]
These are adjectival in function:
La femme que j’ai rencontrée
The woman (who / whom) I met
[head = femme, relative clause = que j’ai rencontrée]
Le document dont j’ai besoin
The document (that) I need
[head = document, relative clause = dont j’ai besoin]
These are clauses containing a nonfinite verb such as a participle or an infinitive . When these modify a head noun they are also adjectival in function:
J’ai des courses à faire
I have some shopping to do
[head = courses, nonfinite clause = à faire]
La voiture garée devant sa maison
The car parked in front of her house
[head = voiture, nonfinite clause = garée devant sa maison]