French Conjunctions – Les Conjonctions: Everything you need to know

French Conjunctions: A comprehensive overview.

Reading time 3 minutes Difficulty: Intermediate / Advanced

So, what exactly is a conjunction?

Of course you know Facebook, but do you know what the main role of it is. It is used to facilitate the interaction between people, or, in other words, to CONNECT people. In language, you would also need something to CONNECT things.

You have two separate ideas and you want to connect them, you need a conjunction! You have an idea that depends on another idea, you also need a conjunction! You want to add a new idea into an existing one, you still need a conjunction.

Some might say that French conjunctions are a bit confusing because many of them include “que”, so it’s hard to know how to choose the good conjunction. There is no better way, but you’ll have to structure your knowledge, and reading this article will help tremendously.

Here we go!

Coordinating conjunction

These are 7 coordinating conjunctions in French: “mais”, “ou”, “et”, “donc”, “or”, “ni”, “car”. Those are invariable words that are used to join words or clauses that have equal value. Below examples will help you understand better their meanings and uses:

Conjunction	English translation	Example
mais	but	C’est cher mais de très bonne qualité It’s expensive, but very good quality
ou	or	Nous allons au cinéma ou nous allons au supermarché We go to the cinema or we go to the supermarket
et	and	Marc et Alice vont à la plage Marc and Alice go to the beach
donc	so,therefore	C’est donc toi! So it was you!
or	now,yet	Il faut tenir les délais, or, ce n’est pas possible The deadlines must be met, now this is not possible
ni	neither…nor	Il ne veut ni l’argent ni les cadeaux He doesn’t want neither money nor gifts
car	because	Il reste calme car il est gentil He stays calm because he is nice

Subordinating conjunction

Subordinating conjunctions, are used to join a subordinating clause (dependent clause) to main clauses.

Actually, there are only a few subordinating conjunctions comme, quand, lorsque, puisque, que, quoique, si. However, we usually encounter what is called the « conjunctive phrases » (locutions conjonctive). These are groups of two or more words that have the same function as a conjunction. French’s conjunctive phrases usually end with “que”.

Let’s talk about the simple coordination conjunction first. The table below provides the use of each conjunction with an example:

Conjunction	English translation	Explanation	Example
comme	as, since	Use to compare or indicate a cause	Elle est blanche comme la neige She is as white as snow
puisque	as, since	Indicate a subordinating cause	Puisque je suis ici, ne t’inquiète pas As I was here, don’t worry
quand(*)	when	Indicate a cause or a condition (similar to “si”)	Je pars quand tu arrives I leave when you come
lorsque	when	Indicate a cause (similar to “quand”)	L’indiscipline se comprend losqu’on est enfant
que	that	Introduce a completive subordinating clause	Je crois qu’il viendra demain I believe that he will come tomorrow
quoique	eventhough	Indicate two ideas in opposition	Je commence à progresser quoique le français soit une langue difficile. I start to make some progress eventhough French is a difficult language.
si	if	Indicate a condition or hypothesis	Si tu arrives à l’heure je t’accepterai en cours If you come on time I will accept you to class

The list of all conjunctive phrases is too big to be imported in this article. Here I classify them by meaning so you could have an idea how to use them in French.

Type	Conjunctions	Example
objective conjunctions	de manière (que), en sorte que, pour que…	Je vous donne ce texte pour que vous puissiez le travailler à la maison I will give you this text so that you could work on it at home
cause conjunctions	parce que, alors que…	Je ne viendrai pas parce que mon fils est malade I will not come because my son is ill
opposition conjunctions	bien que, malgré que, sauf que, sans que…	Je ne peux pas te faire passer bien que tu aies fait des progrès I can’t let you pass although you have made progress
time conjunctions	Avant que, à mesure que, après que, depuis que…	Il est parti avant que je vienne He left before that I come
comparison conjunctions	autant que, tel que, de même que	Travaillez autant que vous pouvez Work as much as you can
condition conjunctions	à condition que, au cas où, à moins que….	Je te laisserai entrer à condition que tu ne fasses pas de bêtises I will let you enter on condition that you did not do stupidities

   

I hope this article helps to organize your knowledge about French conjunctions. Please do not hesitate to ask your question.

P.S. You would be doing me a HUGE FAVOR  by sharing it via Twitter, Facebook, Google + or Pinterest.