/r/conlangs Chat Network Relay Game - Learn a Lang Natlang Relay 5

#7French by Aimerais
FrenchEnglish

Et ainsi, comme prévu, il s'est demandé si l'humanité était différente. Mais le monde a plus de chaos, parce que même s'il y a des preuves, j'ai connecté plusieurs choses à Dan et j'ai découvert qu'elle ne vit plus. Peut-être que je suis clairement quelque chose complètement différent. Il est certain que je pourrai la convaincre qu'après tout ce temps, je suis Dan. Je ne suis pas une âme.

And thus, as expected, he wondered whether humanity was different. But the world has more chaos, because even though there is evidence, I connected many things to Dan and I discovered that she no longer lives. Perhaps I am clearly something completely different. It is certain that I will be able to convince her that after all this time, I am Dan. I am not a soul.

LEXICON

ainsiadv.thus
aprèsprep.after
avoirvb-irr.to have
cedet.this
certainadj.certain
chaosn-masc.chaos
chosen-fem.thing
clairementadv.clearly
commeconj.as, like
complètementadv.completely
connectervb.to connect
convaincrevb-irr.to convince
Dann.prop.Dan (name)
deprep.of
différentadj.different
différentadj.different
découvertvb-irr.past participle of découvrir 'to discover'
elleprn.she (nominative)
etconj.and
humanitén-fem.humanity
ilprn.he, it (nominative)
il y avb-irr.Conjugated form of y avoir 'there is, there are'
jeprn.I (nominative) (contracts to j' before vowels)
maisconj.but
monden-masc.world
même siconj.even if (contracts to même s' before il)
parce queconj.because
peut-être queadv.perhaps
plusadv.more
plusieursadj. many
pourraivb-irr.1st person singular future of pouvoir 'to be able to'
preuven-fem.proof
préadj.expected
queconj.that (contracts to qu' before vowels)
quelque choseprnsomething
se demandervb. refl.to wonder (reflexive verb)
siconj.if (contracts to s' before il)
tempsn-masc.time
toutpredet.all
vitvb-irr.3rd person singular of vivre 'to live'
àprep.to
âmen-fem.soul, spirit
êtrevb-irr.to be

GRAMMAR

Word Order

French is mainly SVO, with one exception:

  • if a personal pronoun is in the object position, the order is SOV.

Adjectives generally come after head words. The general noun phrase order is preposition + article + noun + adjective(s).

Besides this, French syntax is more or less similar to English.

Nouns

Two noun genders exist, masculine and feminine.

Adjectives and articles agree with their nouns.

Only two adjectival gender suffixes are attested in this text:

  • -e [feminine]
  • -Ø [feminine]

Two numbers exist, singular and plural. Again, adjectives and articles agree with their nouns.

Only two plural suffixes are attested in this text:

  • -s

Plural suffixes come after gender suffixes.

Verbs

In French, verbs agree with the person and number of the subject of the sentence. The pronoun 'je' is 1st person singular; the pronouns 'il' and 'elle' are 3rd person singular. All other nouns in this passage are 3rd person singular or plural.

All verbs in the passage are in the indicative mood.

The past tense is formed using an auxiliary verb. Most verbs use the auxiliary verb avoir, while reflexive verbs, as well as certain verbs of motion, use the verb after which the past participle of the verb appears.

Below is a (simplified) verb conjugation table for the present tense. The first column represents a regular verb 'verber.' The other columns represent common irregular verbs.

Infverb-erêtreavoir
1sverb-esuisai
2sverb-esesas
3sverb-eesta
1plverb-onssommesavons
2plverb-ezêtesavez
3plverb-entsontont

Only one verb in the future tense appears in the passage. See the dictionary for more details.

In addition, one verb in the imperfect tense, était, appears as well. This tense is a kind of continuous past tense.

One reflexive verb appears. This verb requires a reflexive pronoun in the object position, which agrees with the subject of the verb. See "Pronouns" for more details.

Pronouns

1p3p sing. masc.3p sing. fem.
nom.jeilelle
acc.melela
dat.meluilui
refl.mesese

Articles

masc.fem.
indef.unune
def.lela

Contractions

Certain short words ending in the vowel -e lose their vowel before vowels.

In the text, the words de, se, je, le display this behavior; they may contract to d', s', j', l' before vowels.