- Here are some other common French conjunctions:
- car because
| Il faut prendre un bus pour y accéder car il est interdit d’y monter en voiture. | You need to take a bus to get there because cars are prohibited. |
- Note that car is used in formal language or in writing. The normal way of saying because is parce que.
- comme as
| Comme il pleut, je prends la voiture. | As it’s raining, I’m taking the car. |
- donc so
| J’ai raté le train, donc je serai en retard. | I missed the train, so I’ll be late. |
- lorsque when
| J’allais composer ton numéro lorsque tu as appelé. | I was about to dial your number when you called. |
- quand when
| Je ne sors pas quand il pleut. | I don’t go out when it rains. |
- Note that when quand and lorsque are used to talk about something that will happen in the future, the French verb has to be in the future tense even though English uses a verb in the present tense.
| Quand je serai riche, j’achèterai une belle maison. | When I’m rich, I’ll buy a nice house. |
- French, like English, also has conjunctions which have more than one part. Here are the most common:
- ne … ni … ni neither … nor
| Je n’aime ni les lentilles ni les épinards. | I like neither lentils nor spinach. |
- Note that the ne part of this expression goes just before the verb.
- ou … ou, ou bien … ou bien either … or
| Ou il est malade ou il ment. | Either he’s sick or he’s lying. |
| Ou bien il m’évite ou bien il ne me reconnaît pas. | Either he’s avoiding me or else he doesn’t recognize me. |