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In certain cases in formal French, the word ne can be used without signifying negation; the ne in such instances is known as expletive ne (French: ne explétif): J'ai peur que cela ne se reproduise. — "I am afraid that it might happen again." Il est arrivé avant que nous n ' ayons commencé. — "He arrived before we started."
Conversely, forms that are inappropriately formal may be seen as impolitely snobbish [3] or distant. The way politeness is expressed varies greatly with language and region. For example, addressing a person with an honorific or title may be expected in some languages, but seen as intrusive or too formal in others.
Under a broader classification, T and V forms are examples of honorifics. The T–V distinction is expressed in a variety of forms; two particularly common means are: addressing a single individual using the second-person plural forms in the language, instead of the singular (e.g. in French);
French has a T-V distinction in the second person singular. That is, it uses two different sets of pronouns: tu and vous and their various forms. The usage of tu and vous depends on the kind of relationship (formal or informal) that exists between the speaker and the person with whom they are speaking and the age differences between these subjects. [1]
Formal system, an abstract means of generating inferences in a formal language; Formal language, comprising the symbolic "words" or "sentences" of a formal system; Formal grammar, a grammar describing a formal language; Colloquialism, the linguistic style used for informal communication
In Wikipedia articles and article titles, French titles of creative works should be put into English, if the work is well known by its title in English (with redirects from the French title). Examples: The Tales of Hoffmann, an opera by Offenbach; The Marriage of Figaro, a play by Beaumarchais; Sunflowers, a painting by van Gogh. If the work is ...
Preferences vary widely for individual examples, for individual speakers, and for different speech styles. The realization of optional liaisons is a signal of formal register, and pedagogical grammars sometimes turn this into a recommendation to produce as many optional liaisons as possible in "careful" speech.
French has a complex system of personal pronouns (analogous to English I, we, they, and so on). When compared to English, the particularities of French personal pronouns include: a T-V distinction in the second person singular (familiar tu vs. polite vous) the placement of object pronouns before the verb: « Agnès les voit. » ("Agnès sees ...