MozhiLingo
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Lesson 4

Sentence Structure

വാക്യഘടന

French doesn't bend toward Malayalam's word order — it's worth knowing upfront where French and Malayalam genuinely part ways.

Grammar Comparison

വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം

Fixed SVO, not SOV

French

Je mange du riz. (I eat rice — verb stays in position 2, always)

Malayalam

ഞാൻ ചോറ് കഴിക്കുന്നു. (I rice eat — verb at the end, always)

French doesn't push the verb to the end anywhere — subject-verb-object order stays fixed almost everywhere, much like English. Don't expect a Malayalam-like verb-final pattern to show up anywhere in French.

No postpositions

French

sur la table ('on the table' — preposition before the noun)

Malayalam

മേശയുടെ മുകളിൽ ('table-of on-top' — postposition after the noun)

Malayalam places location words after the noun. French, like English, places them before (sur, sous, dans, avec) with essentially no postpositions — expect prepositions only.