Phrases Coordonnées: Mais Où Est Donc Ornicar ?

A coordinated sentence — une phrase coordonnée — is two grammatically equal clauses linked by a coordinating conjunction. Pierre travaille *et Marie étudie. (Pierre works **and Marie studies.) Each clause could stand on its own as a complete sentence; the conjunction simply glues them together as peers. This is different from subordination, where one clause depends on the other (Je sais **que tu viens — *I know that you're coming, where que tu viens could not stand alone).

French has exactly seven coordinating conjunctions. They are the same seven you will find listed in any French grammar — and they are easy to memorize because of one of the most famous mnemonics in French education: mais où est donc Ornicar ? This page covers all seven, plus a few correlative pairs (ni... ni, soit... soit) that behave similarly. Mastering this small inventory will let you build any coordinated sentence French allows.

The OUF mnemonic

French schoolchildren learn the seven coordinating conjunctions through a mnemonic sentence: Mais où est donc Ornicar ? (But where is Ornicar then?). Each word of the sentence corresponds to one of the seven conjunctions:

The full set is sometimes abbreviated as MAIS-OU-ET-DONC-OR-NI-CAR when listed in teaching materials, but the Ornicar sentence is the version every French schoolchild remembers.

This isn't trivia — French grammar consistently treats these seven words as a closed class with shared syntactic behavior. They all link clauses or phrases of equal grammatical rank, they don't take a subjunctive after them, and they don't allow inversion. Other words you might think are conjunctions (alors, cependant, pourtant, néanmoins) are technically adverbs that look like conjunctions, and they behave a little differently (more on that below).

Et (and)

The everyday addition conjunction. Et links anything: nouns, verbs, adjectives, full clauses. It is the most common conjunction in any French text.

A French note that surprises English speakers: in standard French, no comma appears before the last et in a list. The Oxford comma is essentially never used. Du pain, du fromage et du vin — comma, comma, et, no comma.

Ou (or)

The basic disjunction. Ou offers a choice between two or more options. Don't confuse it with où (with grave accent) which means where. The grave accent is the only orthographic difference, but it carries the entire grammatical distinction.

Mais (but)

The contrast conjunction. Mais introduces a clause that pushes against the first one — opposition, contradiction, qualification.

When mais introduces a clause, French style typically places a comma before it (..., mais...). When it links two adjectives or short phrases, no comma is needed (petit mais costaud).

A common conversational use: mais at the start of an utterance signals a polite objection or surprise. Mais c'est super ! (Why, that's great!), Mais qu'est-ce que tu fais ? (Hey, what are you doing?). Here mais doesn't quite mean but; it's a discourse marker that softens or animates the speech act.

Donc (so, therefore)

The consequence conjunction. Donc introduces the logical result of what came before — therefore, so, thus.

The Descartes example is a useful anchor — je pense, donc je suis — because it shows the canonical comma-before-donc pattern. In writing, donc is almost always preceded by a comma when it heads a new clause.

In speech, donc also functions as a discourse marker meaning roughly so in the English filler-word sense: Donc, voilà... (So, there you go...), Donc, il m'a dit... (So, he told me...). This is informal and very common.

Car (for, because — formal)

A causal conjunction meaning because or for, but stylistically more formal than parce que. Car is found in writing, formal speech, and journalism. In casual conversation it sounds slightly bookish; speakers default to parce que.

The grammatical difference between car and parce que is subtle but important: car is a coordinating conjunction (it joins two main clauses as equals), while parce que is a subordinating conjunction (the parce que clause is dependent on the main one). One practical consequence: parce que can answer the question pourquoi ?, but car cannot. Pourquoi tu ne sors pas ? — Parce qu'il pleut (correct); — Car il pleut (wrong, sounds odd).

The other difference is register. Use car in writing and parce que in speech, especially as an answer to why.

Or (now, however — formal)

This is the trickiest conjunction in the set. Or (no accent — distinct from English or, which is French ou) introduces a turn in the argument: now, however, but. It signals that what follows is a new piece of information that complicates the previous one. It belongs to formal and argumentative registers.

Or is found above all in argumentative writing, philosophical texts, formal essays, and the structure of classical syllogisms (the third example is the textbook therefore Socrates is mortal logical form). In everyday conversation it is rare; speakers use mais or cependant instead.

The accent matters: or (no accent) = however; où (grave accent) = where. Two completely different words.

Ni (nor)

A negative conjunction used in the structure ne... ni... ni... to express neither X nor Y. Ni alone is rare; the doubled ni... ni is the productive form.

The ne before the verb is mandatory in writing — ni is not a substitute for pas, it works alongside ne. In casual spoken French the ne is often dropped, just as it is with pas: Je mange ni viande ni poisson is heard informally, though it remains stigmatized in writing.

A subtle agreement issue: when two singular nouns are joined by ni... ni, the verb traditionally goes in the singular (Ni Pierre ni Marie n'est venu), but native speakers increasingly use the plural (Ni Pierre ni Marie ne sont venus). Both are accepted in modern French.

Soit... soit (either... or)

A correlative pair, similar in structure to ni... ni but for affirmative either/or. Strictly soit... soit is not on the OUF list — it's classified as a correlative conjunction — but it behaves similarly and is commonly grouped with the coordinating set.

Soit literally means let it be (it's the third-person singular subjunctive of être), but in this construction it is fossilized as a connector. In casual speech, ou bien... ou bien or simply ou... ou are also common: Ou bien on part, ou bien on reste.

Coordinating conjunctions vs. adverbial connectors

A subtle but important distinction. The seven OUF conjunctions are true coordinators — they join clauses as grammatical peers and don't allow the second clause to start with a new subject inversion. But there is a parallel set of adverbial connectors that look like conjunctions but are actually adverbs: cependant (however), pourtant (yet), néanmoins (nevertheless), toutefois (however), alors (so/then), aussi (therefore — when sentence-initial), ainsi (thus), par conséquent (consequently).

These adverbial connectors:

• Can move around the clause (Pierre, cependant, n'est pas venu / Cependant, Pierre n'est pas venu / Pierre n'est pas venu, cependant).
• Often trigger stylistic inversion when sentence-initial (Aussi est-il parti — Therefore he left).
• Function as discourse markers more than syntactic glue.

For the purposes of A1-A2 grammar, treat OUF as the core inventory and recognize the adverbial connectors as more flexible alternatives that often appear in writing.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

French has seven coordinating conjunctions, captured in the mnemonic mais où est donc Ornicar ?: mais (but), ou (or), et (and), donc (so), or (now, however — formal), ni (nor), car (because — formal). Each links two clauses or phrases as grammatical peers. Et and ou are the workhorses; mais signals contrast; donc signals consequence; car, or, and the doubled ni... ni are more formal or literary. Soit... soit and ou bien... ou bien are correlative either/or patterns. A French quirk: no Oxford comma before the final et in a list. The two homophone traps are ou vs où (or vs where, distinguished only by the grave accent) and or (now, however) vs the English or (which is ou in French). Adverbial connectors like cependant, pourtant, par conséquent fill similar functions but are syntactically more flexible. For a deeper look at clause-linking strategies including subordinators, see the complex/cause-and-consequence and complex/contrast-and-opposition pages.