Mode d'Emploi: Instructions Techniques

A French instruction manual looks deceptively foreign on the page. Where English uses bare imperatives — Plug in. Pour. Wait. Press — French uses infinitives: Brancher. Verser. Attendre. Appuyer. It's the same set of actions, but the verb form is different, and the difference is not stylistic. The infinitive imperative is the default register for impersonal written instructions in French — it appears in every product manual, every cookbook, every IKEA assembly sheet, and most public signage. Recognizing it is half of reading French technical text fluently; producing it is the difference between sounding like a native technical writer and sounding like a translation.

This page walks through a sample coffee machine manual, calls out every grammatical move, and shows the small set of patterns you need to write or read any French instructional text.

The text

Mode d'emploi : cafetière électrique

Avant la première utilisation

Lire attentivement les instructions avant d'utiliser l'appareil. Conserver ce mode d'emploi pour toute consultation ultérieure.

Préparation du café

1. Brancher l'appareil sur une prise électrique.
2. Verser l'eau froide dans le réservoir, sans dépasser le niveau maximum.
3. Mettre le filtre dans le porte-filtre.
4. Ajouter le café moulu (une cuillère par tasse).
5. Placer la verseuse sur la plaque chauffante.
6. Appuyer sur le bouton de mise en marche.
7. Attendre quelques minutes que le café soit prêt.
8. Verser le café dans une tasse et déguster.

Nettoyage et entretien

Débrancher l'appareil et le laisser refroidir avant tout nettoyage. Nettoyer la verseuse à l'eau tiède savonneuse. Détartrer la cafetière une fois par mois avec du vinaigre blanc dilué.

Avertissements

Attention ! Ne pas immerger l'appareil dans l'eau. Ne pas utiliser à proximité d'une source de chaleur. Tenir hors de portée des enfants. En cas de dysfonctionnement, ne pas tenter de réparer soi-même : contacter le service après-vente.

This is exactly the format you'd find on the back of a Moulinex or Krups manual sold in France — a numbered procedure framed by a Préparation, a Nettoyage, and a closing Avertissements block.

Mode d'emploi — the document type

The phrase mode d'emploi literally means manner of use. It's the standard French label for a user manual, an instruction sheet, or any "how to use this" document. Variants you'll see:

• mode d'emploi — generic instruction manual
• notice d'utilisation — slightly more formal, often legally-required documentation
• manuel de l'utilisateur — user manual (closer calque from English)
• guide d'installation — installation guide

The phrase appears as a section heading even on small product packaging, and it's the search term you'd type to find a downloadable PDF for a French appliance.

The infinitive imperative — the core grammar of the genre

Every numbered step in the manual uses an infinitive verb: Brancher, Verser, Mettre, Ajouter, Placer, Appuyer, Attendre, Verser, Déguster. None of these are conjugated. They're not imperatives in the morphological sense (which would be branchez, versez, mettez) — they're bare infinitives.

The infinitive imperative is the standard register for impersonal written instructions in French. It addresses no one in particular — there is no implied tu, no implied vous. The instruction is generic, written for any reader who will eventually pick up the manual.

Compare the registers:

• Brancher l'appareil sur une prise. (infinitive — written manual, impersonal)
• Branchez l'appareil sur une prise. (vous imperative — formal speech, customer service)
• Branche l'appareil sur une prise. (tu imperative — friend explaining)

All three sentences are correct French. The infinitive is the choice for written, depersonalized, generic instructions — it's what manuals, recipes, signage, and procedures use by default.

Negative infinitive imperatives — ne pas + infinitif

Negative instructions use ne pas placed before the infinitive as a single block. This is a key feature of the negative infinitive: ne and pas are not split around the verb the way they are in conjugated negation.

• Ne pas immerger l'appareil dans l'eau.
• Ne pas utiliser à proximité d'une source de chaleur.
• Ne pas dépasser le niveau maximum.
• Ne jamais ouvrir le couvercle pendant le fonctionnement.

In conjugated French, you'd say N'immergez pas l'appareil, splitting ne and pas around the verb. With the infinitive, the two negation words sit together before the verb. This is one of the few constructions in French where the negation block is unsplit.

Vocabulary specific to the manual genre

Reading manuals fluently means recognizing a small set of high-frequency action verbs. Most are perfectly transparent once seen.

Nouns and noun phrases

The manual uses a tight set of mechanical-object nouns. Many are intuitive, some are worth noting.

• un appareil — a device, an appliance (the most common cover-noun)
• un réservoir — a tank, a reservoir
• un filtre / un porte-filtre — a filter / a filter holder
• une prise (électrique) — an electrical outlet
• un bouton — a button
• un voyant — an indicator light
• une plaque chauffante — a hot plate
• une verseuse — a carafe, a pitcher
• un couvercle — a lid
• un bac — a tray, a tank (collection compartment)
• le service après-vente (SAV) — customer service / after-sales service

The noun appareil is the workhorse — it stands in for any device throughout a manual: brancher l'appareil, éteindre l'appareil, nettoyer l'appareil. Treat it as the default subject reference.

Warnings — Attention !, Avertissement, En cas de

Warning sections use a consistent vocabulary and a slightly more emphatic tone. The most common headers and openers:

• Attention ! — Warning / Caution (the most frequent)
• Avertissement — Warning (more formal, often a heading)
• Important — Important (used for non-safety-critical notes)
• Risque de — Risk of (e.g., Risque de choc électrique)
• En cas de — In case of (e.g., En cas de panne, contacter le SAV)

Warnings often combine the negative infinitive with a follow-up justification.

"Avant de" / "après avoir" — sequencing within instructions

Two constructions appear constantly in manuals to sequence sub-steps.

Avant de + infinitive — "before doing":

• Lire attentivement avant d'utiliser l'appareil.
• Vérifier le niveau d'eau avant de mettre en marche.

Après avoir + past participle — "after having done" (compound infinitive):

• Après avoir branché l'appareil, appuyer sur le bouton.
• Après avoir terminé, débrancher la cafetière.

These constructions are infinitival — they fit naturally inside an infinitive-imperative manual without breaking register. Conjugated alternatives (quand vous avez branché l'appareil…) would clash with the rest of the document.

Why infinitives, not imperatives?

The choice is functional. A French manual is read by anyone who buys the product. The writer doesn't know whether the reader is a child, a grandparent, a single buyer, or an entire family. Conjugated imperatives force a choice — tu feels intimate and inappropriate for a manual; vous sounds slightly stiff and assumes formality. The infinitive sidesteps the question: it's person-neutral.

This isn't a French-only quirk — German uses infinitives in instructions too (Wasser einfüllen — pour in water). But English doesn't, which is why every English speaker first encountering a French manual finds it strange: Pour the water feels like a verb is missing. There is no missing verb; the bare infinitive is the imperative in this register.

Variation: the formal vous-imperative

Some manuals — particularly those from large companies addressing customers, or safety-critical documents (medication leaflets, first-aid instructions) — use the vous-imperative instead of the infinitive. This is a slightly warmer, more direct register.

Notice de sécurité — Extincteur à poudre

En cas d'incendie, conservez votre calme. Tirez la goupille de sécurité. Visez la base des flammes à environ 2 mètres. Pressez la poignée et balayez de gauche à droite.

This is acceptable too, and you'll see it especially in pharmaceutical inserts, safety leaflets, and customer-facing service manuals. The infinitive remains the default for technical and product manuals; the vous-imperative is more common when human safety is at stake and the writer wants to address the reader directly.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• The infinitive imperative is the default register for written, impersonal instructions in French.
• The negation block ne pas stays together before the infinitive: Ne pas immerger, never N'immerger pas.
• High-frequency action verbs to memorize: brancher, débrancher, verser, ajouter, mettre, appuyer, retirer, vérifier, conserver.
• Sequence with avant de + infinitive (before doing) and après avoir + past participle (after having done).
• Use the vous-imperative when the manual addresses the reader directly for safety-critical procedures; otherwise stay in the infinitive.
• The same conventions apply across genres: recipes, signage, IKEA assembly sheets, and pharmaceutical inserts all use this register.