Breakdown of Donne-moi une allumette, s'il te plaît.
s'il te plaît
please
moi
me
donner
to give
l'allumette
the match
Questions & Answers about Donne-moi une allumette, s'il te plaît.
Why is there a hyphen used in Donne-moi?
Why is the pronoun moi used instead of me?
French has two sets of object pronouns:
- Clitic pronouns like me, te, le/la, used in declarative sentences (e.g. Il me donne).
- Disjunctive pronouns like moi, toi, lui/elle, used:
- After hyphens in affirmative imperatives: Donne-moi.
- For emphasis or after prepositions: C’est pour moi.
In an affirmative command you always use the disjunctive form moi (and not me).
Why is there no “s” at the end of donne? I thought tu-forms usually end in -s.
What does s’il te plaît literally mean, and why is it used here?
What’s the difference between s’il te plaît and s’il vous plaît?
Can I place s’il te plaît at the beginning of the sentence? Or can I drop it entirely?
How do I know allumette is feminine and takes une?
How would I ask for two matches instead of one?
How would this sentence change if I needed to be formal or talk to more than one person?
AI Language TutorTry it ↗
“How does grammatical gender work in French?”
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles and adjectives used with it. "Le" is used with masculine nouns and "la" with feminine ones. Adjectives also change form to match — for example, "petit" (masc.) becomes "petite" (fem.).
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