Paul taquine souvent Marie, mais elle ne se fâche jamais.

Taquiner is the infinitive, meaning to tease. In this sentence, the verb is conjugated to match the subject Paul.

• je taquine
• tu taquines
• il / elle / on taquine
• nous taquinons
• vous taquinez
• ils / elles taquinent

Since Paul is third-person singular, French uses taquine.

Because Marie is the direct object of the verb taquiner. In French, direct objects usually come right after the verb.

So:

• Paul taquine Marie = Paul teases Marie

There is no preposition like to here. French says it directly, just as English does with tease someone.

In French, adverbs of frequency like souvent often come after the conjugated verb.

So:

• Paul taquine souvent Marie

This is the normal word order for a simple sentence.

Compare:

• Il mange souvent ici.
• Nous parlons souvent français.

English often puts often before the main verb, but French commonly places souvent after it.

French usually forms negation with two parts:

• ne before the conjugated verb
• another negative word after it

Here the negative word is jamais, meaning never.

So:

• elle se fâche = she gets angry
• elle ne se fâche jamais = she never gets angry

With a reflexive verb, the reflexive pronoun se stays with the verb, so the pattern is:

• ne + reflexive pronoun + verb + jamais

That is why it is elle ne se fâche jamais, not elle ne fâche jamais.

Se fâcher means to get angry or to become upset. It is a reflexive verb, which means it uses a reflexive pronoun:

• je me fâche
• tu te fâches
• il/elle se fâche

In many cases, English does not use a reflexive form where French does. So you just have to learn se fâcher as a set expression.

Here, elle se fâche means she gets angry.

Both are possible. The sentence uses elle to avoid repeating Marie.

• Paul taquine souvent Marie, mais Marie ne se fâche jamais.
• Paul taquine souvent Marie, mais elle ne se fâche jamais.

Using elle sounds more natural because French, like English, often replaces a repeated noun with a pronoun when the reference is clear.

Mais means but. It connects two ideas that contrast with each other:

• Paul taquine souvent Marie
• elle ne se fâche jamais

So the contrast is:

• he often teases her
• but she never gets angry

It works just like but in English.

In French, people’s names normally do not take an article in standard usage.

So you simply say:

• Paul
• Marie

not le Paul or la Marie in normal standard French.

There are some regional or special stylistic exceptions, but for a learner, the rule is: proper names usually appear without an article.

In a simple tense like the present, jamais usually comes after the verb (and after the reflexive pronoun + verb unit).

So:

• elle ne se fâche jamais

This is the standard placement.

Other common examples:

• Il ne vient jamais.
• Je ne mange jamais ici.

In English, never can appear before the verb, but French normally places jamais after the conjugated verb.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• taquine ≈ ta-keen
• se fâche ≈ suh fahsh

A few helpful points:

• qu in French usually sounds like k
• fâche has a soft sh sound at the end
• the final e in taquine is not pronounced
• in se, the vowel is often a weak uh sound

So the sentence sounds roughly like:

Paul taquine souvent Marie, mais elle ne se fâche jamais.

≈ Paul ta-keen soo-vahn Marie, meh el nuh suh fahsh zhah-meh

Usually taquiner suggests teasing, often in a playful or light way. It is generally milder than se moquer de, which is closer to make fun of or mock.

So in this sentence, the idea is probably that Paul often teases Marie, but she does not get angry about it.

That said, tone and context matter. Taquiner can still be annoying depending on how it is done, but by itself it often sounds lighter than mock.

Sometimes French allows adverbs to move for emphasis or style, but the sentence as written uses the most natural and standard order.

Standard order here:

• Paul taquine souvent Marie
• elle ne se fâche jamais

As a learner, this is the safest pattern to follow:

• frequency adverb like souvent after the conjugated verb
• negative pattern ne ... jamais around the verb

So yes, French can sometimes vary word order, but this sentence is a very normal model to copy.