When to use it
Use it to ask a teacher or a colleague for help before writing an official letter in French.
The sentence in English (“How do you write a formal letter in French?”)
"How do you write a formal letter in French?" uses a general "you". "Do" makes the question, "write" stays in its base form, and "French", the name of the language, has a capital letter.
- How
- adverbquestion word asking about the way or manner
- do
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: present · auxiliary that makes the question
- you
- pronounpersonal pronoun used for people in general
- write
- verbwrite · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · main verb after "do you"
- a
- determinerindefinite article
- formal
- adjectiveadjective
- letter
- nounnoun
- in
- prepositionpreposition
- French
- nounnoun; the name of the language, always capitalised
The sentence in French (“Comment écrire une lettre formelle en français ?”)
"Comment écrire une lettre formelle en français ?" asks the question with just the infinitive "écrire", which French allows for general questions. "Formelle" is feminine to agree with "lettre". "Français" is written with a small letter.
- Comment
- adverbquestion adverb: "how"
- écrire
- verbécrire · form: infinitive · "to write"; French can ask a question with just the infinitive
- une
- determinerindefinite article, feminine: "a"
- lettre
- nounfeminine noun: "letter"
- formelle
- adjectiveadjective, feminine: "formal"; it agrees with "lettre"
- en
- prepositionpreposition: "in"
- français
- nounmasculine noun: "French"; languages have no capital letter in French
What changes from one language to the other (English × French)
French can ask "how to do something" with only an infinitive; English needs "how do you…". Names of languages have a capital in English but not in French. The French adjective agrees with the noun in gender.
Example conversation
— Comment écrire une lettre formelle en français ?
— How do you write a formal letter in French?
— Commencez par « Madame, Monsieur » et utilisez « vous ».
— Start with "Madame, Monsieur" and use "vous".