What is syntax?
Much forgotten among French mistakes, this is the part of traditional grammar which studies the relationships between the words constituting a proposition or a sentence.
Syntax establishes a set of rules and principles that govern the structure of sentences in a language.
We therefore commit a syntax error when a word is incorrectly placed in a sentence.
For example, forgetting a word or using a term incorrectly also constitute syntax errors.
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These
“blunders”
were sometimes pointed out to us with a red word by the teacher in the margins of our essay copies in middle or high school.
And this without us always understanding how our sentence was wrong.
Why do we often have trouble spotting syntax errors?
“In teaching French, the emphasis is mainly placed on
spelling
and grammar,”
says Jean-Pierre Colignon, former head proofreader of the newspaper
Le Monde
and author of several…
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