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Star Wars: La syntaxe du français avec Maître Yoda

Updated Tuesday, 8 December 2020
How does a 900 year-old Jedi master sound in French? Try your hand at reordering sentences, you must.

Yoda

In French sentences, “Subject – Verb – Object (or Complement)” is the most common word order, but Yoda is known for his unusual speech patterns. When he speaks in the French dub of the movies, it most commonly takes the form of "Object – Subject – Verb" instead. This is common to most versions of the film where the spoken language has the typical form of "Subject – Verb – Object", such as German, Norwegian, English and Italian. In languages such as Czech where the word order is less prescribed, Yoda is switched back to the "Subject – Verb – Object" word order you would typically expect in normal French, which is actually stranger sounding to native Czech speakers!

Will you be able to help Maître Yoda to correct his French syntax? Here is a little exercise for you to try. Click and drag the words and phrases into the correct order in actual French and then click reveal answer to see how close you were.

 Et maintenant, « que la Force soit avec vous »! 

Drag and drop may not work on mobile devices but you can still reorder the sentences in your head (or on paper) and click to reveal the answer afterwards.

 

1) Toujours par deux ils vont. Ni plus, ni moins. Le maître et son apprenti.

Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice.

- Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace / La guerre des étoiles : épisode I — La Menace fantôme  (1999)

  • toujours
  • par
  • deux
  • ils
  • vont

Reveal Answer

  • Ils
  • vont
  • toujours
  • par
  • deux

2) Beaucoup encore il te reste à apprendre.

Much to learn, you still have.

- Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones / La guerre des étoiles : épisode II — L'Attaque des clones (2002)

  • beaucoup
  • encore
  • il
  • te
  • reste
  • à
  • apprendre

Reveal Answer

  • il
  • te
  • reste
  • encore
  • beaucoup
  • à
  • apprendre

3) Un grand guerrier? Personne par la guerre ne devient grand.

Ohhh. Great warrior. War does not make one great.

- Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back / La guerre des étoiles : épisode V : L'Empire contre-attaque (1980)

  • personne
  • par
  • lA
  • guerre
  • ne
  • devient
  • grand

Reveal Answer

  • Personne
  • ne
  • devient
  • grand
  • par
  • lA
  • guerre

4) Quand 900 ans comme moi tu auras, moins en forme tu seras.

When nine hundred years old *you* reach, look as good *you* will not

- Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi / In La guerre des étoiles : épisode VI : Le retour du Jedi (1983)

  • quand
  • 900 ans
  • comme moi
  • tu auras
  • moins
  • en forme
  • tu seras

Reveal Answer

  • Quand
  • tu auras
  • 900 ans
  • comme moi,
  • tu seras
  • moins
  • en forme

5) A vos intuitions vous fier, il faut.

Use your feelings, you must.

- Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones / La guerre des étoiles : épisode II — L'Attaque des clones (2002)

  • à
  • vos
  • intuitions
  • vous
  • fier
  • il
  • faut

Reveal Answer

  • Il
  • faut
  • vous
  • fier
  • à
  • vos
  • intuitions

This article is part of our Star Wars collection. The articles in this special dedicated to Star Wars pay homage to the films and franchise while looking at out of this world themes. You can help Yoda sort out his syntax, decipher a moon from a fully operational deathstar, find out whether jediism is a religion and much more. Look now, you must. 

You may also like to view our pages on Astronomy - just in case you fancy heading to a galaxy far far away any time soon! 

 

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