You may be familiar with the word fort as an adjective meaning “strong.” But are you aware of its many other uses and various meanings? And did you know that fort can be used not only as an adjective, but as a noun and an adverb?

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In our previous lesson on adjectives used as adverbs, we learned that fort as an adjective means “strong,” or sometimes, in a more historical context, "fortified," as in un château fort (a fortified castle). Let’s go to France with Daniel Benchimol to find out more about the château fort of Gisors:

Le château fort de Gisors est un château dit à motte féodale.

The fortified castle of Gisors is a so-called feudal motte castle.

Caption 32, Voyage en France Vexin Normand - Gisors - Part 1

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We'll leave le château fort de Gisors to go to Canada to explore un fort (a fort)—Fort Chambly, to be exact. This is one of the few instances when fort is used as a noun:           

Ça, le Fort Chambly c'est un fort de... peut-être une auberge dans le fond.

That, Fort Chambly is a fort of... possibly an inn, in fact.

Caption 1, Le Québec parle aux Français - Part 11

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Now let’s move on and discuss fort as an adverb. In the lyrics of the Stromae song Formidable, fort is equivalent to the adverb très (very). How do we know it’s an adverb and not an adjective? Because fort modifies the adjective minable (pathetic):

Tu étais formidable, j'étais fort minable

You were amazing, I was very pathetic

Caption 54, Français avec Nelly 12 Songs to Improve Your French - Part 2

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You'll also find fort used as an adverb in the French description of the video Manon et Margaux - Le Corbeau et le Renard:

« Le corbeau et le renard », la fameuse fable de Jean de La Fontaine, nous est contée puis expliquée d'une façon fort amusante par nos deux jeunes amies françaises.

The Crow and the Fox, the famous fable by Jean de la Fontaine, is recited then explained to us in a very amusing way by our two young French friends.

Notice how fort stays the same even though amusante takes a feminine ending. Fort is acting as an adverb modifying the adjective amusante, not the feminine noun façon. 

Here is a third example of fort meaning “very,” in the expression fort bien. But this time, fort is modifying another adverb, bien (well):

Fort bien assumé, petit homme ! Je te prends à mon service.

Very well executed, little man! I'll take you into my service.

Caption 48, Il était une fois: Les Amériques 9. Cortés et les Aztèques - Part 3

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Now, just to make life more interesting, fort can sometimes be equivalent to bien (well)! 

Non, pas vraiment, non, ça... Ça marche pas très fort, quoi.

No, not really, no, it... It's not going too well, you know.

Caption 41, Le Jour où tout a basculé J'ai été séquestré par mes amis - Part 2

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The speaker could also have said:

Ça ne marche pas très bien, quoi.

It's not going too well, you know.

You can even combine bien and fort in the expression pas bien fort (not too well):

Ça ne va pas bien fort.

It’s not going too well.

Conversely, in an affirmative sentence, fort bien means "very well." But note the change in word order:

Ça va fort bien.

It’s going very well.

In addition to meaning “well" or “very," fort can also mean “strongly” or "hard." In the following example, the adverb describes the action of appuyer trop fort (pressing too hard), which is what Marie did. She pressed trop fort (too hard) on her charcoal pen:

Ben, tu as appuyé trop fort. -Je fais des dégâts.

Well, you pressed too hard. -I'm making a mess.

Caption 56, Marie et Sandra Atelier d'art - Part 17

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Also as mentioned in our previous lesson, the adverb fort can also mean “loudly,” as in parler fort (to speak loudly):

Le mieux, c'est d'ouvrir la fenêtre et de parler fort. -Voilà, d'accord.

The best thing is to open the window and to speak loudly. -Right, OK.

Caption 59, Lionel L'écluse de Réchicourt-le-Château - Part 3

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Finally, let’s go back briefly to fort as a noun. Here is a useful expression that you might like to use for yourself when you don’t feel too confident about something: c’est pas mon fort (it’s not my forte). Note that the expression is mostly used in the negative form. In the song "Les mots d'amour," the singer tells us he is not great at speaking:

Parce que parler c'est pas mon fort

Because speaking is not my forte

Caption 2, Debout Sur Le Zinc Les mots d'amour

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You might also like the expression c’est plus fort que moi (it’s beyond my control) when you feel powerless or can’t help yourself:

Mais là j'avoue que ça a été plus fort que moi.

But there I admit that that was beyond my control.

Caption 15, Melissa Mars From Paris with Love

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In conclusion, if French grammar, c’est pas ton fort (is not your forte), you can click on this link for more examples, and of course, Yabla videos and grammar lessons will come to the rescue. Before you know it, you will be fort en français (great at French)!

Thank you for reading!

In our last lesson, we learned that penser à means “to think about” or "have in mind" and that penser de means "to think of" in the sense of giving an opinion.  We also learned that penser à + infinitive means “to consider doing,” while penser + infinitive emphasizes planning an action. In this lesson, we will discuss which pronouns replace the de and à in penser de/à and what happens when penser is followed by a relative clause (penser que).

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As you may know, à + a noun can be replaced by the pronoun y, and de + a noun by the pronoun en. (You can learn more about that here and here.) So, penser à + noun becomes y penser (to think about it), and penser de + noun becomes en penser (to think of it, to feel about it). Remember that the pronouns y and en are placed before the verb. 

Elisa is interested in what her mother pense de la techonologie (thinks of technology). She asks her:

Qu'est-ce que tu en penses ?

What do you think of that?

Caption 12, Elisa et sa maman La technologie

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In the video below, en refers to what people thought about the confinement protocols during the pandemic:  

Globalement, malgré ce que les gens peuvent en penser, les mesures de restriction sont plutôt respectées.

Overall, despite what some people may think of them, the restriction measures are rather well respected.

Captions 33-34, Lionel L Le déconfinement

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Now let's see some examples with y penser (to think about it). In the video below, the speaker asks her friend to consider hiring help, as she will no longer be available:

Ben essaye d'y penser.

Well, try to think about it.

Caption 73, Le Jour où tout a basculé J'ai escroqué mon assurance ! - Part 2

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The speaker could have said the same thing in a more succinct way:

Penses-y.

Think about it.

(Notice that in the imperative mood, prepositions are tacked onto the end of the verb with a hyphen.) 

Or, the speaker could have been even more succinct:

Réfléchis.

Think about it.

(Réfléchis-y is more correct, but the pronoun y is often dropped from it in casual conversation.)

Sometimes we're reluctant to think about certain situations. In his song "Pocahontas," Grand Corps Malade mentions how some parents don’t dare think about the prospect of their children flying the nest for the first time: 

Ils reviendront vider leur chambre, ça j'ose même pas y penser

They'll come back to empty their room, I don't even dare think about that

Caption 32, Grand Corps Malade Pocahontas

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Speaking of thinking about people, y and en are NOT the right pronouns to use when thinking about a person. Y and en can replace an object, a thought, an idea, an action, a place, a situation, etc., but never a person or living being. In the latter case, we simply keep the prepositions à and de and use the construction penser à/penser de + disjunctive pronoun, as in penser à eux (to think about them), just as we do in English. For example, we say:

Je pense à mes parents. Je pense à eux.

I think about my parents. I think about them.

The same rule applies with penser de, when giving an opinion about people:

Alors, qu'est-ce que les Québécois pensent de nous ?

So, what do the Québécois think of us?

Caption 42, Le Québec parle aux Français - Part 11

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We’re not quite done with penser! There's one more important thing to know that has to do not with pronouns, but with tenses. When you use the negative relative clause ne pas penser que (to not think that), you must conjugate the following verb in the subjunctive, since you're expressing doubt or skepticism. The speaker in this video doubts that the common quail is endangered:

Personnellement, je ne pense pas qu'elles soient menacées.

Personally, I do not think they are endangered.

Caption 31, Canal 32 Les secrets des cailles des blés

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However, in the affirmative (penser que), the verb is conjugated in the indicative. If the speaker did think they were endangered, he would have said:

Personnellement, je pense qu'elles sont menacées.

Personally, I think they are endangered.

The subjunctive mood is also required when you use penser que in a question:

Pensez-vous qu’il soit trop tard ?

Do you think it’s too late?

As you can see, there are many rules to consider when it comes to penser! We hope this lesson will help you y penser (think about them). Thank you for reading!