This work reports on an initial study of the possibility of providing a suitable framework for the teaching of a foreign language grammar through string analysis, using French as the target language. Analysis of a string word list (word-class sequences) yields an overall view of the grammar. Details are furnished in a set of restrictions which state grammatical constraints on the defined strings. The constraints are mainly statements indicating which word-subclasses are compatible within a given string or in adjoined strings. Other key sections include: (1) excision as a teaching-oriented form of string analysis: a comparison of French sentences with their English translations, and (2) a comparison of French and English strings. Appendixes contain an English string list and sets of correspondences between the French and English strings. (RL)