The objective of this thesis is to analyze the variation between two competing structures--on the one hand, a transitive verb that takes a finite nominal clause as its complement, and on the other hand, a transitive verb that takes an infinitive as its complement. This thesis seeks to address three questions: (1) Which semantic categories are more likely to use coreferential nominal clauses as complements? (2) How do coreferential finite nominal clauses compare with coreferential infinitive complements, in terms of frequency of usage? And (3) do the corpora show any variation among different countries? The corpora CREA and Web/Dialects were used to determine the frequency of usage between these two structures with four different semantic categories of verbs used in the main clause: assertive, dubitative, evaluative, and volitive. The U.S., Spain, Argentina, and Mexico were also used to compare the results by country. The findings show that when the main verb is assertive the use of a subordinate clause is favored, while main clauses with dubitative showed mixed results between the corpora, although Web/Dialects showed that dubitatives favor an infinitive complement. The evaluative verbs lamentar and odiar did not produce any coreferential results with direct object nominal clauses. Volitive verbs never accepted the use of a coreferential finite. The Web/Dialects results indicate that Spain and the U.S were more likely than Argentina and Mexico to use the finite construction after a main clause with a dubitative phrase, while still favoring the infinitive complement.

Whereas in Czech there are three verb moods, in French a fourth one is to be found, being defined as the "subjunctive mood". The subjunctive does not exist in Czech which often makes it hard to handle by students as well as teachers. The main aim of the thesis is to map the ways of presenting the French subjunctive verb mood in selected grammar handbooks intended for students and teachers of French and outline the different approaches to describing its parameters. Subsequently, the second objective here is to analyse the methods of presenting the subjunctive in selected textbooks and workbooks used when teaching French at Czech schools. The thesis is divided in three parts. In the initial one, the different approach to presenting the subjunctive in the referential grammar book of P. Charaudeaua - Grammaire du sens et de l'expression is analysed together with the ones applied in the FLE grammar books by G. D. de Salins - Grammaire pour l'enseignement/apprentissage de FLE, M. Callamand - Grammatique vivante du français and in the slightly different grammar book by A. Monnerie-Goarin - Le français au présent. To be able to meet the target of the analysis and find out how a verb mood of a typologically different language is presented to an exclusively Czech audience, the Czech-written grammar book of...