Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
This pattern is the structure that all of our examples will follow. |
Ce/Cet/Cette NOUN est (très) ADJECTIVE. |
"This/that NOUN is (very) ADJECTIVE." |
In French, when you want to describe something, you can use the structure |
Ce, Cet, or Cette followed by a noun, then est, and an adjective. |
This translates to "This" or "That" NOUN "is" ADJECTIVE in English. |
The choice between Ce, Cet, and Cette depends on the gender of the noun. |
Adding très, meaning "very" is optional, depending on the degree of emphasis you want to give to the adjective. |
Let's see how a line from the dialogue follows this pattern. |
Et bien, cet ordinateur est très rapide. |
"Well, this computer is very fast." |
We start with Et bien—this little phrase is just like saying "Well" in English. It isn't a part of the pattern. |
Next up is cet—this is where things get a little more specific. |
In French, demonstrative adjectives like ce, cet, and cette all mean "this" or "that," but they change depending on the noun that follows. |
Cet is used before masculine nouns that start with a vowel sound, which is why we say cet ordinateur —because ordinateur starts with an "o." |
If the noun started with a consonant, you'd use ce instead. And if the noun were feminine, you'd say cette instead. |
Now, onto ordinateur—it means "computer" and is a masculine noun in French. |
Next is est, which comes from the verb être, meaning "to be." In the present tense, est translates to "is," just like in English. |
Then we have très—this is an adverb that means "very." It adds intensity to whatever comes next, just like in English when we say something is "very fast" instead of just "fast." |
And finally, rapide—this adjective means "fast." |
One interesting thing about rapide in French is that it doesn't change for masculine or feminine singular nouns. No need to worry about agreement here! However, in the plural, it takes an s, so you'd say rapides when talking about multiple things. |
Put it all together, and we get Et bien, cet ordinateur est très rapide, which means, "Well, this computer is very fast." |
Now, you can use this pattern to describe anything in French! |
In French, many adjectives change based on both gender and number. Most adjectives form the feminine singular by adding -e to the masculine form. |
For example, grand ("tall" or "big") is the masculine singular form, while the feminine singular form is grande. |
For example, Cette maison est très grande, which means, "This house is very big." |
Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
Cette robe est très chère. |
This dress is very expensive. |
Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
Let's break it down: |
Cette means "this," |
followed by robe, meaning "dress." |
Est très means "is very." |
Finally, we have the adjective chère, meaning "expensive." |
Notice that this sentence uses cette instead of ce or cet and chère instead of cher because robe is a feminine singular noun. |
So, that is how Cette robe est très chère. follows the "Ce, cet, or cette [noun] est très [adjective]." pattern. |
Here's another example |
Ce chapeau est nouveau. |
"This hat is new." |
Ce chapeau est nouveau. |
"This hat is new." |
Let's try one more, |
Cette salle est très grande. |
"This room is very big." |
Cette salle est très grande. |
"This room is very big." |
One last example. |
Ce sac est joli. |
"This bag is pretty." |
Ce sac est joli. |
"This bag is pretty." |
Comments
Hide