Where French says the, English says my
With parts of the body French normally uses the definite article, not a possessive — the owner is already obvious from the verb.
| French | literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| J'ai mal au ventre. | I have pain at the belly | My stomach hurts. |
| Il s'est fait mal au genou. | he made himself pain at the knee | He hurt his knee. |
| My stomach hurts after the meal. | J'ai mal au ventre après le repas. |
Saying mon ventre is not wrong, but it sounds like you are pointing the belly out as an object rather than reporting how you feel.
Two plurals that are not regular
le genou takes -x, not -s — it joins the small family you met at L80.
| singular | plural |
|---|---|
| le genou | les genoux |
| le bras | les bras (already ends in -s, so nothing changes) |
le bras is invariable: un bras, deux bras, spelled identically.
mince, brun, laid
All three take a plain -e in the feminine, and brun doubles nothing:
| masculine | feminine |
|---|---|
| mince | mince (already ends in -e) |
| brun | brune |
| laid | laide |
mince is the polite word for a slim person. It also describes a thin object — a thin book, a thin slice — where English would not say slim.
| She is tall and slim. | Elle est grande et mince. |
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