Learn French: Les enfants sont contents.

Les enfants sont contents.

The children are happy.

Breakdown of Les enfants sont contents.

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Questions & Answers about Les enfants sont contents.

Why do we use sont when the sentence doesn't have the pronoun ils or elles?

sont is the form of être (to be) for 'they'. Even though the pronoun ils (they) isn't in the sentence, the subject Les enfants (The children) is a plural group. Because you could replace 'The children' with 'They' in your head, you use the 'they' form of the verb: sont.

Why is there an 's' at the end of contents?

In French, describing words (adjectives) have to match the noun they describe. Since there is more than one child (Les enfants is plural), the word for happy (content) also has to be plural. We add an s to make it contents.

Do you pronounce the 's' in Les and enfants?

You pronounce the 's' in Les, but not the one in enfants! Normally, the 's' in Les is silent. However, because enfants starts with a vowel, the 's' links to it and makes a 'z' sound. This connection is called a liaison. The 's' at the very end of enfants stays completely silent.

What if the group of children is made up entirely of girls?