Learn French: Les arbres dans le parc sont jolis. - The trees in the park are pretty.

Les arbres dans le parc sont jolis.

The trees in the park are pretty.

Breakdown of Les arbres dans le parc sont jolis.

Questions & Answers about Les arbres dans le parc sont jolis.

Do I pronounce the 's' at the end of les in this sentence?

Yes! Normally, the 's' at the end of les is silent. However, because arbres starts with a vowel, you pronounce the 's' like a "z" sound to connect the two words. This smooth connection is called a liaison. It makes les arbres sound like "lay zar-bruh".

Do I need to know if arbres is masculine or feminine to use les?

No, you don't! While you have to choose between le and la for singular nouns, they both change to les when plural. Les is the only plural word for "the", so it works for all plural nouns regardless of their gender.

Why does jolis have an 's' at the end?

In French, describing words (adjectives) have to match the noun they are describing. Because les arbres is plural (more than one tree), you must add an 's' to joli to make it plural too. Keep in mind that this 's' is completely silent when spoken!

Why do we use sont here instead of est?

Sont is the form of the verb être (to be) that means "are" for plural subjects like "they". Since les arbres is plural, it acts just like "they", so we use sont. If we were only talking about one tree in the park, we would use est (is).