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Les parents sont souvent occupés.

Les parents sont souvent occupés.
The parents are often busy.
From Lesson 9:Plural adjective agreement (+s)·French

Breakdown of Les parents sont souvent occupés.

être
to be
souvent
often
occupé
busy
le parent
the parent

Questions & Answers about Les parents sont souvent occupés.

Why is there an 's' at the end of occupés?
In French, adjectives have to match the noun they describe. Because Les parents is plural (more than one), we add an s to the base adjective occupé (busy) to make it plural too.
parents can mean a mother and a father. Why does occupés use the masculine plural ending instead of feminine?
In French, when a group includes a mix of males and females, the masculine plural is always used as the default. If the sentence was specifically about mothers, you would use the feminine plural: Les mères sont souvent occupées.
Do I pronounce the s at the end of parents or occupés?
No, the plural s at the end of these words is silent. You pronounce occupés exactly the same as the singular form occupé. The s only changes how the word is written, not how it sounds!
Is the word order for souvent (often) the same in French as it is in English?
Yes, in this case it matches perfectly! French places short adverbs like souvent right after the conjugated verb sont, which is exactly how we say 'are often' in English.

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