Learn French: L'étudiant a un vélo et une moto. - The student has a bike and a motorcycle.

L'étudiant a un vélo et une moto.

The student has a bike and a motorcycle.

Breakdown of L'étudiant a un vélo et une moto.

Questions & Answers about L'étudiant a un vélo et une moto.

Why is the verb just the single letter a?

In French, a is the form of the verb avoir (to have) used for he, she, or it. Since l'étudiant (the student) counts as a third-person singular subject like he, we use a. It simply means has.

Why does moto use une instead of un? Doesn't it end in o?

Yes, it ends in o, but in French, moto is feminine! It is actually short for the longer feminine word motocyclette. Because it is feminine, it must use the feminine word for a, which is une.

Why is it L'étudiant instead of Le étudiant?

When the words le (masculine the) or la (feminine the) come before a word starting with a vowel like é, the first vowel is dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. This prevents two vowel sounds from crashing into each other and makes pronunciation smoother.

How do we know this student is male?

The spelling of the noun tells us. étudiant is the masculine form. If the sentence were about a female student, an e would be added to the end, making it l'étudiante.