Question 1

Why does it use sa if the English translation says "His"?

Accepted Answer

In French, possessive words like sa agree with the noun that comes after them (the thing being owned), not the person who owns it! Since tante (aunt) is feminine, we must use the feminine form sa. The phrase sa tante can actually mean "his aunt" or "her aunt" depending on the context of the conversation.

Question 2

Why is it n'est instead of ne est?

Accepted Answer

The French "not" is made of two parts: ne ... pas wrapped around the verb. Here, the verb is est (is). Because est starts with a vowel, the ne drops its e and attaches to the verb with an apostrophe to make it easier to say: n'est pas.

Question 3

Since tante is feminine, shouldn't we add an extra "e" to the end of sévère?

Accepted Answer

Normally, you add an e to an adjective to make it feminine. However, sévère already ends in an e in its default, masculine form. When an adjective already ends in e, you don't add another one for the feminine form, so it stays exactly the same here.

Question 4

What do the different accent marks in sévère mean?

Accepted Answer

They tell you how to pronounce the vowels! The first one is an accent aigu (é) which makes a sharper "ay" sound. The second one is an accent grave (è) which makes a softer "eh" sound, similar to the vowel in the English word "pet".

Sa tante n'est pas sévère.

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