Un vieux roi intelligent habite ici.

From Lesson 27:Adjective placement·French

Questions & Answers about Un vieux roi intelligent habite ici.

Why is vieux placed before roi, but intelligent is placed after?
In French, most adjectives go after the noun, which is why we say roi intelligent. However, there is a small group of short, common adjectives that go before the noun. These usually describe Beauty, Age, Numbers, Goodness, or Size (often called the BANGS rule). Since vieux (old) describes Age, it goes before the noun. When a noun has two adjectives like this, they simply wrap around it!
Is vieux plural here because it ends in an -x?
No, vieux is the masculine singular form. It just happens to naturally end in an -x. Because of this, its spelling doesn't change when it becomes plural (so old kings would be de vieux rois).
I have seen the word vieil used for old. Why don't we use it here?
You use vieil instead of vieux only when the following masculine noun starts with a vowel or a silent h (like un vieil ami for an old friend) to make it flow better. Because roi starts with a consonant, we use the standard masculine form, vieux.
Why does the verb habite end in an -e?
The verb is habiter (to live), which is a regular -er verb. Because the subject is un roi (a king), which counts as he (il), we use the standard he/she ending for -er verbs, which is -e. Remember that the h and the final -e are silent, so the word sounds like ah-beet.

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