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Ce vieux village est très joli.

Ce vieux village est très joli.
This old village is very pretty.
From Lesson 27:Adjective placement·French

Questions & Answers about Ce vieux village est très joli.

Why does vieux come before village when French adjectives usually go after the noun?
In French, a small group of common adjectives go before the noun. You can remember them with the acronym BAGS: Beauty, Age, Goodness, and Size. Since vieux describes age, it breaks the normal rule and goes before the noun.
Does vieux end in an x because there is more than one village?
No, vieux is just the normal masculine singular spelling of the word. It naturally ends in an x. Conveniently, the plural form is exactly the same, so 'these old villages' would be ces vieux villages.
Why is it Ce vieux village and not Cet vieux village?
Ce is the word for 'this' used with masculine nouns. We only use Cet when the very next word starts with a vowel sound. Because the next word here is vieux, which starts with a consonant, we stick with Ce.
Doesn't the e at the end of village mean it is a feminine word?
Not always! While many words ending in e are feminine, French words that end in -age are almost always masculine. That is why we use the masculine words Ce, vieux, and joli to describe it.
Why is it joli and not jolie?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because village is masculine, we use the masculine form joli. If we were describing a feminine word like a street (une rue), we would add an e to make it jolie.

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