Learn French: Ils achètent quarante-deux ordinateurs pour l'école. - They are buying 42 computers for the school.

Ils achètent quarante-deux ordinateurs pour l'école.

They are buying 42 computers for the school.

Breakdown of Ils achètent quarante-deux ordinateurs pour l'école.

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

Questions & Answers about Ils achètent quarante-deux ordinateurs pour l'école.

Why is there a hyphen in quarante-deux?

In French, when you combine a tens number like quarante (40) and a single digit like deux (2), you connect them with a hyphen. The only exception is when the single digit is 1, where you use et (and) instead, like in quarante et un.

How is deux ordinateurs pronounced? Do the words link together?

Yes! Because deux ends in an x and ordinateurs starts with a vowel, you make a connecting z sound between them. This smooth linking is called a liaison.

Why does achètent have an accent mark (è) when the dictionary verb acheter doesn't?

Acheter (to buy) changes its spelling slightly when conjugated. For ils (they), the -ent ending is completely silent. Because the stress falls on the syllable right before that silent ending, French adds a grave accent (è) to show the vowel sound changes to an "eh" sound.

Why do we write l'école instead of la école?

École is a feminine word, so it normally takes la (the). But because école starts with a vowel, you must drop the a in la and use an apostrophe so the words flow together easily.