Learn French: Cette université a une grande bibliothèque.

Cette université a une grande bibliothèque.

This university has a large library.

Breakdown of Cette université a une grande bibliothèque.

Questions & Answers about Cette université a une grande bibliothèque.

Wait, the current lesson is about à, but there is no accent on the a in this sentence. Why?

The word a in this sentence is the verb avoir (to have). Here, it means has. The preposition à (meaning to or at) from this lesson has a grave accent mark. They sound exactly the same, but the accent helps you see when reading whether it is the preposition or the verb!

Because université starts with a vowel, shouldn't we use cet instead of cette for this?

The special form cet is only used for masculine nouns that start with a vowel (like cet homme). Because université is feminine, we just use the regular feminine form cette. It doesn't need to change before a vowel.

Why is grande placed before bibliothèque? I thought French adjectives go after the noun.

You are right that most French adjectives go after the noun! However, a small group of common adjectives describing Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, and Size (often called the BANGS rule) go before the noun. Because grande describes size, it comes right before bibliothèque.

Does bibliothèque mean bookstore?