Learn French: Ils nettoient tout le bâtiment. - They clean the whole building.

Ils nettoient tout le bâtiment.

They clean the whole building.

Breakdown of Ils nettoient tout le bâtiment.

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

Questions & Answers about Ils nettoient tout le bâtiment.

Why do we use tout le bâtiment instead of just tout bâtiment?

When tout is used as an adjective to mean "the whole" or "all of the," it must be followed by a definite article (le, la, les) before the noun. Because bâtiment (building) is masculine and singular, we use tout le.

How would this sentence change if they were cleaning "all the buildings"?

You would need to use the plural forms for the adjective, the article, and the noun. The masculine plural form of tout is tous, so the sentence would become: Ils nettoient tous les bâtiments.

Why is nettoient spelled with an "i" instead of a "y" like in the infinitive nettoyer?

Nettoyer (to clean) is a stem-changing verb. For verbs ending in -oyer, the y changes to an i for the je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles forms. The y is only kept for nous and vous (for example, nous nettoyons).

Do I pronounce the -ent at the end of nettoient?

No, the -ent ending on verbs conjugated for ils and elles is always completely silent in French. You pronounce nettoient exactly the same way you would pronounce the singular form nettoie (roughly "neh-twa").