Word
C'est un château très ancien.
Meaning
It is a very ancient castle.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of C'est un château très ancien.
un
a / an (masculine)
très
very
le château
the castle
c'est
it is, that is
Questions & Answers about C'est un château très ancien.
If we were talking about a feminine word like une église (a church) instead of un château, how would ancien change?
It would change to ancienne. As you are learning in this lesson, adjectives ending in -en double the n and add an e to become feminine. So, 'a very ancient church' is une église très ancienne.
Does the pronunciation change if we use the feminine form ancienne?
Yes, significantly! The masculine ancien ends in a nasal vowel sound, so you do not actually pronounce the 'n' letter. But when you double the 'n' and add 'e' to make the feminine ancienne, the nasal sound drops and you pronounce a clear, hard 'n' at the end.
Why is the adjective ancien placed after château here?
Many French adjectives go after the noun, but ancien is special because its meaning changes depending on its position. After the noun, it means 'ancient' or 'old' (as in this sentence). If placed before the noun (un ancien château), it means 'a former castle' (for example, a castle that is now a hotel).
Why does the sentence start with C'est instead of Il est for 'It is'?