Learn French: La première équipe finit le projet. - The first team finishes the project.

The word équipe (team) is a feminine noun. As you are learning in this lesson, adjectives that end in -er in the masculine (like premier) change to -ère in the feminine. This adds a grave accent and an extra e.

Why does première come before équipe? I thought adjectives go after the noun.

While most French adjectives go after the noun, adjectives that express order or sequence (like first, second, next, or last) are an exception. They always go before the noun.

What verb is finit and why does it end in a t?

It is the verb finir (to finish), which is a regular -ir verb. Because la première équipe is a single entity, it acts like elle (she). The present tense ending for il/elle with regular -ir verbs is -it.

Shouldn't it be l'équipe since the noun starts with a vowel?

If équipe were right next to the word for 'the', it would be l'équipe. But because the word première is in between them, the article only cares about the consonant p, so we use the full feminine article la.