Learn French: La ville a des canaux magnifiques. - The city has magnificent canals.

La ville a des canaux magnifiques.

The city has magnificent canals.

Breakdown of La ville a des canaux magnifiques.

Questions & Answers about La ville a des canaux magnifiques.

Why is the plural of canal written as canaux instead of canals?

Most French nouns form their plural by adding an -s, but nouns ending in -al are irregular. To make them plural, you change the -al to -aux. So, un canal becomes des canaux. You will see this same pattern with un animal (an animal) becoming des animaux.

Is canaux masculine or feminine, and how does that affect magnifiques?

Canaux is masculine because the singular form is un canal. The adjective magnifique already ends in an -e in its base masculine form, so it does not change for the feminine. To match the plural noun canaux, we simply add an -s to make it magnifiques.

Why does magnifiques come after the noun instead of before it?

In French, most descriptive adjectives are placed after the noun. While there is a small group of short, common adjectives that come before the noun (usually relating to beauty, age, goodness, and size), magnifique acts like a standard descriptive adjective and is placed after.

Do you pronounce the -x at the end of canaux?