Nous lisons un roman de cet auteur.

Questions & Answers about Nous lisons un roman de cet auteur.

Why does the 'nous' form of lire have an 's' in the middle?
Lire (to read) is an irregular verb. For plural subjects like 'we' or 'they', the base of the verb changes to include an 's' before the standard endings. This gives us nous lisons, vous lisez, and ils/elles lisent.
Does un roman only mean a romance novel?
No, un roman is a 'false friend' for English speakers. It is the general French word for a 'novel' of any genre. If you specifically want to read a romance novel, you would look for un roman d'amour.
Why do we use de instead of par to say 'by this author'?
While de usually means 'of' or 'from', it is the standard preposition used in French to show who wrote or created a work of art. You can think of it as literally saying 'a novel of this author'.
Why is it cet auteur instead of ce auteur?
Both ce and cet mean 'this' for masculine words. We use cet here because auteur starts with a vowel. Saying cet auteur flows much better in spoken French than having two vowel sounds crash together.

Learn Nous lisons un roman de cet auteur and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • Practice with interactive exercises
  • Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • Learn at your own pace — completely free