Learn French: Ils annoncent la naissance de leur fille. - They announce the birth of their daughter.

Ils annoncent la naissance de leur fille.

They announce the birth of their daughter.

Breakdown of Ils annoncent la naissance de leur fille.

la fille

the girl

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)

leur

their

Questions & Answers about Ils annoncent la naissance de leur fille.

Why is the -ent in annoncent silent?

In French, the -ent ending on third-person plural verbs is completely silent. You just pronounce the base of the word, so ils annoncent sounds exactly like il annonce.

Why is it leur fille and not leurs fille, since "they" (plural) are doing the announcing?

In French, possessive words match the thing being owned, not the owners. Even though there are multiple parents (Ils), they are announcing the birth of one daughter. Because fille is singular, you use the singular leur. If they had multiple daughters, it would be leurs filles.

Does fille mean "girl" or "daughter"?

It means both! The meaning depends on the context. When paired with a possessive word like leur (their), ma (my), or sa (his/her), it means "daughter". When used generally, like in une fille (a girl), it means "girl".

I learned that verbs ending in -cer often need a cedilla (ç). Why doesn't annoncent have one?

Verbs like annoncer only need a cedilla when the c is followed by an a or an o (like in nous annonçons) to keep the soft "s" sound. Because the c in annoncent is followed by an e, it automatically makes a soft "s" sound, so no cedilla is needed here.