Learn French: L'hôtel est à côté des musées. - The hotel is next to the museums.

L'hôtel est à côté des musées.

The hotel is next to the museums.

Breakdown of L'hôtel est à côté des musées.

Questions & Answers about L'hôtel est à côté des musées.

Why is it "des musées" instead of "de les musées"?

The French phrase for "next to" is à côté de. Because we are talking about specific museums, we need the plural word for "the", which is les. In French, the words de + les must always squeeze together to form the contraction des. It is grammatically incorrect to say de les.

Since "musées" ends in "-ée", is it a feminine word?

Surprisingly, no! The word for museum, un musée, is masculine. It is a famous exception to the general rule that French words ending in -ée are feminine. Here, it just has an s at the end because there is more than one museum.

If I wanted to say "next to a museum", how would this sentence change?

You would say: L'hôtel est à côté d'un musée. Because the word un starts with a vowel, the de from à côté de drops its 'e' and attaches directly to the next word with an apostrophe, becoming d'.

Why is it "L'hôtel" instead of "Le hôtel"?

The word hôtel starts with a silent 'h'. In French, words starting with a silent 'h' are treated as if they start with a vowel. Therefore, the article le drops its 'e' and forms a contraction with the noun, becoming l'hôtel. This makes it flow more smoothly when spoken.