Learn French: L'équipe commence rapidement le match. - The team starts the match quickly.

L'équipe commence rapidement le match.

The team starts the match quickly.

Breakdown of L'équipe commence rapidement le match.

him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)

Questions & Answers about L'équipe commence rapidement le match.

How is the adverb rapidement formed in this sentence?

To make an adverb in French, you generally take the feminine form of an adjective and add -ment. The adjective for 'quick' is rapide, which is spelled the exact same way for both masculine and feminine. So, we simply add -ment to the base word to get rapidement (quickly).

Why is rapidement placed right after the verb instead of at the end of the sentence?

In French, adverbs generally sit immediately after the conjugated verb they modify. While an English speaker naturally says 'starts the match quickly', a French speaker prefers to keep the adverb glued to the verb, resulting in commence rapidement le match (literally 'starts quickly the match').

Since a team is made up of multiple players, why does the verb commence use a singular ending?

In French, collective nouns like l'équipe (the team) or la famille (the family) are strictly singular, even though they represent a group. You must always treat them like il or elle (he/she) and use the singular verb form.

Is le match borrowed directly from English?

Yes! French borrows quite a few sports words from English. It means a game or sports match, and like many English loan words in French, it is assigned the masculine gender.