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Les animaux meurent sans eau.

Les animaux meurent sans eau.
Animals die without water.
From Lesson 73:The passé composé with être·French

Breakdown of Les animaux meurent sans eau.

l'eau
the water
l'animal
the animal (m)
sans
without
mourir
to die

Questions & Answers about Les animaux meurent sans eau.

Why is the word animaux used instead of just adding an -s to animal?
In French, most nouns that end in -al in the singular, like un animal (an animal) or un cheval (a horse), change their ending to -aux in the plural. This is why we say les animaux.
What verb is meurent, and do I pronounce the -ent at the end?
Meurent is the "they" form of the highly irregular verb mourir (to die). Because it is a conjugated verb matching the plural subject les animaux, the -ent ending is completely silent. You just pronounce it like "meur".
Since dying is a change of state, how would I say "The animals died" in the passé composé?
Great connection! Because mourir is a change-of-state verb, it uses être as its helping verb. Its past participle is mort. Since les animaux is masculine and plural, you must add an -s to the past participle so it agrees: Les animaux sont morts.
Why is it just sans eau? Doesn't French usually require an article like de l' before nouns?
Usually, yes! But the preposition sans (without) is an exception. It is almost always followed directly by the noun without any article. So while you would say avec de l'eau (with water), you just say sans eau (without water).

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