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Nous prenons des vacances après cette journée épuisante.

Nous prenons des vacances après cette journée épuisante.
We are taking a vacation after this exhausting day.
From Lesson 159:Present participles as adjectives (-ant)·French

Questions & Answers about Nous prenons des vacances après cette journée épuisante.

Why does épuisante have an -e at the end? Isn't the present participle invariable?
The present participle is invariable when it acts like a verb. But here, it is acting as a verbal adjective—an adjective formed from a verb. Because it functions just like a normal adjective describing the feminine noun journée, it must agree with it by adding an -e.
How can I tell if an -ant word is acting as a verb or an adjective?
Look at what it is doing in the sentence. Here, épuisante directly follows a noun (journée) to describe its quality, just like a regular adjective. If it were acting as a verb, it would usually have a direct object or express an action happening at the same time as the main verb.
Why use journée here instead of jour?
The word jour usually refers to a day as a simple unit of time. The word journée emphasizes the duration of the day and what you actually experienced during those hours. Since we are describing how the day felt to live through, journée is the natural choice.
Why is it des vacances when the English translation says a vacation (singular)?
In French, the word for a holiday or vacation is almost always plural: les vacances. Even if you are taking just one single trip or break, you must use the plural form and the plural indefinite article des.

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