Breakdown of L'ingénieur a découvert une mine très profonde.
une
a / an (feminine)
très
very
avoir
to have
découvrir
to discover
l'ingénieur
the engineer (m)
la mine
the mine
profond
deep
Questions & Answers about L'ingénieur a découvert une mine très profonde.
How would this sentence change if we used the futur antérieur (future perfect) from this lesson?
To form the futur antérieur, you change the auxiliary verb a (present tense of avoir) to its future tense form aura. The sentence becomes L'ingénieur aura découvert une mine très profonde (The engineer will have discovered a very deep mine).
Why does the past participle découvert end in -ert instead of the usual endings?
The verb découvrir (to discover) is highly irregular. Verbs in the -couvrir, -ouvrir, and -offrir families all take this irregular -ert past participle ending.
Why is there an e at the end of profonde?
Does ingénieur change if the engineer is a woman?
Historically, ingénieur was used for both men and women. In modern French, it is becoming very common to add an e for a female engineer (une ingénieure). Because of the contraction in l'ingénieur, the only clue in this specific sentence would be outside context!
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