Question 1

Why is it de vieilles légendes instead of des vieilles légendes?

Accepted Answer

Because the plural indefinite article des (meaning "some") usually changes to de when it comes directly before a plural adjective. Since the adjective vieilles comes before the noun here, des shrinks to de.

Question 2

Why does the adjective vieilles come before the noun légendes?

Accepted Answer

While most French adjectives go after the noun, a short list of common ones goes before. You can remember these with the acronym BAGS (Beauty, Age, Goodness, and Size). Since vieilles describes age, it goes in front of the noun.

Question 3

Could I use dit instead of raconte to say "tells"?

Accepted Answer

Not exactly. Dire means "to say" or "to tell" in the sense of communicating simple information or facts. Raconter means to narrate or tell a story. Since a book is telling legends, raconte is the perfect verb here.

Question 4

I sometimes mix up the forms of "vieux". Why are we using vieilles?

Accepted Answer

The noun légendes is feminine and plural. The base masculine adjective is vieux, but its feminine singular form is vieille. To make it plural to match the noun in this sentence, you just add an "s" to get vieilles.

Ce livre raconte de vieilles légendes.

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