Questions & Answers about À part les vieux bâtiments en bois, qu'est-ce que tu vois ?
Could I use sauf instead of à part in this sentence?
Yes! sauf (except) and à part (apart from) are usually interchangeable when excluding something from a group. You could perfectly say Sauf les vieux bâtiments en bois.... However, à part can sometimes have a slightly softer 'besides' or 'other than' feel, while sauf is a strict 'except'. Why does vieux come before the noun bâtiments instead of after?
Most French adjectives come after the noun, but vieux (old) belongs to a special group of short, common adjectives that go before the noun. You can remember these with the acronym BANGS (Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size). vieux falls under Age! Is vieux singular or plural here?
It is plural, matching the plural noun les bâtiments. Because the masculine singular form of vieux already ends in an -x, it does not change spelling in the plural. You have to rely on the plural article les to know it means multiple buildings. Why do we say en bois instead of de bois for 'wooden'?
When describing the material something is made of, French most commonly uses the preposition en without an article, like en bois (made of wood) or en coton (made of cotton). You will sometimes see de used for materials in formal texts, but en is the standard choice for everyday conversation. Why use qu'est-ce que tu vois instead of just inverting it to que vois-tu?
Both mean 'what do you see' and are grammatically correct, but qu'est-ce que tu vois is much more common in everyday spoken French. Inverting the subject and verb to ask que vois-tu sounds quite formal and is mostly reserved for writing or very polite speech. Learn À part les vieux bâtiments en bois, qu'est-ce que tu vois and more in French
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