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Il est gentil avec les enfants.

Il est gentil avec les enfants.
He is kind to children.
From Lesson 78:Double consonant adjectives (-enne, -ette)·French

Breakdown of Il est gentil avec les enfants.

être
to be
l'enfant
the child
avec
with
gentil
kind, nice

Questions & Answers about Il est gentil avec les enfants.

Since the lesson is about doubling consonants for feminine adjectives, how would I say "She is kind"?
You would say Elle est gentille. Similar to adjectives that end in -en or -et, gentil is irregular and doubles its final consonant before adding an e. The pronunciation changes too: the final consonant in gentil is silent, but gentille ends in a "y" sound.
Why does the French sentence use avec (with) when the English translation says "kind to"?
In English, we say someone is kind "to" people, but French uses a different preposition for this idea. The standard expression is être gentil avec (literally "to be kind with").
The English translation just says "children." Why does the French add les?
In French, you generally cannot use a noun without an article. When talking about a broad category of people or things (like children in general), French requires the definite article, which is les for plural nouns.

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