Question 1

Why does the French sentence use plus fort instead of a single word for "stronger"?

Accepted Answer

French doesn't have an equivalent to the English "-er" ending for adjectives. To say "stronger", you literally say "more strong" (plus fort). The structure for comparisons is plus [adjective] que (more [adjective] than).

Question 2

Do we always need the articles le and l' before the currencies here?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Just like in English when you talk about "the dollar" as a general financial concept, French uses definite articles (le, la, l', les) with currencies.

Question 3

Would fort change if we were comparing a feminine currency, like the pound (la livre)?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the adjective in a comparison must still agree with the first noun it describes. If the sentence started with La livre (The pound), you would use the feminine form forte: La livre est plus forte que l'euro.

Question 4

Why isn't que shortened to qu' before l'euro, since euro starts with a vowel?

Accepted Answer

You only shorten que to qu' when the very next word starts with a vowel or mute 'h'. Here, the next word is the article l', which acts as a consonant sound. Because of that 'l', que keeps its 'e'.

Le dollar est plus fort que l'euro.

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