Question 1

English says "the garden grass". Why does French say L'herbe du jardin?

Accepted Answer

In English, you can use a noun like "garden" directly in front of another noun to describe it. French doesn't do this. Instead, you have to use de (of) to link them, literally saying "the grass of the garden".

Question 2

Why is it du jardin instead of de le jardin?

Accepted Answer

In French, the preposition de (of) and the masculine article le (the) must always combine into the single word du. You will never see de le written together.

Question 3

Since l' doesn't tell us if herbe is masculine or feminine, how can we tell its gender from this sentence?

Accepted Answer

You can look at the adjective at the end of the sentence! Because verte has an extra "e" at the end, it is the feminine form of vert (green). This confirms that herbe is a feminine noun.

Question 4

If herbe is feminine, why do we use l' instead of la?

Accepted Answer

The letter "h" at the beginning of herbe is silent. Because the word starts with a vowel sound, the feminine article la drops its "a" and blends into the word as l' to make pronunciation smoother.

L'herbe du jardin est très verte.

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