Question 1

How do we know if stagiaire is male or female in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

The noun stagiaire is epicene, meaning it has the exact same form for both masculine and feminine (un/une stagiaire). We know this specific intern is male because of the masculine demonstrative adjective ce (instead of cette) and the masculine adjective indiscret (instead of indiscrète).

Question 2

Does indiscret mean exactly the same thing as 'indiscreet' in English?

Accepted Answer

Not always! While it can mean 'indiscreet' in the sense of revealing secrets, in everyday French indiscret very often translates to 'nosy', 'prying', or 'intrusive'. In a workplace context, this intern is probably asking too many personal questions or snooping around.

Question 3

Is it normal to put vraiment and très right next to each other like this?

Accepted Answer

Yes. While translating it literally to 'really very' might sound a bit repetitive or clunky in English, stacking these intensifiers is a very common and completely natural way to emphasize an adjective in spoken French.

Question 4

Since this lesson is about the past subjunctive, how would I apply it here to say 'I am surprised that this intern was so indiscreet'?

Accepted Answer

You would say: Je suis surpris que ce stagiaire ait été si indiscret. Expressions of emotion like surpris que trigger the subjunctive. Because the intern's behavior happened in the past, you use the past subjunctive, which is formed with the present subjunctive of the auxiliary avoir (ait) plus the past participle of the main verb être (été).

Ce stagiaire est vraiment très indiscret.

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