Breakdown of Ces bruits sont très fatigants.
être
to be
très
very
ce
this (before a noun)
le bruit
the noise
Questions & Answers about Ces bruits sont très fatigants.
Why is fatigants spelled without a u here?
In French, verbs ending in -guer (like fatiguer) drop the u when they become verbal adjectives. Here, fatigants describes the state of the noun bruits just like a regular adjective, so it uses the adjective spelling without the u. If it were the present participle (meaning 'tiring out'), it would keep the u and be spelled fatiguant.
Why is there an s at the end of fatigants?
Because it is acting as a verbal adjective, it must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. Since bruits is masculine plural, fatigants takes a plural s. If it were acting as a present participle (describing an action), it would be invariable and never take an s.
Does dropping the u change the pronunciation of the word?
How would the sentence change if I wanted to use the present participle ?