Breakdown of L'émissaire, bon diplomate, dit qu'il accepte ce pacte bilatéral.
il
he
ce
this (before a noun)
bon
good
dire
to say, to tell
Questions & Answers about L'émissaire, bon diplomate, dit qu'il accepte ce pacte bilatéral.
Why is there no article before bon diplomate? Shouldn't it translate literally to un bon diplomate?
In French, when you place a noun phrase right after another noun to describe or define it (called an apposition), the indefinite article (un or une) is typically dropped. So instead of L'émissaire, un bon diplomate, it becomes simply L'émissaire, bon diplomate.
Is émissaire always masculine, even though it ends in -e?
Yes, un émissaire is a masculine noun. While many French nouns ending in -e are feminine, those ending in -aire (like le vocabulaire, le partenaire) are very often masculine. If the envoy were a woman, the noun would remain l'émissaire, but the apposition would change to agree with her gender: bonne diplomate.
Why use the present indicative accepte here? Doesn't dire que ever take the subjunctive?
Why is bilatéral placed after pacte, while bon comes before diplomate?