Question 1

The current lesson is about exclamations. How could we change the first half of this sentence to exclaim 'How the stars illuminate the sky!'?

Accepted Answer

You can just add Comme, Que, or Ce que to the beginning of the statement! For example: Comme les étoiles illuminent le ciel ! In French, you do not invert the subject and verb for this kind of exclamation; you keep the normal declarative word order.

Question 2

Why is the relative pronoun qui used here instead of que?

Accepted Answer

Here, qui translates to 'which' and acts as the subject of the verb est. You must use qui for subjects, whether they are people or things. You would only use que if it were the direct object of the following verb (for example: le ciel que je vois - 'the sky that I see').

Question 3

Why does the adjective multicolores take an s? Aren't compound color adjectives supposed to be invariable?

Accepted Answer

Although it contains multiple parts, multicolore is treated as a single, regular descriptive adjective in French, not a compound color adjective like bleu clair. Therefore, it follows the normal rules of agreement and takes an s to match the plural noun étoiles.

Question 4

Can you remind me how the negative structure ne ... plus works in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

The structure ne ... plus means 'no longer' or 'not anymore.' It wraps around the conjugated verb exactly like ne ... pas does. Here, it surrounds est to show that the sky being black is a state that has ended.

Les étoiles multicolores illuminent le ciel, qui n'est plus noir.

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