Breakdown of Le directeur était cruel et sévère.
être
to be
et
and
sévère
strict
directeur
director
cruel
cruel
Questions & Answers about Le directeur était cruel et sévère.
How would I rewrite this sentence using ni... ni... to say the director was neither cruel nor strict?
You would say Le directeur n'était ni cruel ni sévère. Notice that you still need the negative particle n' before the verb, but you drop pas. Because cruel and sévère are adjectives, the current lesson's rule about omitting indefinite and partitive articles doesn't apply here—you just place ni directly in front of each adjective.
Why is the imparfait (était) used here instead of the passé composé (a été)?
The imparfait is used because you are describing an ongoing state or a general characteristic in the past. You are setting the scene of how the director generally behaved. If you wanted to say he was cruel and strict on one specific, isolated occasion rather than as a general personality trait, you would use the passé composé (Le directeur a été cruel et sévère).
Is sévère a false friend for the English word 'severe'?
Partially. When describing a person in French, sévère almost always translates to 'strict' or 'stern' (like a strict teacher). While 'severe' in English can mean this, it more commonly describes something extreme, serious, or intense (like severe weather, a severe injury, or severe pain). For those English meanings, French typically uses words like grave, intense, or fort.
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