Questions & Answers about La sage-femme regarde les filles nouveau-nées.
Why does nées have an -es but nouveau does not change to nouvelles?
In the compound adjective nouveau-nées, the word nouveau acts as an adverb meaning "newly" (as in "newly born"). Because adverbs never change form in French, nouveau does not agree with the feminine plural noun filles. However, nées is an adjective, so it takes the feminine plural -es to agree. Would both parts agree if they were both adjectives?
Yes! If a compound adjective is made of two adjectives, like sourd-muet (deaf-mute), both parts agree with the noun. For a feminine plural noun, it would become sourdes-muettes. But since nouveau functions as an adverb here, only the second part agrees. If there were multiple midwives, how would you make the compound noun sage-femme plural?
It would become sages-femmes. In French compound nouns made of an adjective (sage) and a noun (femme), both parts usually take an -s in the plural. This contrasts with our compound adjective nouveau-nées, where the adverb part remains invariable. Can nouveau-né also be used as a noun?
Yes, you will often see it used as a noun, like un nouveau-né (a newborn) or les nouveau-nés (the newborns). The agreement rules stay exactly the same when it is used as a noun: nouveau never changes, while né agrees with the gender and number of the babies. Learn La sage-femme regarde les filles nouveau-nées and more in French
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