Breakdown of Les filles premières-nées sont souvent prématurées.
être
to be
la fille
the girl
souvent
often
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
premier-né
firstborn
prématuré
premature
Questions & Answers about Les filles premières-nées sont souvent prématurées.
Why do both parts of premières-nées have an -es ending?
Premières-nées is a compound adjective made of two adjectives: premier (first) and né (born). The rule for an Adjective + Adjective compound is that both parts must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe. Since filles is feminine plural, we add the feminine -e and the plural -s to both halves.
If we used the word for "newborn" instead, would it be written as nouvelles-nées?
No, it would be nouveau-nées. This highlights the Adverb + Adjective rule! In the compound nouveau-né, the word nouveau acts as an adverb meaning "newly" (newly born). Because adverbs are invariable, the first part never changes. Only the second part (nées) agrees with the feminine plural noun filles.
Why is there a hyphen in premières-nées?
Why does prématurées agree with filles when it is separated from the noun by the verb?
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