Log inSign up

Je participe aux avant-dernières réunions du pédiatre.

Je participe aux avant-dernières réunions du pédiatre.
I participate in the pediatrician's penultimate meetings.
From Lesson 403:Compound adjective agreement·French

Questions & Answers about Je participe aux avant-dernières réunions du pédiatre.

Why does dernières agree with réunions, but avant stays invariable?
In compound adjectives formed by a preposition or adverb (like avant) and an adjective (like dernier), only the adjective part agrees with the noun. Since réunions is feminine plural, dernier becomes dernières, but avant never changes.
What if both parts of the hyphenated word were adjectives? Would they both agree?
Yes! If a compound adjective consists of two adjectives (like sourd-muet, meaning deaf-mute), both parts agree with the noun. Modifying a feminine plural noun, it would become sourdes-muettes. In our sentence, avant isn't an adjective, which is why it escapes this rule.
Why use aux here instead of dans les to mean "in the"?
While English says "participate in," the French verb participer requires the preposition à. When à is followed by the plural definite article les (for les réunions), they must contract into aux.
How can we tell if the pediatrician in this sentence is male or female?
We know this pediatrician is male (or the word is being used in a general sense) because of the contraction du (which is de + le). The noun pédiatre ends in an -e and has the same spelling for both men and women. If referring to a specific female pediatrician, you would say de la pédiatre.

Learn Je participe aux avant-dernières réunions du pédiatre and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →