Learn French: Cette berline a l'air cabossée, mais elle fonctionne bien. - This sedan looks dented, but it works well.

Cette berline a l'air cabossée, mais elle fonctionne bien.

This sedan looks dented, but it works well.

Breakdown of Cette berline a l'air cabossée, mais elle fonctionne bien.

Questions & Answers about Cette berline a l'air cabossée, mais elle fonctionne bien.

Why is cabossée feminine here when the word air is masculine?

This is the tricky part of avoir l'air. The rule is that if the subject is an inanimate object (like cette berline), the adjective must agree with the subject, not with the masculine word air. Since berline is feminine, we use the feminine form cabossée.

Would it be wrong to write Cette berline a l'air cabossé (masculine)?

Yes, it would be grammatically incorrect here. If the subject were a person or an animal, the adjective could agree with either the subject or with air. But for inanimate things, the adjective strictly agrees with the subject.

What exactly is a berline compared to a regular voiture?

Voiture is the general word for car. A berline is a specific body style: a sedan. At this level, it is great to start using more precise nouns for vehicles, like berline, camionnette (van), or citadine (city car).

Why use fonctionne instead of marche to say the car works?

You can absolutely use marche (elle marche bien), which is very common in everyday spoken French for machines and engines. Fonctionne means the exact same thing but is slightly more formal and precise.