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La suspension de la voiture cabossée fait du bruit.

La suspension de la voiture cabossée fait du bruit.
The suspension of the dented car makes noise.
From Lesson 410:Adjective agreement with 'avoir l'air'·French

Questions & Answers about La suspension de la voiture cabossée fait du bruit.

How can you tell whether cabossée describes the suspension or the car?
In French, adjectives usually go directly after the noun they modify. Since cabossée immediately follows voiture, it describes the car. Because voiture is feminine singular, the past participle cabossé takes an extra e for agreement. Both suspension and voiture are feminine, so the spelling would technically be the same either way, but the word order tells us it is the car that is dented.
Why do we use du in fait du bruit instead of just saying fait bruit?
When talking about an unspecified quantity of something uncountable, like noise in general, French requires a partitive article (du, de la, or des). Because bruit is a masculine noun, we use du. If you meant that it makes a specific noise, you would say fait un bruit.
Is cabossée related to the word for a bump or lump?
Yes! It comes from the root word bosse, which means a bump, lump, or dent. The verb cabosser means to batter or dent something (usually metal), making cabossée the perfect adjective for a beat-up car.
What is the subject of the verb fait in this sentence?
The subject is La suspension, not the car. Even though voiture is physically closer to the verb, de la voiture cabossée is just a descriptive prepositional phrase. La suspension is a third-person singular noun, so the main verb is conjugated as fait.

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