Learn French: Nous avons passé toute la matinée sur ce grand carrousel. - We spent the whole morning on this big merry-go-round.

Nous avons passé toute la matinée sur ce grand carrousel.

We spent the whole morning on this big merry-go-round.

Breakdown of Nous avons passé toute la matinée sur ce grand carrousel.

we / us (object pronoun)

avoir

to have

Questions & Answers about Nous avons passé toute la matinée sur ce grand carrousel.

Why does this sentence use matinée instead of matin?

We use matinée instead of matin when we want to emphasize the duration or the length of time passed, rather than just pointing to a specific time of day. Because we are talking about spending "the whole" morning (toute la), we need the feminine aspectual form matinée to highlight that ongoing duration.

Why is it toute la matinée and not just toute matinée?

When you want to say "the whole [time period]", you must include the definite article. The adjective tout (and its feminine form toute) translates to "all of the" or "the whole" only when followed by an article. So, toute la matinée means "all of the morning" or "the whole morning".

Since passer can take être in the passé composé, why does it use avoir here?

Passer only uses être when it describes physical movement, like passing by a place (je suis passé). When it means "to spend time", it takes a direct object (here, toute la matinée) and must use the auxiliary verb avoir.

Why does the adjective grand come before the noun carrousel?

While most French adjectives go after the noun, grand belongs to a small group of common adjectives describing Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, or Size (often remembered by the acronym BANGS) that are placed directly before the noun.