Breakdown of D'abord, elle a mangé une barbe à papa ce matin.
une
a / an (feminine)
elle
she
avoir
to have
ce
this (before a noun)
manger
to eat
le matin
the morning
d'abord
first, first of all
la barbe à papa
the cotton candy
Questions & Answers about D'abord, elle a mangé une barbe à papa ce matin.
Why use matin here instead of matinée?
Matin is used for a specific point in time. When stating when a distinct event occurred, you use ce matin. Matinée emphasizes the duration or the experience of the morning. Since eating the cotton candy is a singular completed event rather than an ongoing morning-long process, matin is the correct choice.
What does barbe à papa literally mean?
Could D'abord be placed somewhere else in this sentence?
Yes, you could say Elle a d'abord mangé... by placing it between the auxiliary verb (a) and the past participle (mangé). Putting it at the very beginning of the sentence with a comma strongly emphasizes the sequence of events, acting like a structural signpost to tell a story.
Could I ever use cette matinée to say "this morning"?
Only if the morning itself is the subject or direct object of your sentence, for example: Cette matinée était belle (This morning was beautiful). When you are using "this morning" as an adverbial time marker to say when an action happened, you must always use ce matin, regardless of how long the action took.
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