Question 1

How could I turn this sentence into an exclamation using comme or que to fit the current lesson?

Accepted Answer

To exclaim "What a real little devil this child is!", you can put comme or que at the beginning of the sentence: Comme cet enfant est un vrai petit diable ! or Que cet enfant est un vrai petit diable ! Notice that the word order of the original sentence doesn't change at all when you add these exclamative words.

Question 2

Why is vrai placed before the noun phrase petit diable instead of after it?

Accepted Answer

Vrai is an adjective that changes meaning based on its position. When placed before the noun, it means "real" in a figurative or emphasizing sense, like "a real/absolute devil." If placed after a noun, it means "true" or "authentic" in a factual sense, such as une histoire vraie (a true story).

Question 3

The translation says "That child", but couldn't cet also mean "This child"?

Accepted Answer

Yes, cet can translate to either "this" or "that." French doesn't strictly distinguish between the two by default. If you needed to specifically emphasize that it is that child over there as opposed to this one here, you would add the suffix -là to the noun, making it Cet enfant-là.

Question 4

Just as a refresher, why do we use cet here instead of ce?

Accepted Answer

Even though enfant is a masculine singular noun here, we cannot use ce because the noun begins with a vowel. We use the special masculine form cet to make the pronunciation flow smoothly and prevent two vowel sounds from clashing.

Cet enfant est un vrai petit diable.

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