Le début du film est très lent.

Questions & Answers about Le début du film est très lent.

The current lesson is about aspectual time nouns like an and année. Does début have a paired form for duration?
No, début refers to a specific structural part of something (the start), not a duration of time. Unlike matin (morning as a point) and matinée (morning as a duration), début only has this one form.
Why do we use the adjective lent here instead of the adverb lentement?
Lent (slow) is an adjective describing the noun phrase Le début du film. You would use the adverb lentement (slowly) if you were describing a verb or action, for example: Le film commence lentement (The film starts slowly).
Why is it du film and not just de film?
We are talking about a specific movie, so we need the definite article le. The preposition de (of) and the article le (the) must always contract into du to mean 'of the'.
If I wanted to say 'At the beginning of the film', how would the phrasing change?
You would use the prepositional phrase au début de. So, 'At the beginning of the film' translates to au début du film. In our sentence, however, Le début is the subject of the sentence, so it stands alone without a preposition.

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