Breakdown of La femme est ici.
Questions & Answers about La femme est ici.
Why use la instead of le before femme?
In French, all nouns have a gender. Because femme is a feminine noun, we use the feminine word for "the", which is la. If the noun were masculine, we would use le. The lesson teaches pronouns like il and elle, so why do we use the verb form est here if there is no pronoun?
est is the form of être (to be) that goes with "he", "she", or "it" (il, elle, on). Since the subject La femme (The woman) is a single person, it acts just like elle (she). Therefore, it takes the exact same verb form: est. How is femme pronounced? It looks like it should sound like "fem".
Surprisingly, the e in femme is pronounced like a short "a" in English. It sounds almost exactly like the English slang word "fam". This is a unique exception in French spelling! Do I pronounce the "t" at the end of est before ici?
Normally, the "t" at the end of est is completely silent. However, because the next word ici starts with a vowel sound, French speakers often blend them together by pronouncing the "t". This is called a liaison, making the two words sound smoothly connected, like "eh-tee-see". Learn La femme est ici and more in French
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