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Le chat est noir.

Le chat est noir.
The cat is black.
FromLesson 1inHardcore French

Breakdown of Le chat est noir.

être
to be
le chat
the cat
noir
black

Questions & Answers about Le chat est noir.

Why is it Le chat and not La chat?
In French, chat (cat) is usually a masculine noun, so you use the masculine article Le instead of La, which is used for feminine nouns. There is a feminine form of the word cat, la chatte, but this is less common unless you explicitly want to indicate a female cat.
Why does noir end in -r here, while I sometimes see noire with an -e at the end?
French adjectives often change their endings based on the gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) of the noun they modify. Noir is the masculine singular form. If you’re describing a feminine noun (e.g., la chatte), you would normally say noire.
Is there a difference in pronunciation between chat and chats (plural)?
They’re pronounced the same way. Both chat (singular) and chats (plural) end with the same voiced a sound. The final -s in chats is silent in French.
How do I pronounce Le chat est noir naturally?

You can break it down into sounds: • Le: say it like luh (short vowel sound).
• chat: sounds a bit like shah.
• est: say it quickly as eh.
• noir: say the oi roughly like wah, giving you nwahr.
When you say the whole sentence together, make it flow as one phrase: luh-shah-eh-nwahr.

Why is est spelled e-s-t but pronounced like eh?
In French, the verb être (to be) has est as its third-person singular form (he/she/it is). The t at the end is silent, leaving the pronunciation as eh. This is a common pattern in French where final consonants are often not pronounced.
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“How does grammatical gender work in French?”
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles and adjectives used with it. "Le" is used with masculine nouns and "la" with feminine ones. Adjectives also change form to match — for example, "petit" (masc.) becomes "petite" (fem.).

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