…
Breakdown of Marie aime lire son livre avant le petit-déjeuner.
Marie
Marie
aimer
to like
le petit-déjeuner
the breakfast
lire
to read
le livre
the book
avant
before
AI Language TutorTry it ↗
“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.).
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning FrenchMaster French — from Marie aime lire son livre avant le petit-déjeuner to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods.
- ✓ Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓ Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓ Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions
More from this lesson
Questions & Answers about Marie aime lire son livre avant le petit-déjeuner.
Why is it son livre and not sa livre?
In French, son, sa, and ses all mean his/her but agree with the gender (and number) of the noun rather than the owner. Since livre is masculine, we use son even though Marie is a woman.
Why do we say avant le petit-déjeuner with the article le?
In French, meals are usually referred to with the definite article (le, la, l’, les), because they are seen as specific, common daily events. Thus, it’s le petit-déjeuner, not just petit-déjeuner on its own.
Can avant be replaced with devant here?
No, avant indicates “before” in time, whereas devant is used to say “in front of” in terms of location. Since we’re talking about an action that takes place before breakfast, we need avant.
What does lire mean, and why doesn’t it need a preposition here?
Lire means to read. In French, after verbs like aimer (to like/love), we usually follow directly with the infinitive form of another verb (for example, aimer faire quelque chose). It doesn’t require an additional preposition, so aimer lire is the correct construction.
If we wanted to say “Marie does not like to read her book before breakfast,” how would we form that in French?
We would use the negative structure ne...pas: Marie n’aime pas lire son livre avant le petit-déjeuner. Notice that ne goes before the conjugated verb (aime), and pas follows it.