J'aime lire le nouveau livre.

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Breakdown of J'aime lire le nouveau livre.

• aimer: to like
• lire: to read
• nouveau: new

Questions & Answers about J'aime lire le nouveau livre.

Why is lire used in its infinitive form after J’aime?

In French, when you say you like doing something, you use aimer followed directly by the infinitive of the verb describing that action—here, lire (to read). You don’t need a preposition like "to" in English. So J’aime lire literally means "I like to read."

Why does nouveau come before livre instead of after it?

Some adjectives in French typically come before the noun, such as nouveau (new), beau (beautiful), and vieux (old). They follow a common mnemonic called "BANGS" (Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size)—though not every adjective in those categories always goes before. But nouveau specifically usually precedes the noun, hence le nouveau livre.

How would I know to use the definite article le instead of un or something else?

Use le when you’re referring to a specific item you both know about or that’s been previously mentioned. If it was just any new book in general, you might use un nouveau livre ("a new book"). In this context, it sounds like you’re talking about a specific new book, so le nouveau livre is correct.

Is there any difference in pronunciation when am in J’aime is next to lir in lire?

In connected French speech, J’aime lire can sound like "Jème lire." The final "m" in J’aime is still pronounced nasally, and there’s no liaison with the next word because it starts with a consonant (l). So you essentially say "Jèm" and then "leer."

What if I want to say I love reading the new book instead of I like reading the new book?

In everyday French, aimer can mean both "like" and "love," often depending on context. To avoid ambiguity, people sometimes say adorer to explicitly mean "love." So you could say J’adore lire le nouveau livre to really stress the idea that you love it.