Word
L'enfant lit le livre maintenant.
Meaning
The child is reading the book now.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of L'enfant lit le livre maintenant.
lire
to read
le livre
the book
maintenant
now
l'enfant
the child
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Questions & Answers about L'enfant lit le livre maintenant.
Why is the verb lire conjugated as lit here?
In French, lire is an irregular verb. For the third person singular (il/elle/on), it takes the form lit. You might compare it to English where the verb "to read" changes form slightly in the third person present (he/she/it reads).
How can I express that the child is reading "right now," as in a continuous action?
In everyday French, simply using the present tense lit implies a general present action. To emphasize the ongoing nature, you could say L’enfant est en train de lire le livre. This structure literally says "The child is in the process of reading the book."
Why does the sentence use le livre (the book) and not un livre (a book)?
French uses the definite article le to refer to a specific book or a book that both speaker and listener already know about. If you just wanted to say that the child is reading some unspecified book, you could use un livre instead.
Why is there an apostrophe in L’enfant instead of writing Le enfant?
When a French word beginning with a vowel (like enfant) follows le or la, the final vowel in the article is dropped, and an apostrophe is used for easier pronunciation. So, Le enfant becomes L’enfant.
Is enfant always masculine in French?
Enfant can refer to a child of any gender. Grammatically, it's often treated as masculine (which is why we often see L’enfant with masculine agreement). However, if there’s a clear context that the child is a girl, some speakers use feminine forms around enfant (for example, une enfant). Still, the masculine form is more common in general usage.
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