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Le chien court près du mur.

Le chien court près du mur.
The dog runs near the wall.
FromLesson 14inHardcore French

Breakdown of Le chien court près du mur.

le chien
the dog
le mur
the wall
courir
to run
près
near

Questions & Answers about Le chien court près du mur.

What does the verb court indicate in this sentence?
Court is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb courir (to run). It shows that the dog is running right now.
Why is it written près du mur instead of près de le mur?
In French, the preposition de contracts with the masculine definite article le to form du. So près de le mur becomes près du mur, meaning “near the wall.”
How is the sentence Le chien court près du mur structured grammatically?

The sentence follows a standard French structure: • Le chien is the subject ("the dog"), • court is the verb ("runs"), • près du mur is a prepositional phrase acting as an adverbial phrase that locates the action.

What is the role of Le chien in the sentence?
Le chien is the subject performing the action of the verb. It tells us who is running – namely, "the dog."
How do the definite articles reflect the gender of the nouns in this sentence?
Both chien and mur are masculine nouns. That is why they use the masculine article le. Notice that with mur, when preceded by the preposition de (as in près de), it contracts with le to form du.
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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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