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Le chat est dehors.

Le chat est dehors.
The cat is outside.
FromLesson 17inHardcore French

Breakdown of Le chat est dehors.

être
to be
le chat
the cat
dehors
outside

Questions & Answers about Le chat est dehors.

What is the function of Le in Le chat est dehors?
Le is the masculine singular definite article meaning the, marking that you’re talking about a specific cat. French requires an article before a singular, countable noun.
Why can’t we say Chat est dehors?
In French, you need an article (or another determiner) before a singular noun. Omitting Le would be ungrammatical. Instead, if the subject is known, you could say Il est dehors.
What does est mean, and how is it formed?
Est is the third-person singular present indicative of the verb être (to be). It translates as is.
How is dehors used here grammatically?
Dehors is an adverb of place meaning outside. Unlike English, French doesn’t use a preposition before this adverb.
How would you pronounce Le chat est dehors?
You’d pronounce it roughly [lə ʃa ɛ døʁ]. There’s no liaison here between words.
How do you ask Is the cat outside? in French?
You can use inversion: Le chat est-il dehors ? or the neutral Est-ce que le chat est dehors ?
If we talk about a female cat, what changes?
You'd say La chatte est dehors, using the feminine noun chatte and feminine article La.
Can we replace dehors with à l'extérieur?
Yes. Le chat est à l'extérieur means the same. Dehors is more concise and common in speech.
What’s the difference between dehors and dedans?
Dehors means outside, dedans means inside. So Le chat est dehors vs Le chat est dedans.
Can you substitute the noun for a pronoun in Le chat est dehors?
After mentioning le chat, you can say Il est dehors, where Il stands for le chat.
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.).

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