Le bois brûle dans la cheminée.

The wood burns in the fireplace.

Breakdown of Le bois brûle dans la cheminée.

• dans: in
• le bois: the wood
• la cheminée: the fireplace
• brûler: to burn

Questions & Answers about Le bois brûle dans la cheminée.

Why is bois spelled the same in singular and plural, and how do I know it’s singular here?

In French the noun bois ends in –s in both singular and plural. You know it’s singular here because it’s preceded by the singular article le and the verb brûle is in the 3rd person singular. If it were plural you’d see les bois brûlent. The final –s is silent, so you pronounce it /bwa/.

Why do we use le bois instead of du bois?

Le bois with the definite article refers to the wood (the specific wood in the fireplace). Du bois (de + le) means some wood, an indefinite quantity. Here the speaker points to that particular wood, so le bois is more natural.

Why is the verb brûle written like that, and how do I know it’s the right form?

Brûle is the 3rd person singular present of brûler (to burn). For il/elle/on, you take the stem brûl- and add –e, giving brûle. The circumflex over u marks the historical loss of an s (from brusler) but doesn’t change the conjugation: il brûle = it burns or it is burning.

How can I stress that it’s happening right now, i.e. the wood is burning right now?