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Cet hôpital fait partie d'un grand réseau de santé.

Cet hôpital fait partie d'un grand réseau de santé.
This hospital is part of a large health network.
FromLesson 18inHardcore French

Questions & Answers about Cet hôpital fait partie d'un grand réseau de santé.

Why is it cet hôpital instead of ce hôpital?
Because hôpital starts with a silent h (mute h) followed by a vowel sound. In French, you use cet (the form of ce before vowels or mute h) for smooth pronunciation.
What does the expression faire partie de literally mean, and why not just use être?
Literally, faire partie de means “to make part of,” but idiomatically it means “to be part of.” You can’t say est partie de—that isn’t a valid construction. Using plain être (“to be”) would lose the nuance of “belonging to a group or network.”
Why is de un contracted to d'un?
In French, when de is followed by un, they contract to d' to avoid the awkward sound of de un. Hence de un grand réseau becomes d'un grand réseau.
Why is the adjective grand used instead of gros, and why isn’t it grande?
Réseau is a masculine noun, so the adjective must be masculine (grand, not grande). Also, grand réseau (“large network”) is the idiomatic choice: gros often describes thickness, volume or bulk rather than scale or scope.
Why doesn’t santé have an article after de in réseau de santé?
In a noun-to-noun construction like réseau de santé, only the main noun (réseau) takes an article (un grand réseau). The second noun (santé) functions as a complement indicating domain or purpose and remains without an article.
Is there another way to say faire partie de in this sentence?

Yes. You could use appartenir à (“to belong to”) or être rattaché à (“to be attached to”). For example:
• Cet hôpital appartient à un grand réseau de santé.
• Cet hôpital est rattaché à un grand réseau de santé.
But faire partie de is the most neutral and common.

Does réseau de santé differ from réseau sanitaire?
Slightly. Réseau de santé is a broad term covering all health-related services (public health, clinics, hospitals, prevention). Réseau sanitaire often emphasizes the system of medical facilities and care institutions. In many contexts they overlap, but the nuance is domain-wide versus facility-focused.
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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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