Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.

The cat walks slowly in the house.

Breakdown of Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.

• le chat: the cat
• la maison: the house
• dans: in
• marcher: to walk
• doucement: slowly

Questions & Answers about Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.

Why is it Le chat and not La chat?

In French, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine or feminine.

• Chat (cat) is masculine, so it takes the masculine article le → le chat.
• The feminine form for a female cat is la chatte.

So:

• Le chat = the (male or unspecified) cat
• La chatte = the female cat (used carefully; in informal language it can have a vulgar double meaning)

You cannot say la chat; the noun and the article must agree in gender.

What is the difference between le chat and un chat?

Le chat uses the definite article (the), while un chat uses the indefinite article (a).

• Le chat marche doucement.
  → The cat walks slowly. (a particular cat or cats in general)

• Un chat marche doucement.
  → A cat walks slowly. (introducing any cat, not a specific one)

Use:

• le / la / les when the listener knows which specific thing you mean, or when you are speaking about things in general.
• un / une / des when you mention something for the first time or it’s not specific.

How is the verb marche formed, and why that ending?

The verb is marcher (to walk).
In the sentence, the subject is le chat (he/it), so we conjugate marcher in the present tense, 3rd person singular:

• Je marche
• Tu marches
• Il / elle / on marche
• Nous marchons
• Vous marchez
• Ils / elles marchent

For il/elle/on, the ending is -e, so we get il marche → le chat marche.
The spelling changes, but for je/tu/il/elle/on/ils/elles, the pronunciation of marche / marches / marchent is the same.

How do you pronounce marche?

Approximate it like English “marsh”:

• mar- → like mar in march (but shorter)
• -ch- → like English sh in she
• the final -e is silent in this form

So marche is pronounced [marʃ], similar to marsh.

Is marche here a noun or a verb? I’ve seen la marche too.

In this sentence, marche is a verb form: (le chat) marche = (the cat) walks.

But la marche (with la) is also a noun meaning:

• walking (the activity)
• a step (of a staircase)
• sometimes a march (as in a protest or a walking event)

Examples:

• J’aime la marche. → I like walking.
• Fais attention à la marche. → Watch your step.

So:

• le chat marche → verb (walks)
• la marche → noun (the walk/the step)

Why is it doucement and not doux?

Doux is an adjective (soft, gentle, sweet).
Doucement is an adverb (gently, softly, quietly, slowly).

In French:

• Adjectives (doux) describe nouns:

  • un chat doux → a gentle/soft cat

• Adverbs (doucement) describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs:

  • Le chat marche doucement. → The cat walks gently / softly / quietly / slowly.

Because we are describing how the cat walks (the verb), we must use the adverb: doucement, not doux.

What exactly does doucement mean here: slowly or quietly?

Doucement can mean:

• gently / softly
• quietly
• slowly

The exact nuance depends on context:

• Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.
  → could mean the cat is walking softly/quietly so as not to make noise,
  or slowly and gently, perhaps not in a hurry.

Without more context, “softly/quietly” or “slowly and gently” are all reasonable interpretations. A dictionary will often list all three.

Where do adverbs like doucement normally go in a sentence?

With a simple tense (like the present: marche), many common adverbs go after the verb:

• Le chat marche doucement.
• Il parle vite. → He speaks quickly.
• Elle mange beaucoup. → She eats a lot.

However, doucement can also be moved for emphasis:

• Le chat marche doucement dans la maison. (neutral)
• Le chat marche dans la maison doucement. (slightly emphasizing in the house)
• Doucement, le chat marche dans la maison. (literary / more expressive)

For everyday speech, the position in the original sentence (immediately after the verb) is the most natural.

Why is it dans la maison and not à la maison?

Both are correct French, but they don’t mean the same thing:

• dans la maison = inside the house, physically in the building
• à la maison = at home / at the house, more about location as “home,” not the interior space itself

In your sentence:

• Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.
  → The cat is walking inside the house (opposite of, say, walking in the garden).

If you said:

• Le chat est à la maison.
  → The cat is at home (not outside, not somewhere else), without focusing on inside/outside details.

So dans focuses on inside, à focuses on at (that place).

Why do we need la in dans la maison? Can we say just dans maison?

In French, you almost always need an article before a singular noun:

• la maison = the house
• une maison = a house

So after dans, you normally say:

• dans la maison → in the house
• dans une maison → in a house

Dans maison is incorrect in standard French.

(There are some special cases where articles are dropped, but not with maison in this kind of sentence.)

Why is it la maison and not le maison?

Maison is a feminine noun in French, so it takes feminine articles:

• la maison → the house
• une maison → a house
• ma maison → my house

If a noun is feminine, all determiners and adjectives must agree in gender, so you must use la, not le.

Could this sentence mean “Cats walk slowly in the house” in general, not just one cat?

Yes, French often uses the singular with a definite article to talk about things in general:

• Le chat est un animal indépendant.
  → Cats are independent animals.

So:

• Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.
  can be understood as:
  • a specific cat walking softly in the house, or
  • cats (in general) walk softly in the house.

If you want to clearly talk about more than one specific cat, you’d say:

• Les chats marchent doucement dans la maison.
  → The cats walk softly in the house.

How does the sentence change in the plural: “The cats walk slowly in the house”?

You need to make the subject and the verb plural:

• Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.
  → Les chats marchent doucement dans la maison.

Changes:

• le chat → les chats (add s to the noun)
• marche → marchent (3rd person plural)
• doucement stays the same (adverbs don’t change)
• dans la maison stays the same (maison is still singular “the house”)

Pronunciation note:
marche and marchent are pronounced the same in this context ([marʃ]).

Is the word order in French the same as in English here?

Yes, the basic S–V–(Adv)–(Place) order is very similar:

• Le chat (subject)
• marche (verb)
• doucement (adverb – how?)
• dans la maison (place – where?)

Compare:

• The cat walks slowly in the house.
• Le chat marche doucement dans la maison.

French generally follows Subject–Verb–Object, and adverbs like doucement often go right after the verb in simple tenses, which is close to English.