Learn Hardcore French: La langue française est belle, mais elle n'est pas toujours facile. - The French language is beautiful, but it is not always easy.

langue is feminine, so it takes the feminine article la.
The basic forms of the definite articles are:
- le (masculine singular)
- la (feminine singular)
- les (plural for both genders)

There is no simple rule that tells you the gender of langue; you just memorize la langue as a pair. A good habit is to always learn new nouns with their article: la langue, le livre, la table, etc.

What does la langue française mean exactly, and how is it different from just le français?

Both refer to the French language, but there is a nuance:

le français = French (the language), more common in everyday speech.
- Example: J’apprends le français. (I’m learning French.)
la langue française = the French language, a bit more formal or explicit, literally “the French language”.
- Example: La langue française a une longue histoire. (The French language has a long history.)

In your sentence, La langue française est belle sounds slightly more formal or literary than Le français est beau.

Why does française come after langue, but belle comes after est?

Two different rules are at work:

Normal position of adjectives with nouns
- In French, most adjectives follow the noun:
  - la langue française (the French language)
- So française (French) comes after langue.
Adjective after the verb “to be”
- When an adjective describes the subject via the verb être (to be), it comes after the verb:
  - La langue française est belle. (The French language is beautiful.)
- This is like English: “The language is beautiful.”

So:

la langue française → noun + adjective
est belle → verb être
- adjective

Why is it française and not français here?

This is about agreement with the noun.

langue is feminine singular (la langue).
The adjective meaning “French” is:
- masculine singular: français
- feminine singular: française
- masculine plural: français
- feminine plural: françaises

Because langue is feminine singular, the adjective must match:

la langue française

If the noun were masculine, it would be different:

le peuple français (the French people)

Why is française not capitalized? In English we write “French” with a capital letter.

In French, adjectives of nationality are not capitalized, but nouns of nationality usually are:

Je parle français. (I speak French.) → français is an adjective, so lower-case.
Les Français sont fiers de leur culture. (The French are proud of their culture.) → Français is a noun referring to people, so capitalized.

In la langue française, française is an adjective describing langue, so it stays lower-case.

Why is it belle and not beau?

Again, agreement with a feminine noun:

beau = masculine singular (beautiful, handsome)
belle = feminine singular
beaux = masculine plural
belles = feminine plural

Because the subject is la langue (feminine), the adjective must be feminine:

La langue française est belle.
If the subject were masculine:
Le paysage est beau. (The landscape is beautiful.)

Why is the pronoun elle used for “it”? Why not il?

In French, pronouns referring to things follow grammatical gender, not “neuter” like English it.

langue is feminine, so the corresponding subject pronoun is elle.
livre (book) is masculine → il
- Le livre est intéressant. Il est intéressant.
langue (language) is feminine → elle
- La langue française est belle, mais elle n’est pas toujours facile.

So elle here means “it”, but agrees with the feminine noun la langue.

What is n’est pas? Why do we have n’ and pas?

This is the standard French negation structure:

ne … pas = not

With the verb être (to be):

elle est = she is / it is
elle n’est pas = she is not / it is not

Details:

ne becomes n’ before a vowel sound for easier pronunciation:
- ne est → n’est
pas comes after the verb.

So:

elle est facile = it is easy
elle n’est pas facile = it is not easy

What exactly does n’est pas toujours facile mean? Is it “never easy”?

n’est pas toujours facile means is not always easy, not never easy.

toujours alone = always
ne … pas toujours = not always
- It suggests: sometimes it is easy, sometimes it is not.

Compare:

Elle est toujours facile. = It is always easy.
Elle n’est pas toujours facile. = It is not always easy. (There are times when it is difficult.)
Elle n’est jamais facile. = It is never easy. (Always difficult.)

So your sentence means French can be difficult at times, but not necessarily all the time.

Could you say elle est toujours pas facile instead of elle n’est pas toujours facile?

Grammatically correct, standard French is:

elle n’est pas toujours facile

The form elle est toujours pas facile:

is considered informal / colloquial and often non‑standard.
You might hear similar structures in spoken French, but they are not recommended for learners in writing or in careful speech.

So, stick to ne … pas:

Elle n’est pas toujours facile.

Where does toujours usually go in relation to the adjective?

In this kind of sentence, toujours (always) typically comes before the adjective:

Elle est toujours facile.
Elle n’est pas toujours facile.

General pattern:

Subject + être
- (negation) + adverb (like toujours) + adjective

Other examples:

Ils sont toujours heureux. (They are always happy.)
Ce n’est pas toujours possible. (That is not always possible.)

Why is there a comma before mais? Is it required?

In French, when mais (but) connects two independent clauses (two parts that could be separate sentences), a comma is normally placed before it:

La langue française est belle, mais elle n’est pas toujours facile.

Each part could stand alone:

La langue française est belle.
Elle n’est pas toujours facile.

So you put a comma before mais. This is standard punctuation.

Does toujours always mean “always”? I’ve seen it used differently.

In your sentence, toujours clearly means always:

n’est pas toujours facile → is not always easy.

However, toujours can have other shades of meaning in different contexts, such as:

“still” (informal expression)
- Tu es toujours là ? → Are you still there?
“anyway / yet” in certain idioms.

For this sentence, you can safely understand it as always.

How do you pronounce n’est pas toujours facile? Any liaisons to know about?

Approximate pronunciation (in IPA):

n’est → /nɛ/
pas → /pa/
toujours → /tu.ʒuʁ/
facile → /fa.sil/

Together: n’est pas toujours facile → /nɛ pa tu.ʒuʁ fa.sil/

Liaison notes:

n’est ends in a consonant sound already (/nɛ/), so no special liaison issue there.
Normally, there is no obligatory liaison between pas and toujours, so you pronounce them separately: [pa tu‑ʒuʁ], not [pa‿tu‑ʒuʁ].
The whole clause should flow smoothly without strong pauses inside.