Learn Hardcore French: Ce village est assez calme la nuit. - This village is quite calm at night.

ce is used before masculine singular nouns starting with a consonant
→ ce village (village is masculine, starts with v)
cet is used before masculine singular nouns starting with a vowel or mute h
→ cet arbre (this tree), cet homme (this man)
cette is used before feminine singular nouns
→ cette ville (this city)

So:

village is a masculine noun → you use ce village.

What exactly does assez mean here? Is it “enough” or “quite/rather”?

Assez has two common meanings:

“enough” – usually followed by de
- noun or by an infinitive:
- assez de temps = enough time
- manger assez = to eat enough
“quite / rather / fairly” – when it comes before an adjective or adverb:
- assez calme = quite calm / rather calm
- assez vite = fairly fast

In Ce village est assez calme la nuit, assez modifies the adjective calme, so it means “quite / rather / fairly calm”, not “calm enough”.

Why is calme not plural (calmes)? It’s describing the village, isn’t it?

Adjectives in French agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

village is masculine singular
so the adjective must also be masculine singular

The masculine singular form of calme is calme (it only adds -s for plural):

un village calme – a calm village
des villages calmes – calm villages

Since there’s only one village, calme stays singular:
Ce village est assez calme la nuit.

Why is it la nuit and not something like dans la nuit or la nuitée?

In this sentence, la nuit means “at night / during the night” in a general way.

la nuit as a time expression = (in general) at night
- Je travaille la nuit. = I work at night.
- Ce village est assez calme la nuit. = This village is quite calm at night.
dans la nuit often suggests within the night / during the night (span of one particular night) and is often used when something happens during that night:
- L’accident a eu lieu dans la nuit. = The accident happened during the night.
nuitée is a more specific term meaning “an overnight stay” (e.g. in hotels, tourism) and wouldn’t be used here.

So la nuit is the natural choice for describing how the village is generally at night.

Why is the article la used in la nuit? In English we just say “at night” without “the”.

French often uses a definite article with time expressions where English doesn’t.

le matin = in the morning
l’après-midi = in the afternoon
le soir = in the evening
la nuit = at night

So la nuit literally is “the night”, but idiomatically it corresponds to “at night” in English. You normally must include la in this structure.

Could you also say Ce village est très calme la nuit? What’s the difference between assez and très?

Yes, Ce village est très calme la nuit is grammatically correct, but the nuance changes:

assez calme = quite / fairly / rather calm
→ moderate level, not extreme; could be a bit neutral or even mildly critical depending on tone.
très calme = very calm
→ strong, clearly positive intensity.

So:

Ce village est assez calme la nuit.
→ It’s reasonably / quite calm at night.
Ce village est très calme la nuit.
→ It’s very calm at night.

Choice depends on how calm you want to make it sound.

Why do we say Ce village est calme and not C’est calme, ce village? Are il est / c’est rules involved?

Both structures exist, but they are used differently.

Ce village est calme.
- Subject: Ce village (this village)
- Verb: est (is)
- Adjective: calme
  → A straightforward description of that particular village.
C’est calme, ce village.
- C’ refers to a situation / what you see / your experience.
- Then you add ce village as a sort of afterthought or emphasis.
  → More like: “It’s calm, this village.” (stylistic, spoken, more expressive).

For a clear, neutral written sentence describing a place, “Ce village est assez calme la nuit.” is the standard pattern:
[subject] + est + [adjective].

Why does assez come before calme and not after it?

In French, adverbs that modify adjectives usually come before the adjective.

Pattern: adverb + adjective

très calme – very calm
trop bruyant – too noisy
assez calme – quite calm
vraiment intéressant – really interesting

So the normal order is assez calme, not calme assez.
Calme assez would sound wrong in this context.

Could you replace calme with tranquille here? Is there a difference?

You can say:

Ce village est assez tranquille la nuit.

Both calme and tranquille can mean “calm / quiet”, but there’s a slight nuance:

calme often emphasizes absence of noise or activity.
tranquille can suggest peacefulness, lack of disturbance or trouble, sometimes more about how you feel there (peaceful, undisturbed).

In practice, in this sentence, they can often be used interchangeably, with calme being a very common, neutral choice.

How do you pronounce this sentence, especially assez and the end of village?

Phonetic approximation (simplified):

Ce → like “suh”
village → “vee-lazh”
- final -e is not fully pronounced, -ge sounds like the “zh” in measure
est → “eh”
assez → “ah-say”
- final -s is silent, -ez sounds like “ay”
calme → “kahlm(ə)”
- often a light unstressed schwa at the end or almost none
la → “lah”
nuit → “nwee” (one syllable, nu-
- i gliding together)

Whole sentence (one possible liaison):
Ce village est assez calme la nuit.
/sə vee-lazh eh ta-say kahlm la nwee/
There is often a liaison between est and assez → [t] sound: et-assé.