Breakdown of Le thème de ce concert est l’amitié entre les musiciens.
Questions & Answers about Le thème de ce concert est l’amitié entre les musiciens.
In French every noun has a grammatical gender. Thème happens to be masculine, so it takes the masculine article le, not the feminine la.
There’s no rule you can apply just from the spelling; you usually have to learn the gender with the word (e.g. un thème, le thème). A dictionary will mark thème as masculine (n. m.).
- de ce concert literally means “of this concert.” You use de after thème:
- le thème de quelque chose = the theme of something.
- du concert is de + le concert = “of the concert.”
That would also be correct in another context:- Le thème du concert est l’amitié… = “The theme of the concert is friendship…”, referring to a specific concert already known in the conversation.
- Here, the speaker wants to say “this concert”, so they use the demonstrative ce: de ce concert.
- pour ce concert would be more like “for this concert,” suggesting purpose, not what the theme is. For a theme, French normally uses de, not pour.
French has different forms of “this/that”:
- ce for masculine singular nouns starting with a consonant: ce concert
- cet for masculine singular nouns starting with a vowel or mute h: cet homme, cet anniversaire
- cette for feminine singular nouns: cette chanson
- ces for all plurals: ces concerts, ces chansons
Since concert is masculine and starts with a consonant sound /k/, the correct form is ce concert.
Both structures can appear, but the grammar is slightly different:
In the given sentence, the subject is already clear: Le thème de ce concert.
So French uses the normal verb être with that subject:- Le thème de ce concert est l’amitié…
C’est l’amitié uses ce as the subject: “It is friendship.”
You very often see a more emphatic version with a pause or comma:- Le thème de ce concert, c’est l’amitié entre les musiciens.
So the original version is a straightforward descriptive sentence. The c’est version is also correct but sounds a bit more spoken or emphatic.
Amitié is feminine, so its basic article is la.
However, French has a rule called elision: when le or la comes before a word beginning with a vowel or silent h, the vowel drops and is replaced by an apostrophe:
- la amitié → l’amitié
- la école → l’école
- le homme → l’homme
This makes pronunciation smoother. So l’amitié is just la amitié after elision.
In this sentence, l’amitié refers to the abstract idea or value of friendship, which is normally singular in French, just like friendship in English.
Les amitiés does exist, but it usually appears in set expressions and has a different meaning, for example:
- Je vous adresse mes amitiés. = “I send you my regards / kind regards.”
For “friendship between the musicians” as a general theme, the singular l’amitié is the natural choice.
- les musiciens = “the musicians,” a specific group that both speaker and listener can identify (here, the musicians in this concert).
- des musiciens = “some musicians,” an indefinite, not clearly specified group.
In this context, the sentence is about the actual musicians playing in this concert, a definite group, so French uses the definite article les.
If you said entre des musiciens, it would sound more like “between some musicians” in general, not necessarily the musicians of this concert.
French almost always requires an article before a noun; “bare” nouns (without un/une, le/la/les, des) are rare and limited to specific structures (titles, headlines, some fixed expressions).
So where English can say “between musicians”, French normally chooses:
- entre des musiciens (between some musicians, non‑specific)
or - entre les musiciens (between the musicians, specific group).
Here, we mean the particular musicians of the concert, so entre les musiciens is the natural translation.
Yes. Entre covers both English meanings:
- entre deux personnes = between two people
- Il y a une bonne ambiance entre les musiciens.
= There is a good atmosphere among the musicians.
French does not strictly separate “between” and “among” the way English sometimes does. Entre works for 2 or more participants.
Both entre and parmi can be translated as “among,” but they’re not always interchangeable:
entre emphasizes relationships or interactions between the members of the group.
l’amitié entre les musiciens suggests the friendship they have with each other.parmi is more like “among, within” a group, without focusing so clearly on mutual relationships.
l’amitié parmi les musiciens would sound a bit unusual; it could suggest that friendship exists in that group, but doesn’t express so directly that the musicians are friends with one another.
In this specific sentence, entre les musiciens is more idiomatic and precise.
Not with the same meaning.
- l’amitié entre les musiciens = the friendship between/among the musicians (they are friends with one another).
- l’amitié des musiciens is ambiguous:
- it could mean “the musicians’ friendship” (friendship they feel, but not clearly with whom), or
- in another context, even “the musicians’ affection for someone/something.”
To clearly express friendship between the musicians, French strongly prefers l’amitié entre les musiciens.
Both thème and sujet can relate to “topic,” but they’re used a bit differently:
thème is often the overarching idea, motif, or guiding concept of an artistic work or event:
- le thème d’un concert, d’une exposition, d’un festival.
sujet is more like the specific subject or content of something (an essay, a talk, a news article):
- le sujet d’un discours, d’un article, d’un devoir.
You could say Le sujet de ce concert, but for a concert or artistic event, le thème de ce concert is more idiomatic and natural.
A careful standard pronunciation in IPA would be:
/lə tɛm də sə kɔ̃.sɛʁ ɛ l‿a.mi.tje ɑ̃tʁ(ə) le my.zi.sjɛ̃/
Some tips in plain words:
- Le thème → lə tɛm (final -e in thème is pronounced like in “them” but with a French é sound).
- de ce → də sə (both de and ce are very short, almost like little “uh” sounds).
- concert → kɔ̃-sɛʁ (nasal con-; final t is silent).
- est l’amitié → ɛ lami.tje (liaison possible: it flows as one group).
- entre → ɑ̃tʁ(ə) (nasal an sound; the final e is often very weak or dropped in speech).
- les musiciens → le my.zi.sjɛ̃ (final -s in les is silent; musiciens ends with a nasal ien sound, similar to “-yen” but nasalized).