Breakdown of Les chevaux du voisin jouent près des vaches tous les matins.
Questions & Answers about Les chevaux du voisin jouent près des vaches tous les matins.
Why is the plural chevaux and not chevals?
Why do we say Les chevaux du voisin instead of something like le voisin’s horses, like in English?
French doesn’t use the ’s possessive structure. Instead, it uses a “noun + de + possessor” structure:
So:
- les chevaux du voisin = the neighbor’s horses
- les chevaux de mon voisin = my neighbor’s horses
- la maison du professeur = the teacher’s house
The possessor (here du voisin) almost always comes after the thing possessed (les chevaux), not before like in English.
What is du in du voisin? Why not de le voisin?
Why is it voisin and not something like voisine here?
Voisin means male neighbor and is masculine. Voisine is the feminine form, meaning female neighbor.
In the sentence, we are talking about a male neighbor, so we use the masculine:
- du voisin = of the (male) neighbor
If it were a female neighbor, we would say: - de la voisine = of the (female) neighbor
(and there is no contraction with de + la)
Why is the verb jouent and not joue?
The subject is Les chevaux du voisin. The real grammatical subject is chevaux, which is plural. In French, the verb must agree with the subject in number and person.
The verb jouer (to play), present tense:
- il / elle / on joue (singular)
- ils / elles jouent (plural)
Here we mean “the horses they play,” so we need the third person plural form jouent.
What does près de mean, and why is it près des vaches?
What’s the difference between près de and à côté de?
Both can mean near, but there’s a nuance:
- près de: generally “near / close by”, sometimes a bit vague about exact position.
- à côté de: literally “beside / next to”, usually closer, side‑by‑side.
In this sentence, près des vaches just says the horses are in the area near the cows, not necessarily right next to them.
Why is it des vaches and not just vaches?
Why do we say tous les matins instead of chaque matin? Do they mean the same thing?
Both express a regular habit:
The difference is subtle:
- tous les matins feels a bit more like a repeated routine over a period (a bit more common in speech).
- chaque matin can sound slightly more individualizing (each separate morning), sometimes a little more formal or written.
In everyday conversation, tous les matins is very natural for a regular habit like this.
Why is matins plural in tous les matins?
Could we move tous les matins to the beginning or end of the sentence?
Yes. In French, time expressions are quite flexible. All of these are correct:
- Les chevaux du voisin jouent près des vaches tous les matins.
- Tous les matins, les chevaux du voisin jouent près des vaches.
- Les chevaux du voisin jouent tous les matins près des vaches.
The meaning stays the same: it’s a regular morning habit. Placing tous les matins at the start can emphasize the time a bit more.
Why is the article les used with both chevaux and matins, even though they’re different nouns?
Les is simply the plural definite article in French, used for both genders:
- le = the (singular masculine)
- la = the (singular feminine)
- les = the (plural, masculine or feminine)
So:
- les chevaux (masculine plural)
- les vaches (feminine plural)
- les matins (masculine plural)
The form les doesn’t change between masculine and feminine; it only marks plural.
Is there any special pronunciation or liaison in this sentence I should know about?
Yes, there are a couple of common points:
- Les chevaux: normally no liaison; pronounce lé-che-VO.
- près des vaches: often you’ll hear a liaison: prè *dé(z) vaches, with a /z/ sound linking *des and vaches.
- tous les matins: in most everyday speech, tous is pronounced like tou (no final /s/), and there is usually no liaison: tou lé matin.
So a natural pronunciation would be something like:
Lé chevÔ du voa-zin jouent prè dé(z) vache tou lé matin.
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning FrenchMaster French — from Les chevaux du voisin jouent près des vaches tous les matins to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions