Learn Hardcore French: Je trouve ce désert magnifique, mais Marie préfère la colline près de notre village. - I find this desert beautiful, but Marie prefers the hill near our village.

Je (I)
trouve (find / consider)
ce désert (this desert) → direct object
magnifique (magnificent) → object complement (an adjective describing ce désert)

So Je trouve X + adjective ≈ I think X is + adjective in English.
It’s a very common pattern in spoken and written French.

Why is it Je trouve ce désert magnifique and not Je trouve que ce désert est magnifique?

Both are correct, but the structure is different:

Je trouve ce désert magnifique.
- Uses trouver + object + adjective.
- Feels a bit more compact and direct, often used in speech and informal writing.
Je trouve que ce désert est magnifique.
- Uses trouver que + clause.
- Very natural too, and slightly more explicit because it has a full sentence after que.

Meaning-wise, they’re almost the same: “I think this desert is magnificent.”
You can use either; the version in your sentence is just shorter and stylistically smoother.

Why is it ce désert and not cet désert or something else?

Ce / cet / cette / ces are demonstrative adjectives meaning “this / that / these / those”.

ce – before a masculine singular noun starting with a consonant
- ce désert (this desert)
cet – before a masculine singular noun starting with a vowel sound or mute h
- cet arbre (this tree)
- cet homme (this man)
cette – before feminine singular nouns
- cette colline (this hill)
ces – for all plurals
- ces déserts, ces collines

Because désert is masculine, singular, and starts with a consonant sound /d/, the correct form is ce désert.

Why is there no article like le in ce désert? Why not ce le désert?

In French, demonstrative adjectives (ce, cet, cette, ces) replace the normal definite article (le, la, les). You never combine them.

✅ ce désert = this/that desert
❌ ce le désert – incorrect
✅ le désert = the desert (no “this/that” idea)

So you choose either a demonstrative (ce/cet/cette/ces) or a definite article (le/la/les), but not both.

Why does the adjective magnifique come after désert instead of before it?

In French, most adjectives follow the noun:

un désert magnifique (a magnificent desert)
un livre intéressant (an interesting book)

Some common short adjectives (often size, beauty, age, goodness, number – sometimes taught as “BANGS”) usually go before the noun:

un beau désert (a beautiful desert)
un grand désert (a big desert)
un vieux village (an old village)

Magnifique normally comes after the noun:

ce désert magnifique

It can appear before the noun for stylistic or poetic reasons, but noun + magnifique is the neutral, standard order.

Why is magnifique not changed for masculine/feminine here?

Magnifique has the same form for masculine and feminine in the singular:

un désert magnifique (masculine singular)
une colline magnifique (feminine singular)

It only changes in the plural, where it takes an -s:

des déserts magnifiques
des collines magnifiques

So in your sentence, both désert and colline are singular, so magnifique stays exactly the same in form (though here it only appears once, after désert).

How does préférer work? Why is it just Marie préfère la colline and not something like “prefers more the hill”?

The verb préférer means “to prefer” and works very much like in English:

Marie préfère la colline.
= Marie prefers the hill.

You just put the thing you prefer directly after préférer. There’s no extra “more” word.

If you want to say you prefer one thing to another, you use préférer … à …:

Je préfère la colline au désert.
= I prefer the hill to the desert.
(au = à + le)

In your sentence, the comparison is only implied by the context:

Je trouve ce désert magnifique, mais Marie préfère la colline…
-> It’s understood that Marie prefers the hill instead of the desert.

Why is it la colline and not une colline?

La is the definite article (the), and une is the indefinite article (a).

la colline = the hill
une colline = a hill

We use la colline here because we’re talking about a specific, known hill:

la colline près de notre village
→ the hill near our village (both speaker and listener know which hill that is)

If we said une colline près de notre village, it would sound like introducing some hill near our village, not necessarily a particular one the listener already knows.

How does près de notre village work? Why près de and not just près?

Près on its own is an adverb meaning “near”, but in French when you say near something, you use the fixed expression:

près de + noun = near (something)

Examples:

près de Paris = near Paris
près du village = near the village (de + le → du)
près de notre village = near our village

With a possessive adjective like notre, there’s no article (le/la/les), so de does not contract:

près de notre village (correct)
❌ près du notre village (incorrect)

So the structure is:

près de
- notre
  - village

Why is it notre village and not nos village?

Notre and nos are both forms of “our”, but:

notre = our + singular noun
- notre village (our village)
- notre maison (our house)
nos = our + plural noun
- nos villages (our villages)
- nos maisons (our houses)

Since village is singular, you must use notre, not nos.

How do you pronounce désert in this sentence? Is it like English “desert”?

French désert is pronounced approximately:

[dezɛʁ] in IPA

Key points:

dé- sounds like “day” (but shorter): de [de]
-sert sounds like “zehr”: zɛʁ
The final t is silent: dé-zèr, not dé-zert.

So it’s closer to “day–ZARE” (with a French r) than to English “desert” (the noun).

Be careful not to confuse:

le désert (the desert, noun)
désert as an adjective (deserted, empty) – pronounced the same, but used differently in context.

Is there any liaison I should make in this sentence when speaking?

In normal, natural speech, you’ll typically say:

Je trouve ce désert magnifique, mais Marie préfère la colline près de notre village.

Liaisons that are possible but not all obligatory here:

mais Marie – there is no liaison in everyday speech; you’ll usually hear [mɛ maʁi], with s silent.
près de notre – usually pronounced [pʁɛ də nɔtʁ].
There is no standard liaison like [pʁɛ zdə] here.

So you can say the whole sentence smoothly without worrying about special liaisons. The main thing is to keep final consonants like s in mais and t in désert silent.

Could I also say la colline qui est près de notre village instead of la colline près de notre village?

Yes, you can:

la colline près de notre village
= the hill near our village
la colline qui est près de notre village
= the hill that is near our village

Both are correct and natural.
The version without qui est is shorter and more typical in everyday speech. The qui est version is a bit more explicit but not necessary; the meaning is the same here.

What does mais do in this sentence?

Mais is a conjunction meaning “but”. It introduces a contrast:

Je trouve ce désert magnifique, mais Marie préfère la colline…
→ I think the desert is magnificent, but Marie prefers the hill…

So mais sets up the idea that Marie’s opinion or preference is different from the speaker’s.