Learn Hardcore French: Même après des années, leur amour reste fort. - Even after years, their love remains strong.

“even”:
- Même après des années = Even after years
- Même lui ne comprend pas. = Even he doesn’t understand.
“same” = le / la / les même(s):
- la même idée = the same idea
- les mêmes personnes = the same people

So with même alone at the start, it’s the “even” meaning, not “same”.

Why is it après des années and not something like depuis des années?

Après des années literally means “after years”, and it looks backwards from a later point in time.
- Suggests: time passed, then we see the result: their love is still strong.
Depuis des années means “for years”, and it looks from the past up to now (ongoing duration).
- Depuis des années, leur amour est fort. = For years, their love has been strong.

Here the idea is “even after all those years have gone by, their love still remains strong”, so après is the natural choice.

What exactly does des mean in des années here?

In des années, des is the plural indefinite article, meaning roughly “some” or just “(plural, no article in English)”.

des années ≈ years / some years
It is not de + les in this sentence; it’s just the plural of un/une:
- un an → des ans
- une année → des années

English usually drops the article here: after years (not after the years or after some years), but in French you need des.

Why is it années and not ans?

French has two common words for “year”: an and année.

an is more neutral / counted:
- trois ans = three years
- 25 ans = 25 years old
année is more “duration / span of time / full year, with content”:
- des années = years (and years), emphasizes the long period.
- Il a travaillé pendant des années. = He worked for years.

In Même après des années, the speaker emphasizes a long stretch of time, so années is more expressive than ans.

Why is it leur amour and not leurs amour?

Leur here is a possessive adjective meaning “their”. It must agree with the thing possessed, not with the number of owners.

amour is singular → use leur (singular).
- leur amour = their love (one love shared by them)

If the possessed noun were plural, you’d use leurs:

leurs enfants = their children
leurs idées = their ideas

So:

leur amour (one love) ✅
leurs amours (several loves) would also be grammatically possible, but would mean multiple separate loves.

What is the role of reste here, and how is it different from est?

Both reste and est can translate to “is” in English, but there’s a nuance:

reste (from rester) = “remains / stays”
- Focuses on continuity over time, no change.
- leur amour reste fort = their love remains strong, their love stays strong.
est (from être) = “is”, more neutral, just states a fact.
- leur amour est fort = their love is strong (describes the current state, but doesn’t itself insist on the idea of still).

In this sentence, reste fits the idea “even after all that time, it is still strong”.

Why is the adjective fort and not forte or forts?

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

amour here is masculine singular → the adjective must also be masculine singular.

Masculine singular form of fort is fort:

un amour fort
ce livre est fort intéressant

Other forms would be:

feminine singular: forte
masculine plural: forts
feminine plural: fortes

Since amour is singular masculine, fort is correct.

Is amour always masculine, and does that affect anything in this sentence?

In the singular, amour is normally masculine:

un amour sincère
cet amour est fort

This affects:

the articles: un, le, cet
adjectives: fort, sincère, etc.

So in this sentence:

leur amour → “amour” is masculine
reste fort → adjective fort agrees with that masculine singular noun.

Note: in the plural, you may sometimes see des amours treated as feminine in literary or poetic language (de belles amours), but that’s not relevant here since the sentence uses the singular.

Could we say Même après des années, leur amour est fort instead? Is it still correct?

Yes, it’s grammatically correct and understandable:

Même après des années, leur amour est fort.
= Even after years, their love is strong.

However, reste fort emphasizes continuity / no change more strongly:

reste fort ≈ remains strong / stays strong
est fort ≈ just is strong (we infer continuity mostly from Même après des années, not from the verb itself).

So reste fort is stylistically a bit more expressive in this context.

Why is there a comma after années? Is it required?

The comma separates the introductory time expression from the main clause:

Même après des années, → time frame
leur amour reste fort. → main statement

In French, placing a comma after such an introductory phrase is very common and natural, though in a short sentence like this it could technically be omitted:

Même après des années leur amour reste fort. (still understandable)

Using the comma makes the sentence clearer and more flowing, so it’s usually preferred.

How would this sentence change if we wanted to say “their loves” (plural) instead of “their love” (singular)?

To talk about multiple loves (for example, each person’s different loves), you’d make amour plural and adjust agreement:

Même après des années, leurs amours restent fortes.

Changes:

leur → leurs (because the possessed noun amours is now plural)
amour → amours (plural)
reste → restent (verb agrees with plural subject leurs amours)
fort → fortes (adjective agrees with amours, which in this literary/plural use is often treated as feminine plural)

This sounds more literary/poetic and doesn’t mean the same thing as the original, which talks about one shared love.