Learn Hardcore French: Maintenant, ils sont mariés, mais ils restent très curieux comme des enfants. - Now they are married, but they remain very curious like children.

Maintenant, ils sont mariés, mais ils restent très curieux comme des enfants.

Now they are married, but they remain very curious like children.

Breakdown of Maintenant, ils sont mariés, mais ils restent très curieux comme des enfants.

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Questions & Answers about Maintenant, ils sont mariés, mais ils restent très curieux comme des enfants.

Why is mariés written with an -s, and how would it change with different subjects?

In ils sont mariés, mariés is an adjective (or past participle used as an adjective) that has to agree in gender and number with ils.

ils = they (masculine plural, or mixed group)
→ adjective: mariés (masculine plural)

Forms of marié:

marié – masculine singular
- Il est marié. = He is married.
mariée – feminine singular
- Elle est mariée. = She is married.
mariés – masculine plural / mixed group
- Ils sont mariés. = They (two men / man + woman / mixed group) are married.
mariées – feminine plural
- Elles sont mariées. = They (all women) are married.

In pronunciation, the final -s in mariés is silent here, so marié and mariés are pronounced the same in this sentence. The agreement is only visible in writing.

What is the difference between ils sont mariés and ils se sont mariés?

These two structures describe different things:

Ils sont mariés.
- Literally: They are married.
- Describes their current marital status. It’s like saying “They are a married couple.”
Ils se sont mariés.
- Literally: They married (each other).
- Describes the event of getting married (the wedding), and it’s in the past (passé composé).

Compare:

Maintenant, ils sont mariés.
Now, they are married (state).
Ils se sont mariés l’année dernière.
They got married last year (action).

In your sentence, we care about their current state (they are now a married couple), so ils sont mariés is the correct form.

What exactly does restent mean here? Is it just the same as sont?

Rester literally means to stay / to remain.

In the structure rester + adjective, it means to remain [adjective].

ils restent très curieux = they remain very curious / they stay very curious

You could say ils sont encore très curieux (they are still very curious), but:

rester très curieux emphasizes that despite the change (now they are married), their curiosity has not changed and continues over time.
être encore très curieux simply states that they are still curious now, without the same nuance of persistence.

So restent is not just sont; it adds the idea of continuity: this quality has stayed with them.

Why is curieux not changed in spelling between singular and plural here?

Curieux is one of those adjectives that have the same spelling in masculine singular and masculine plural:

Masculine singular: un homme curieux (a curious man)
Masculine plural: des hommes curieux (curious men)

So with ils (masculine or mixed plural):

Ils sont curieux. = They are curious.

Only the article or pronoun shows the number; the adjective itself doesn’t change form in masculine.

For comparison:

Feminine singular: une femme curieuse
Feminine plural: des femmes curieuses

So if the subject were only women:

Elles sont curieuses. = They (women) are curious.

In your sentence, ils is masculine plural (or a mixed-gender couple), so curieux is the correct form.

If the couple is a man and a woman, why do we use ils and not elles?

In French, the masculine plural form (ils) is used:

for an all-male group, and
for a mixed group (at least one male and one female).

Elles (feminine plural) can only be used if everyone in the group is female.

So:

One man + one woman → ils
Two women → elles

That’s why, even if we’re talking about a married couple (one man and one woman), standard French uses ils sont mariés and ils restent très curieux.

What does comme des enfants mean here, and is comme the same as English “like” or “as”?

In this sentence, comme des enfants means like children or as (if they were) children.

comme here is used for a comparison → like / as.
des enfants is children (in general), not specific children.

So:

Ils restent très curieux comme des enfants.
= They remain very curious like children (do) / They stay very curious, childlike.

About comme:

comme = like / as
- Il travaille comme ingénieur. = He works as an engineer.
- Elle chante comme un ange. = She sings like an angel.
comme si = as if
- Ils sont curieux comme si c’étaient des enfants. = They are curious as if they were children.
  This is heavier; your original comme des enfants is more natural and idiomatic here.

Why is it des enfants and not les enfants?

Des is the indefinite plural article in French. Here, des enfants means children in general, not specific, identified children.

comme des enfants
= like (some) children / like children (in general, as a type)

If you said comme les enfants, it would sound like:

like the children, i.e. some particular children that are known from context.

So:

Ils restent très curieux comme des enfants.
= They remain very curious, in the way children generally are.

This use of des to mean a general type is very common in French.

Why do we say Maintenant, ils sont mariés in the present tense instead of a past tense?

French prefers the present tense to describe current states and general truths, even if those states started in the past.

Maintenant, ils sont mariés
Literally: Now, they are married (right now; that is their present status).

If you wanted to talk about the moment of getting married, you would use the past:

Ils se sont mariés l’année dernière. = They got married last year.

But in your sentence, the focus is not on when they married, but on their present condition (they are now a married couple), so the present tense sont is correct and natural.

Is the comma after Maintenant necessary, and could we put maintenant somewhere else?

Maintenant is an adverb meaning now. When it’s placed at the beginning of the sentence, French often (but not always) uses a comma:

Maintenant, ils sont mariés…

The comma is:

Stylistically normal, especially in written French.
Not strictly mandatory in informal writing, but it makes the sentence clearer.

You can also move maintenant:

Ils sont maintenant mariés, mais…
Ils sont mariés maintenant, mais…

Nuance:

At the start (with comma): Maintenant, gives a stronger sense of a new situation or contrast with the past.
In the middle or end: still understandable, but slightly more neutral.

All three positions are grammatically correct.

Why is the structure ils restent très curieux (verb + adverb + adjective) and not something like ils sont très curieux restent or ils très curieux restent?

French has a fairly fixed word order in this type of construction.

Here we have:

ils (subject)
restent (verb: rester)
très (adverb intensifier)
curieux (adjective describing ils)

The normal pattern is:

subject + verb + adverb + adjective

So:

Ils restent très curieux. = They remain very curious.

You cannot say:

Ils sont très curieux restent – wrong; two main verbs placed together like this without structure.
Ils très curieux restent – wrong; the adverb + adjective cannot jump in front of rester like that in standard French.

If you changed the verb, the overall order would still be:

Ils sont très curieux. (subject + verb être
- adverb + adjective)
Ils paraissent très curieux. (subject + verb paraître
- adverb + adjective)

So the given order ils restent très curieux is the standard and natural one.