Learn Hardcore French: Cette maladie est sérieuse, mais les médecins restent confiants. - This illness is serious, but the doctors remain confident.

ce is used before masculine singular nouns starting with a consonant:
- ce livre (this book)
cet is used before masculine singular nouns starting with a vowel or silent h:
- cet homme, cet hôpital
cette is used before all feminine singular nouns, no matter the first letter:
- cette voiture, cette idée, cette maladie

Since maladie is feminine and singular, you must use cette: cette maladie.

How do we know maladie is feminine, and how does that affect sérieuse?

In French, every noun has a grammatical gender (masculine or feminine). Maladie is grammatically feminine. You just have to learn it as la maladie.

Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe:

Masculine singular: sérieux
Feminine singular: sérieuse
Masculine plural: sérieux
Feminine plural: sérieuses

Because maladie is feminine singular, the adjective must be sérieuse:

une maladie sérieuse (a serious illness)
If it were masculine, it would be:
un problème sérieux (a serious problem)

Why is the adjective placed after the noun: cette maladie sérieuse and not cette sérieuse maladie?

In French, the default position of most adjectives is after the noun:

une voiture rouge (a red car)
un film intéressant (an interesting film)
une maladie sérieuse (a serious illness)

Some common, short adjectives go before the noun (often summarized as BAGS: Beauty, Age, Goodness, Size):

une belle maison (a beautiful house)
un vieux livre (an old book)
un bon film (a good movie)
un petit chien (a small dog)

Sérieux / sérieuse is not one of those typical “before” adjectives, so it normally goes after the noun:
cette maladie sérieuse is the natural order.

You might sometimes see cette sérieuse maladie in very literary or emotional style; it sounds more dramatic or poetic, not neutral.

What’s the difference between sérieuse, grave, and sévère when talking about illnesses?

All three can be related to how bad an illness is, but they aren’t identical:

sérieux / sérieuse
- General word for serious, not mild or trivial.
- Focus on the importance of the situation.
- une maladie sérieuse = a serious illness.
grave
- Often stronger, suggests dangerous or potentially life‑threatening.
- une maladie grave = a severe/serious illness, possibly dangerous.
sévère
- Often used for intensity / strictness (a severe pain, a strict teacher).
- For illnesses: une forme sévère de la maladie = a severe form of the disease (strong symptoms).

In many contexts sérieuse and grave can both translate as serious, but grave tends to sound more alarming medically than sérieuse.

Why is mais used here? Could we also say pourtant or cependant?

In the sentence:

Cette maladie est sérieuse, mais les médecins restent confiants.

mais is a basic coordinating conjunction meaning but. It links two clauses and introduces a contrast:

Clause 1: the illness is serious.
Clause 2: yet the doctors remain confident.

You could rewrite using other contrast words:

Cette maladie est sérieuse, pourtant les médecins restent confiants.
Cette maladie est sérieuse ; cependant, les médecins restent confiants.

Nuances:

mais: most common, natural, neutral spoken and written French.
pourtant: “yet / however”, often a bit more emphatic.
cependant: “however / nonetheless”, feels slightly more formal or written.

All three work, but mais is the simplest and most common.

Why do we say les médecins restent confiants instead of something like sont confiants?

Both are grammatically correct:

les médecins sont confiants = the doctors are confident.
les médecins restent confiants = the doctors remain / stay confident.

Rester + adjective emphasizes continuity: their attitude is not changing.

In this sentence, the contrast is:

Even though the disease is serious,
The doctors still or continue to be confident.

So restent confiants underlines that, despite the seriousness, their confidence remains.

How does the structure rester + adjective work in French?

Rester can be used as a linking verb (like être) followed by an adjective:

rester calme – to stay calm
rester silencieux – to remain silent
rester poli – to remain polite
rester confiants – to remain confident

Pattern:

subject + rester (conjugated) + adjective (agreeing with the subject)

In the sentence:

Subject: les médecins (they)
Verb: restent (3rd person plural of rester)
Adjective: confiants (plural masculine to agree with les médecins)

So: les médecins restent confiants = the doctors remain confident.

Why is it confiants and not confiant?

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

les médecins = plural (and grammatically masculine, because of the mixed or unknown gender group).

So the adjective must be:

Masculine plural: confiants

Forms of confiant:

Masculine singular: confiant
Feminine singular: confiante
Masculine plural: confiants
Feminine plural: confiantes

Examples:

Le médecin est confiant. (one male doctor)
La médecin est confiante. (one female doctor)
Les médecins sont confiants. (doctors in general / mixed group)
Les infirmières sont confiantes. (female nurses only)

Does confiant mean the same as English confident?

Often yes, but watch out for nuances:

Confiant generally means trusting / confident, often with an idea of having faith that things will go well:
- Les médecins restent confiants.
  = They are confident / optimistic about the outcome.

It can overlap with English confident, but:

English confident can also mean self‑assured in yourself (“I’m confident in my abilities”).
French would usually say sûr de lui / sûre d’elle, avoir confiance en soi for that self-confidence:
- Il est confiant = he is trusting / optimistic.
- Il est sûr de lui = he is self‑confident.

So in the sentence, confiants is closer to optimistic / confident about the situation than “full of self-confidence” as a personality trait.

Why do we say les médecins with les, and not des médecins or docteurs?

les médecins = the doctors (a specific, known group, or doctors as a category).
des médecins = (some) doctors, more indefinite.

In French, when talking in general about a whole group or profession, you often use the definite article:

Les médecins disent que… = Doctors say that…
Les Français aiment le pain. = French people like bread.

So les médecins restent confiants can mean:

The doctors (involved in this case) remain confident, or
More generally, doctors remain confident (as a group).

As for médecin vs docteur:

un médecin is the standard word for a medical doctor (profession).
un docteur is more informal / spoken, or refers to someone with a doctorate.

In a neutral, informative sentence like this, les médecins is the most natural choice.

Is there any special pronunciation or liaison to pay attention to in this sentence?

Key points:

Cette maladie
- Final -e in cette is usually very light or silent: set
- maladie = ma-la-di (three syllables, no stress like in English, just a slight stress at the end of the group).
est sérieuse
- No liaison: you do not normally say est-sérieuse with a /t/ sound.
- Pronounce separately: è sérieuse.
- sérieuse = sé-rieu(z) (the final -se is usually a soft /z/ sound linking from eu).
médecins
- Final -s is silent: mé-decin (the -cins sounds like sin in English “sang”, nasal vowel).
restent confiants
- restent: final -ent is silent: rest.
- There can be a liaison restent confiants → rest-t-confiants, with a /t/ sound, especially in careful speech.
- confiants: final -ts is silent: confiant (nasal an sound at the end).

So overall, many final consonants are silent; liaisons may appear between restent and confiants in more careful or formal pronunciation.