Learn Hardcore French: Marie a des symptômes légers : un peu de fièvre et une toux sèche. - Marie has mild symptoms: a bit of fever and a dry cough.

a des symptômes = has (some) symptoms
- des is the plural indefinite article (like some in English, but often left untranslated).
a les symptômes would mean has the symptoms (specific symptoms already known from context), which isn’t the case here.
French doesn’t normally drop the article the way English does in has symptoms.

So Marie a des symptômes légers literally means Marie has some mild symptoms, which we naturally translate as Marie has mild symptoms.

Why is it symptômes légers and not légers symptômes?

Both are grammatically possible, but they don’t feel the same:

des symptômes légers (noun + adjective)
- The neutral, most common word order.
- Just mild symptoms, factual and descriptive.
de légers symptômes (adjective before noun)
- Slightly more formal/literary.
- Puts a bit more emphasis on légers, like only slight/mild symptoms.

So the sentence uses the neutral pattern: noun first, then adjective.

Why is légers plural?

Légers agrees with symptômes, which is masculine plural:

un symptôme léger → singular, masculine
des symptômes légers → plural, masculine

Agreement rules here:

Match gender: symptôme is masculine → léger (masc.), not légère (fem.).
Match number: symptômes is plural → add -s → légers.

In writing, you see légers; in speech, the final -s is silent, but you usually hear a liaison: symptômes‿légers.

Why is it un peu de fièvre and not un peu de la fièvre?

Un peu de + noun is a fixed structure:

un peu de fièvre = a bit of fever / a slight fever
Not un peu de la fièvre

When you use un peu de, beaucoup de, trop de, etc., you use de without an article:

un peu de sucre – a bit of sugar
beaucoup de travail – a lot of work
trop de bruit – too much noise

So un peu de fièvre is the correct pattern.

Can I say une fièvre in French, or is fièvre always used without an article?

Most of the time, fièvre is used as a mass/uncountable noun, without un/une:

avoir de la fièvre – to have a fever
un peu de fièvre – a slight fever

Saying une fièvre is possible, but it sounds literary or medical and usually refers to a specific type of fever:

une fièvre typhoïde – typhoid fever
une forte fièvre – a high fever (less common than une forte fièvre? actually used, but une forte fièvre still feels like “an episode of high fever”).

In everyday speech about being slightly sick, de la fièvre / un peu de fièvre is what you want.

Why is it une toux sèche and not un toux sec?

Because toux is a feminine noun:

la toux – the cough
une toux – a cough

Adjectives must agree:

Feminine singular of sec is sèche
- masc. sing.: sec
- fem. sing.: sèche
- masc. pl.: secs
- fem. pl.: sèches

So:

un bruit sec – a sharp/dry noise (masc.)
une toux sèche – a dry cough (fem.)

Un toux sec is wrong because it mismatches both gender and adjective form.

What’s the difference between un peu de fièvre et une toux sèche and une toux sèche et un peu de fièvre? Does the order matter?

Grammatically, both are correct. The difference is tiny and mostly stylistic:

un peu de fièvre et une toux sèche
- Matches the sentence’s pattern: from milder/general (un peu de fièvre) to more concrete (une toux sèche).
une toux sèche et un peu de fièvre
- Perfectly fine, just changes the order of the listed symptoms.

In normal speech, people freely switch the order; there’s no real change in meaning.

Why is there a space before the colon in symptômes légers : un peu de fièvre…?

In French typographical rules, you usually put a space before certain punctuation marks:

colon :
semicolon ;
exclamation mark !
question mark ?

So French: symptômes légers : un peu de fièvre
English: mild symptoms: a bit of fever

In modern typing, that space is technically a narrow non‑breaking space, but you’ll often just see a normal space. The key point: in French, a visible space before : is standard.

How would I say this in a slightly more formal or medical way in French?

A more formal/medical version might be:

Marie présente des symptômes légers : une légère fièvre et une toux sèche.
Marie présente des symptômes bénins : un peu de fièvre et une toux sèche.

Notes:

présente des symptômes is more clinical than a des symptômes.
symptômes bénins can mean mild / not serious symptoms.
une légère fièvre is more formal than un peu de fièvre.

What’s the nuance between symptômes légers, symptômes bénins, and symptômes modérés?

These roughly correspond to different levels of seriousness:

symptômes légers – mild symptoms
- Everyday, neutral term.
symptômes bénins – mild / not serious
- Often used to reassure: not serious, not dangerous.
symptômes modérés – moderate symptoms
- Stronger than légers, weaker than graves (severe/serious).

In this sentence, légers suggests that Marie is not very sick, just mildly so.

How do you pronounce the tricky words: symptômes, légers, fièvre, toux, and sèche?

Approximate pronunciations (using English-like hints):

Marie → ma-REE
a → ah
des → day (but shorter)
symptômes → sam-TOHM
- symp- like samp but nasal,
- -tômes like tohm (long “o”), final -s silent.
légers → lay-ZHAY
- j sound as in measure, final -s silent, but liaison: symptômes‿légers → sam-TOHM-z-lay-ZHAY.
un peu → uh(n) puh (nasal un, short peu).
de → duh (very short, almost like “de” in “de police”).
fièvre → FYEVR
- 1 syllable: like fyev(r), with a little “y” sound after the f.
toux → too (final x silent).
sèche → sesh (short, like English sesh).

Spoken together, it flows roughly as: ma-REE a day sam-TOHM-z-lay-ZHAY : uh(n) puh duh FYEVR ay oon TOO sesh.