Breakdown of Marie a des symptômes légers : un peu de fièvre et une toux sèche.
Marie
Marie
avoir
to have
et
and
des
some
Questions & Answers about Marie a des symptômes légers : un peu de fièvre et une toux sèche.
Why does the sentence use a des symptômes instead of just a symptômes or a les symptômes?
In French, you almost always need an article before a noun; you can’t just say a symptômes.
- 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.