Learn Hardcore French: Pour le médecin, l’état de Marie était presque normal, cette petite maladie était surtout fatigante, mais pas vraiment grave ni ridicule. - For the doctor, Marie’s condition was almost normal; this little illness was mainly tiring, but not really serious or ridiculous.

Pour le médecin literally means for the doctor, but in this context it’s best understood as in the doctor’s opinion or from the doctor’s point of view.

You could also say:

Selon le médecin – according to the doctor
D’après le médecin – according to the doctor / as the doctor sees it

All three are possible here, with small nuances:

Pour le médecin slightly emphasizes the doctor’s personal perspective or criteria.
Selon / D’après le médecin sound a bit more neutral, like reporting information.

So the sentence starts with: In the doctor’s opinion, Marie’s condition was almost normal…

Why is it l’état de Marie and not l’état à Marie for “Marie’s condition”?

In French, possession is almost always shown with de + noun, not with à, when talking about a thing that belongs to or characterizes someone.

l’état de Marie = Marie’s condition
le livre de Paul = Paul’s book
la voiture de ma mère = my mother’s car

The preposition à is used in other structures (like indirect objects: parler à Marie, to talk to Marie), but not for straightforward “X’s Y” possession. So l’état à Marie is incorrect in standard French.

Why is it presque normal and not presque normale? What does normal agree with?

The adjective normal agrees with the noun état, which is masculine singular:

l’état → masculine singular
So we need normal (masc. sg.), not normale (fem. sg.)

Examples:

un état normal – a normal state/condition
une situation normale – a normal situation
des résultats normaux – normal results

So l’état de Marie était presque normal = “Marie’s condition was almost normal.”

Why is était in the imperfect (imparfait) instead of a past tense like a été?

The imparfait (était) is used here because the sentence describes a state or ongoing situation in the past, not a single completed event.

l’état de Marie était presque normal
= “Marie’s condition was (used to be / was at that time) almost normal.”

The imparfait is typical for:

Descriptions in the past: Il faisait froid, elle était malade.
Background states: Elle était fatiguée quand le médecin est arrivé.

If you said a été presque normal, it would sound more like a finished or bounded event (e.g. “at one particular moment, it was almost normal”), which doesn’t fit this descriptive, overall evaluation of her condition.

Is the long sentence with commas (“…, l’état de Marie était presque normal, cette petite maladie était surtout fatigante, mais pas vraiment grave ni ridicule.”) correct in French? Would you ever break it up?

French tends to tolerate longer sentences with commas more than English does, so this style is quite natural in French narrative writing.

However, for clarity, you could absolutely break it into shorter sentences, for example:

Pour le médecin, l’état de Marie était presque normal. Cette petite maladie était surtout fatigante, mais pas vraiment grave ni ridicule.

This version is very clear and perfectly correct. The original version with a comma before cette petite maladie is stylistic: it strings together the doctor’s evaluation in one flowing sentence. In formal writing, especially for learners, the two-sentence version is often easier and safer.

Why is it cette petite maladie and not ce petit maladie? What’s going on with gender here?

Maladie is a feminine noun in French:

une maladie – an illness/disease

So all determiners and adjectives must agree in gender and number:

cette (feminine demonstrative) instead of ce (masculine)
petite (feminine form of petit)

So:

cette petite maladie = this little illness (feminine singular)

Compare:

ce petit problème (masc.) – this little problem
cette petite fièvre (fem.) – this little fever

What exactly does surtout fatigante mean? How is surtout different from très? And why is fatigante after était?

surtout fatigante means something like:

above all tiring
mainly tiring / mostly exhausting

Nuance of surtout here:

très fatigante = very tiring (intensity)
surtout fatigante = tiring more than anything else (main characteristic)

Word order:

était fatigante → fatigante is an adjective and normally comes after être:
- Elle était malade.
- La maladie était fatigante.

Because maladie is feminine, singular, we get fatigante (with final -e), not fatigant.

So cette petite maladie était surtout fatigante =
This little illness was mainly / above all tiring.

Why is it fatigante here and not fatiguante? How does the spelling of this adjective work?

The correct adjective meaning tiring / exhausting is:

fatigant (masc. sg.)
fatigante (fem. sg.)
fatigants / fatigantes (plurals)

It comes from the verb fatiguer (to tire, to fatigue), but the adjective loses the -u-:

fatiguer (verb)
fatigant / fatigante (adjective)

So:

un travail fatigant – a tiring job
une journée fatigante – a tiring day

Fatiguant / fatiguante is a very common spelling mistake but is considered incorrect in standard French.

In mais pas vraiment grave ni ridicule, why do we use ni and not et? And do we need to repeat pas?

The phrase is structured as:

pas vraiment grave ni ridicule

This is like saying in English: not really serious or ridiculous.

In negative structures, ni often means nor / or after pas:

Il n’est ni grand ni petit. – He is neither tall nor short.
Ce n’est pas cher ni difficile. – It’s not expensive or difficult.

Here, pas applies to both adjectives:

pas vraiment grave
(pas vraiment) ridicule

So you don’t need to repeat pas before ridicule. If you expanded it fully, it would be:

…mais (elle n’était) pas vraiment grave, ni (elle n’était) ridicule.

Using et (grave et ridicule) would change the meaning: it would no longer clearly link both adjectives under the same pas. Ni keeps the idea that it was not really serious, and it was also not ridiculous.

Do grave and ridicule change form for feminine? Should it be grave / ridicule or graves / ridicules here?

The subject for grave and ridicule is cette petite maladie (feminine singular).

Adjective agreement:

grave has the same form for masculine and feminine in the singular:
- un problème grave – a serious problem
- une maladie grave – a serious illness
ridicule also has the same form for masculine and feminine in the singular:
- un comportement ridicule – a ridiculous behaviour
- une situation ridicule – a ridiculous situation

They would only take an -s in the plural:

des problèmes graves, des situations ridicules

So pas vraiment grave ni ridicule (no -s) is correct here because the illness is singular.

Does ridicule here mean “ridiculous” in a strong, insulting way, or something softer?

Ridicule can be strong, like English ridiculous or laughable, but in this sentence it’s softened by the context:

It’s contrasted with grave (serious).
The illness is called cette petite maladie (this little illness), which already minimizes it.

So pas vraiment grave ni ridicule suggests:

not really serious, but also not something laughable or silly
not serious, but also not a joke / not something to make fun of

It implies the illness is real (not imaginary or absurd), but it’s mild and mainly just tiring.