Breakdown of Aujourd'hui, leurs boucles d’oreilles sont aussi élégantes que leurs bracelets.
Questions & Answers about Aujourd'hui, leurs boucles d’oreilles sont aussi élégantes que leurs bracelets.
French possessive adjectives agree with the thing owned, not with the owner.
- boucles d’oreilles = plural → you must use leurs (their)
- bracelets = plural → you must also use leurs
So:
- leur = their + singular noun
- leur maison (their house)
- leurs = their + plural noun
- leurs maisons (their houses)
In the sentence, both boucles d’oreilles and bracelets are plural, so leurs is required each time.
boucles d’oreilles is literally ear rings (rings of ear) and is always used in the plural when you talk about earrings as jewellery.
- une boucle d’oreille = one earring
- des boucles d’oreilles = earrings (in general, or a pair)
Even if you mean “a pair of earrings,” French still normally uses the plural des boucles d’oreilles, because there are two items.
Here d’oreilles is a noun complement meaning of ears, not an article.
- Pattern: noun + de + noun = X of Y
- un anneau de mariage = a wedding ring (ring of marriage)
- une tasse de café = a cup of coffee
So:
- boucles = rings / loops
- d’oreilles = of ears
It doesn’t mean rings from some ears, it’s just the standard fixed expression for earrings. Using des oreilles would sound like you’re talking about literal ears, not the jewellery.
Adjectives in French agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- boucles d’oreilles → boucles is feminine plural
- Therefore élégantes must also be feminine plural:
- masculine singular: élégant
- feminine singular: élégante
- masculine plural: élégants
- feminine plural: élégantes
So we say:
- leurs boucles d’oreilles sont élégantes (fem. plural)
The same adjective élégantes is also understood to apply to leurs bracelets in the comparison.
Yes, you can, but it slightly changes the feel.
- leurs boucles d’oreilles élégantes
- neutral, descriptive: their earrings, which are elegant
- leurs élégantes boucles d’oreilles
- a bit more “literary” or expressive, highlighting elegant as a notable quality
Both are grammatically correct. In everyday speech, the first (adjective after the noun) is more typical, because most adjectives normally follow the noun in French.
For equality with an adjective, French uses:
aussi + adjective + que = as … as
So:
- aussi élégantes que = as elegant as
The structure of the sentence is:
- leurs boucles d’oreilles (subject)
- sont (verb)
- aussi élégantes que (comparison)
- leurs bracelets (point of comparison)
Meaning: the earrings and the bracelets have the same level of elegance.
For adjectives, the standard and most natural pattern is:
- aussi + adjective + que
- aussi élégantes que
autant is used mainly with:
- verbs: Elle travaille autant que lui. (She works as much as he does.)
- nouns: autant de bijoux que (as many pieces of jewellery as)
You can sometimes see autant élégant(e) que with adjectives in some registers, but it’s less standard. For a learner, you should stick to:
- aussi élégant(e)(s) que for adjectives
So in this sentence, aussi élégantes que is the correct and natural form.
Here Aujourd’hui is an adverb of time placed at the beginning of the sentence. In French, it is very common to put a comma after such introductory elements:
- Aujourd’hui,
- Demain,
- Ce matin,
The comma is optional but stylistically normal. Without the comma, it’s still correct:
- Aujourd’hui leurs boucles d’oreilles sont aussi élégantes que leurs bracelets.
Many writers include it to mark a slight pause and improve readability.
In French, grammatical gender is arbitrary and must be memorised with each noun.
- un bracelet (masculine) → des bracelets
- une boucle d’oreille (feminine) → des boucles d’oreilles
You cannot guess the gender from meaning alone. When learning vocabulary, it’s important to learn the article at the same time:
- un bracelet
- une boucle d’oreille
In the sentence, leurs works for both, because leurs is used for any plural noun (masculine or feminine).
Approximate English-style guidance:
boucles d’oreilles
- boucles: sounds like bookl (the final -es is silent, the ou like in food but shorter)
- d’oreilles: roughly dor-AY (the final -lles sounds like y, not like English lls)
aujourd’hui
- Broken down: au + jour + d’ + hui
- All together: something like oh-zhoor-dwee
- au = oh
- jour = zhoor (the j like the s in measure)
- d’hui = dwee (the h is silent)
There is a liaison between d’ and hui, so you hear the d in dwee.
No, that would change the meaning.
- leurs boucles d’oreilles = their earrings
- les boucles d’oreilles = the earrings (not necessarily belonging to “them”)
In this sentence you are talking specifically about what belongs to them, so you must keep the possessive leurs, not the definite article les.