Breakdown of Mes amis proches habitent en ville.
Questions & Answers about Mes amis proches habitent en ville.
Mes means my and shows possession: these friends belong to the speaker.
- Mes amis proches = my close friends.
- Les amis proches = the close friends (general/previously known group, not specifically mine).
- Des amis proches = (some) close friends (indefinite, not specifically mine).
Because the sentence is about my close friends, mes is the correct choice.
Ami / amis is the masculine form; amie / amies is the feminine form.
- un ami / des amis = a (male or mixed‑gender) friend / (male or mixed group) friends
- une amie / des amies = a female friend / (all‑female) friends
French uses the masculine plural whenever the group is mixed or when gender is not specified.
So mes amis proches can mean:
- a group of only male close friends, or
- a mixed group of male and female close friends, or
- close friends of unspecified gender.
If you specifically mean only female close friends, you would say Mes amies proches habitent en ville.
Most French adjectives normally come after the noun:
- un livre intéressant (an interesting book)
- une maison rouge (a red house)
- des amis proches (close friends)
Some very common adjectives (often of size, age, goodness, beauty) come before the noun, like petit, grand, jeune, vieux, bon, mauvais, beau, joli.
But proche in the sense of emotionally close is normally placed after the noun: un ami proche, des amis proches.
So amis proches is the normal, natural order.
Here proches is an adjective meaning emotionally close, intimate, not distant in relationship.
- mes amis proches = my close friends (people I’m very close to emotionally)
Proche can also mean near in a physical sense (e.g. une ville proche = a nearby town), but with amis it is understood as close in relationship.
- amis proches = close friends (a relatively large circle of people you know well and feel close to).
- meilleurs amis = best friends (a much smaller, top‑tier group).
You can easily have many amis proches, but probably only a few meilleurs amis.
Examples:
- Mes amis proches habitent en ville. = My close friends live in town.
- Mes meilleurs amis habitent en ville. = My best friends live in town.
Adjectives in French agree in gender and number with the noun:
- Noun: amis → masculine plural
- Adjective: proche must become masculine plural → proches (add -s)
Spelling:
- Masculine singular: proche (un ami proche)
- Feminine singular: proche (une amie proche)
- Masculine plural: proches (des amis proches)
- Feminine plural: proches (des amies proches)
So amis is plural, so proche must also be plural: proches.
The -es here is simply the plural -s plus the already‑present e in proche.
Habiter is conjugated like this in the present tense:
- j’habite
- tu habites
- il / elle / on habite
- nous habitons
- vous habitez
- ils / elles habitent
The subject is mes amis proches, which is equivalent to ils (they). So you must use the 3rd person plural form:
- Mes amis proches habitent en ville.
→ Ils habitent en ville.
That is why it ends in -ent: habitent.
Both can be translated as to live, but they are used differently:
habiter: to live in a place, to reside somewhere.
- Mes amis proches habitent en ville. = They reside in town.
- Often followed by à, dans, en, or directly by the place:
habiter à Paris, habiter en ville, habiter cette maison.
vivre: to live (broader: to be alive, to have a life, or to live in a place).
- Mes amis proches vivent en ville. is also possible and correct, but slightly less specific about the idea of residence.
- Il vit bien. = He lives well / has a good life.
In this sentence, habiter is the more natural choice because it emphasizes where their home is.
En ville is a fixed, very common expression meaning in town, in the city (as opposed to in the countryside or suburbs). It doesn’t usually refer to a specific city but to an urban area in general.
Nuances:
en ville
- Generic: in town / in the city (urban setting)
- Mes amis proches habitent en ville. = They live in town (not in the country).
dans la ville
- More literal: inside the city, within the limits of a particular city, often when that city is already known or specified.
- Ils habitent dans la ville de Lyon.
à la ville
- Rare in this sense; can sound odd or have more specific meanings (e.g. in certain fixed phrases or contrasts like à la ville, à la campagne in some contexts).
In everyday speech, to say someone lives in town (as opposed to rural areas), French speakers almost always use en ville.
Yes, there are liaisons and some silent letters.
Approximate pronunciation (using simple English-friendly hints):
- mes → like meh (with closed e)
- amis → a-mee (s is silent)
- proches → prosh (final -es becomes a soft sh‑like ch sound; the e is silent)
- habitent → a-beet (the -ent is silent)
- en → nasal, like ã (similar to on in French)
- ville → veel
Liaisons:
- mes amis → mes‿amis: the s of mes is linked and pronounced like z: meh-z-a-mee.
- proches habitent → optional liaison: proches‿habitent: the s in proches can link as a z sound: prosh-za-beet. In careful or formal speech, this liaison is often made.
There is no liaison between habitent and en; the t in habitent stays silent.
Mes proches amis is possible but much less common and can sound a bit literary or marked in modern French.
Usual, natural wording:
- Mes amis proches habitent en ville.
Mes proches amis tends to put a bit more emphasis on proches, almost like saying my close friends (as opposed to other friends), and is less idiomatic in everyday speech. For learners, it’s better to stick to mes amis proches.
Yes. Mes amis habitent en ville. is fully correct and simply means My friends live in town, with no extra nuance about closeness.
Comparing:
- Mes amis habitent en ville. = My friends live in town.
- Mes amis proches habitent en ville. = My close friends live in town.
Adding proches restricts the group to those you are emotionally close to.
In normal, neutral French, you do not say:
- ✗ Habitent mes amis proches en ville.
French usually keeps Subject–Verb–Object order in statements:
- Mes amis proches habitent en ville.
You can invert verb and subject in questions:
- Mes amis proches habitent-ils en ville ?
- Où habitent mes amis proches ?
But as a standard statement, you cannot start with Habitent like that. The correct neutral word order is the original sentence.