Breakdown of Le soir, j’allume trois bougies pour créer une atmosphère calme dans le salon.
Questions & Answers about Le soir, j’allume trois bougies pour créer une atmosphère calme dans le salon.
In French, time expressions that describe when something usually happens are often introduced by a definite article:
- Le soir = in the evenings / at night (regularly, as a habit)
- Le matin = in the mornings
- L’après-midi = in the afternoons
So Le soir, j’allume… means In the evenings, I (usually) light…
- Soir alone (without an article) is not used this way.
- Dans le soir is not idiomatic.
- Au soir is also not normal here; au soir is rare and literary, and not what you’d use for a daily routine.
Using Le soir at the start is the standard way to say In the evening(s) for a habitual action.
Both relate to the evening, but they’re used differently:
- Le soir = the evening as a time of day (more neutral, like morning/afternoon/night).
- Le soir, je lis. = In the evenings, I read.
- La soirée = the duration or event of the evening; often something you do or experience over the course of the evening.
- J’ai passé une bonne soirée. = I had a good evening.
- Une soirée can also mean “an evening party.”
In your sentence, Le soir works because we’re talking about a daily or regular time period, not about one particular evening as an event.
French does not allow je directly before a word beginning with a vowel sound. Instead, it uses elision:
- je + allume → j’allume
- je + aime → j’aime
- je + habite → j’habite
The vowel e in je drops, and an apostrophe is added.
So je allume is simply ungrammatical; it must be j’allume.
J’allume is in the present tense (présent de l’indicatif).
In French (as in English), the present tense can express:
- A general habit or repeated action:
Le soir, j’allume trois bougies… = In the evenings, I light three candles… (habitually). - A current action:
J’allume les bougies. = I’m lighting the candles (right now).
Here, because of Le soir, the sentence clearly describes a habitual action.
With numbers, French normally drops the indefinite plural article:
- des bougies = (some) candles
- trois bougies = three candles
- NOT des trois bougies in a neutral context
Des trois bougies or trois des bougies can exist, but they mean “three of the candles” (from a known group), which is not the case here.
So for a simple “three candles” in general, the correct form is just trois bougies.
Pour + infinitive is the standard way to express purpose or intention:
- pour créer = in order to create / to create
- pour manger = to eat / in order to eat
- pour comprendre = to understand / in order to understand
So:
- J’allume trois bougies pour créer une atmosphère calme.
= I light three candles (in order) to create a calm atmosphere.
After pour (for purpose), you do not conjugate the verb; you keep it in the infinitive (créer, not crée).
No. That would be ungrammatical in French.
Unlike English, French normally needs the preposition pour (or another preposition) before an infinitive that expresses purpose:
- Correct: J’allume trois bougies pour créer une atmosphère calme.
- Incorrect: J’allume trois bougies créer une atmosphère calme.
Other options are more formal or literary, like:
- afin de créer une atmosphère calme
(also means “in order to create a calm atmosphere”)
But you cannot simply place créer right after the noun phrase without pour or something similar.
Because atmosphère is a feminine noun in French:
- une atmosphère (feminine)
- une atmosphère calme (feminine noun + agreeing adjective)
If it were masculine, we would use un, but it is not:
- un livre, un salon, un moment
- une atmosphère, une maison, une bougie
The adjective calme has the same form for masculine and feminine in the singular, so it doesn’t visibly change, but it agrees with une atmosphère in gender and number.
In French, most adjectives normally come after the noun:
- une atmosphère calme
- un livre intéressant
- une maison blanche
A few common adjectives (often short ones like grand, petit, beau, bon, mauvais, jeune, vieux, nouveau) usually come before the noun (e.g. un grand livre).
Calme is not one of those; it usually goes after the noun.
Une calme atmosphère is grammatically possible but sounds poetic or very unusual in everyday speech. The natural order is une atmosphère calme.
Both atmosphère and ambiance can mean “atmosphere” in English, but with slightly different flavors:
- une atmosphère calme
Sounds a bit more neutral or descriptive, sometimes a bit more formal or literary. - une ambiance calme
Very common in everyday language; focuses on the general “feel” or “vibe” of a place.
In this sentence, you could absolutely say:
- …pour créer une ambiance calme dans le salon.
It would be natural and perhaps even more common in casual speech.
For rooms inside a house or apartment, French usually uses dans:
- dans le salon = in the living room
- dans la cuisine = in the kitchen
- dans la chambre = in the bedroom
À le contracts to au, but:
- au salon is not used for a normal living room context.
It might refer to a hair salon (au salon de coiffure) or to a trade show/exhibit (au salon de l’automobile).
So:
- Correct here: dans le salon.
- à le salon is impossible (must contract to au).
- au salon would usually suggest a different sort of “salon,” not the living room at home.
Yes, because of liaison.
- trois bougies is pronounced roughly like [trwahz buʒi], with a /z/ sound linking the two words: troi-z-bougies.
- The liaison happens because trois ends in a normally silent consonant (s) and the next word (bougies) begins with a vowel sound.
Without a following vowel sound, the s remains silent:
- trois livres → [trwah livʁ] (no liaison)
So in your sentence, trois bougies has the z sound between the two words.