Notre budget mensuel est petit, donc notre épargne avance lentement.

Our monthly budget is small, so our savings progress slowly.

Breakdown of Notre budget mensuel est petit, donc notre épargne avance lentement.

• être: to be
• petit: small
• lentement: slowly
• donc: so
• notre: our
• le budget: the budget
• avancer: to progress
• mensuel: monthly
• l'épargne: the savings

Questions & Answers about Notre budget mensuel est petit, donc notre épargne avance lentement.

Why is it notre budget and not nos budget?

In French, the possessive adjective agrees with the thing owned, not with the owner.

• Budget is singular → you must use the singular form of “our”.
• Notre = our (before a singular noun, masculine or feminine)
• Nos = our (before a plural noun)

So:

• Notre budget = our budget (one budget)
• Nos budgets = our budgets (several budgets)

Because budget is singular here, only notre budget is correct.

Is budget masculine or feminine, and how can I tell?

In this sentence, budget is masculine: un budget, le budget.

Unfortunately, you usually cannot guess gender reliably from how the word looks; you have to learn it with the noun:

• un budget (masculine)
• notre budget → notre works for singular masculine or feminine, so it doesn’t show the gender.

You see the gender more clearly with:

• un petit budget (masculine: petit)
• une petite voiture (feminine: petite)

So: remember budget = masculine.

Why is petit used here instead of peu? Aren’t they both “little”?

English uses “little” for both small and not much, but French distinguishes:

• petit = small in size or scale (an adjective)
  • un petit budget = a small budget
• peu = little / not much in quantity (an adverb or determiner)
  • Nous avons peu d’argent. = We have little money.

In this sentence, we’re describing the size of the budget (it is small), so petit is correct:

• Notre budget mensuel est petit. = Our monthly budget is small.

If you used peu, you’d have to change the structure:

• Nous avons peu de budget. (possible, but less natural here)

Why does mensuel come after budget? Could it go before?

Most French adjectives normally come after the noun, and that’s the case with mensuel:

• un budget mensuel = a monthly budget

Putting mensuel before the noun (un mensuel budget) is not correct.

Some common adjectives do come before the noun (like petit, grand, jeune, vieux, bon, mauvais, beau), but mensuel is not one of these. It’s a more “descriptive” adjective, so it goes after the noun:

• un budget mensuel
• des dépenses mensuelles (monthly expenses)

What exactly does mensuel mean, and is there another way to say “monthly budget”?

Mensuel means monthly, i.e. “that happens every month.”

In this phrase:

• un budget mensuel = a monthly budget

Other ways to express a similar idea:

• Notre budget pour le mois est petit. = Our budget for the month is small.
• Notre budget par mois est petit. = Our budget per month is small.

But the most natural, compact way is still:

• Notre budget mensuel est petit.

Why is it donc and not something like alors or du coup for “so”?

French has several ways to say “so / therefore”, with slightly different tones:

• donc = so, therefore (neutral, standard, works in writing and speech)
• alors = so, then (often more conversational, can also mean “then” in time)
• du coup = so / as a result (very informal / spoken)

In this sentence:

• Notre budget mensuel est petit, donc notre épargne avance lentement.
  • Very natural, standard French (good for both spoken and written).

You could say:

• … alors notre épargne avance lentement. (more conversational)
• … du coup, notre épargne avance lentement. (quite informal, very spoken)

Donc is the safest neutral choice here.

Why use épargne without an article? Why not l’épargne?

Possessive adjectives in French replace the usual article.

Structure:

• Article + noun: l’épargne = the savings
• Possessive + noun: notre épargne = our savings

You don’t combine them:

• ❌ la notre épargne
• ✅ notre épargne

So:

• Notre épargne avance lentement. = Our savings is progressing slowly.
• L’épargne avance lentement. = Savings (in general) moves forward slowly.

Is épargne singular or plural? In English we say “savings” with an -s.

In French, épargne is singular and feminine:

• l’épargne (savings, as a concept or a sum)
• notre épargne (our savings)

Even though English uses a plural form (savings), French keeps it singular:

• Notre épargne avance lentement.
  Literally: Our saving progresses slowly.

So:

• Gender: feminine
• Number: singular

Why use the verb avance for money? Does it literally mean “move forward”?

Yes, avancer literally means to advance / to move forward, but by extension it also means to progress, to make headway.

Here:

• notre épargne avance lentement
  = our savings is progressing slowly / growing slowly.

Other possible verbs with épargne:

• Notre épargne augmente lentement. = Our savings increases slowly.
• Notre épargne grandit lentement. = Our savings grows slowly.
• Notre épargne progresse lentement. = Our savings progresses slowly.

Avancer is quite natural here to express the idea of slow progress toward a goal.

How is lentement formed from lent? Are there other adverbs like this?

Lentement is the adverb formed from the adjective lent (slow):

• lent (adjective) = slow
  • un train lent = a slow train
• lentement (adverb) = slowly
  • Le train avance lentement. = The train moves slowly.

Pattern:

• Many French adverbs are formed: adjective (fem. form) + -ment
  • lent → lente → lentement
  • heureux → heureuse → heureusement (happily)
  • sérieux → sérieuse → sérieusement (seriously)
  • rapide → rapide → rapidement (quickly)

In your sentence:

• avance (verb) + lentement (adverb)
  → describes how the savings advances: slowly.