Learn Hardcore French: La bénévole parle avec les habitants du village. - The volunteer speaks with the inhabitants of the village.

As a noun: it means “volunteer” (a person who volunteers).
- la bénévole = the (female) volunteer
- le bénévole = the (male) volunteer
- les bénévoles = the volunteers (mixed or all one gender)
As an adjective: it means “voluntary / unpaid”.
- un travail bénévole = voluntary work
- une association bénévole = a voluntary / non-profit association

In your sentence, bénévole is used as a noun: La bénévole = “The volunteer (woman)”.

Why is it la bénévole and not le bénévole here?

Because the sentence is talking about a female volunteer.

le bénévole → a male volunteer
la bénévole → a female volunteer

The word bénévole itself doesn’t change shape for gender (same spelling), but the article in front tells you the gender:

le = masculine singular
la = feminine singular

So la bénévole clearly tells us the person is a woman.

How is parle formed, and what tense is it?

Parle is the present tense of the verb parler (to speak / to talk), conjugated for il / elle / on (he / she / one).

Present tense of parler:

je parle
tu parles
il / elle / on parle
nous parlons
vous parlez
ils / elles parlent

So in your sentence:

La bénévole parle… = She (the female volunteer) speaks / is speaking…

Why is it parle avec and not parle à? What’s the difference?

French uses different prepositions with parler, and each one slightly changes the focus:

parler avec quelqu’un
- literally: to talk with someone
- It emphasizes interaction/conversation between people.
- La bénévole parle avec les habitants → She is having a conversation with them.
parler à quelqu’un
- literally: to talk to someone
- It can sound more one‑directional: one person talking to another (though in practice it often still implies a conversation).
- La bénévole parle aux habitants → She talks to the inhabitants.
parler de quelque chose
- to talk about something
- La bénévole parle du village → She talks about the village.

Your sentence uses avec to highlight that she is talking with them, not just talking at them.

Why is it les habitants and not something like des habitants or another word?

Les habitants literally means “the inhabitants” / “the residents”.

les habitants = the inhabitants (all or a known group)
des habitants = some inhabitants (an unspecified number, not all)

Using les habitants suggests the inhabitants in general or the whole group (as a known group). If you said:

La bénévole parle avec des habitants du village.
→ “The volunteer is talking with some inhabitants of the village.”

That would sound more like “some of them, not necessarily all.”

You might also see:

les villageois = the villagers (a more “story-like” word)

But les habitants du village is very standard and neutral.

What does du village mean exactly? Why not de le village?

Du is a contraction of de + le:

de = of / from
le = the (masculine singular)
de + le → du

So:

du village = de le village = “of the village / from the village”

French always contracts de + le to du:

Je parle du livre. = I’m talking about the book.
Les rues du village. = The streets of the village.

You cannot say de le village; it must be du village.

Why is there an article in les habitants du village? Could you ever say parle avec habitants du village without les?

In French, you almost always need an article with a plural countable noun like habitants.

avec les habitants du village ✅
avec des habitants du village ✅ (some inhabitants)
avec habitants du village ❌ (wrong in normal French)

Unlike English, where you can sometimes drop “the” or “some”, French is much stricter about putting an article in front of nouns.

So here you must choose an article (les, des, etc.); you cannot simply omit it.

Is the word order the same as in English? Could you move parts of the sentence around?

The word order here matches English very closely:

La bénévole (subject)
parle (verb)
avec les habitants du village (prepositional phrase / complement)

So structurally it’s like: The volunteer speaks with the inhabitants of the village.

You cannot freely move things around like:

La bénévole avec les habitants du village parle. ❌ (sounds wrong / very unnatural)

French basic order is usually: Subject – Verb – (Object / Complements), just like in English.

How would you make this sentence negative?

To make it negative, wrap the verb with ne … pas:

La bénévole ne parle pas avec les habitants du village.
→ The volunteer does not speak / is not speaking with the inhabitants of the village.

Spoken French often drops the ne, especially in informal speech:

La bénévole parle pas avec les habitants du village. (informal, spoken)

But in writing and in careful speech, use the full ne … pas.

How would you say “The volunteers talk with the inhabitants of the village” (plural subject)?

You need to put both the subject and the verb in the plural:

Les bénévoles parlent avec les habitants du village.

Changes:

La bénévole → Les bénévoles (singular → plural)
parle → parlent (3rd person singular → 3rd person plural)

Everything else stays the same.

How is this sentence pronounced? Are there any silent letters or liaisons?

Yes, several:

La bénévole parle avec les habitants du village.

Rough pronunciation guide (in English-ish terms):

La → “la” (short, open a)
bénévole → “bay-nay-vol” (final e almost silent but softens the l)
parle → “parl” (final e silent, you hear a French r)
avec → “a-vek” (final c pronounced like k)
les → “lay” (final s silent on its own)
habitants → “a-bi-tan” (final s silent, t pronounced)
du → “dyu” (like “dyoo”)
village → roughly “vee-lahj” (final e silent, -age = “ahj”)

Liaisons:

les habitants → les‿habitants
- You pronounce the s in les as a z sound because the next word begins with a vowel: “lay‑za‑bi‑tan”.

Optional / careful liaison:

Some speakers might do a light liaison in parle‿avec (linking parle’s silent e to the vowel in avec), but it’s less strong than in les habitants.

Final consonants in parle, habitants, village mostly stay silent, except as noted above.