Breakdown of Ce roman transmet un sentiment de liberté.
Questions & Answers about Ce roman transmet un sentiment de liberté.
Roman is a masculine singular noun meaning novel.
French demonstratives must agree with the noun they modify:
- ce
- masculine singular noun starting with a consonant: ce roman, ce livre, ce film
- cet
- masculine singular noun starting with a vowel or silent h: cet homme, cet arbre, cet hôtel
- cette
- any feminine singular noun: cette histoire, cette chanson
- ces
- any plural noun: ces romans, ces histoires
Since roman is masculine, starts with r (a consonant sound), and is singular, the correct form is ce roman.
The verb transmettre literally means to transmit or to pass on. In this sentence, transmet is best understood as conveys or communicates:
- Ce roman transmet un sentiment de liberté.
→ This novel conveys/communicates a feeling of freedom.
You could say:
- Ce roman donne un sentiment de liberté.
This is grammatically correct, but the nuance is slightly different:
- transmettre suggests something being passed from the author/text to the reader (more about communication of an idea, an impression).
- donner is more general and can sound a bit less precise or less stylistically elegant in literary commentary.
In literary or critical language, transmettre or évoquer (evoke) are often preferred.
Because transmet is the 3rd person singular present tense of transmettre, and the subject is Ce roman (3rd person singular).
Present tense of transmettre (irregular, like mettre):
- je transmets
- tu transmets
- il/elle/on transmet
- nous transmettons
- vous transmettez
- ils/elles transmettent
So:
- Ce roman transmet… → The novel conveys…
Not:
- Ce roman transmets… (would be wrong: transmets goes with je or tu)
- Ce roman transmettre… (infinitive form, not conjugated; wrong here)
Yes. French, like English, uses the present tense to talk about works of art that still exist and still have their effect:
- Ce roman transmet un sentiment de liberté.
→ This novel conveys a feeling of freedom. - Ce film montre la pauvreté.
- Ce tableau représente un paysage de montagne.
Even if the author is dead, the work still transmet, montre, représente, etc. So the present tense is exactly what you want.
In French, when a noun like sentiment, idée, impression, envie, peur, etc. is followed by another noun that expresses what the feeling is about, the usual pattern is:
un sentiment de + noun (without an article)
So:
- un sentiment de liberté → a feeling of freedom
- un sentiment de tristesse → a feeling of sadness
- un sentiment d’injustice → a feeling of injustice
Using de la would suggest a feeling of the freedom, which sounds oddly specific or almost possessive. In normal usage, you talk about freedom in general, so there is no article before liberté after de.
The English of + noun pattern is often translated in French as:
de + noun (without article)
especially for abstract nouns:
- a feeling of freedom → un sentiment de liberté
- a fear of death → une peur de la mort (here death is usually la mort, but you will also see peur de mort in some expressions)
- a desire for revenge → un désir de vengeance
With sentiment, impression, sensation, etc., the article is normally dropped after de for general/abstract ideas: sentiment de liberté, impression d’espace, sensation de chaleur.
You can say un sens de la liberté, but the nuance changes:
un sentiment de liberté:
focuses on the emotion or feeling of being free. Very natural for describing how a book makes you feel.un sens de la liberté:
sounds more like a sense or notion of what freedom is, sometimes more intellectual or abstract, or a sense for freedom (as in mindset or values).
For describing the emotional effect of the novel on the reader, un sentiment de liberté is the most natural and idiomatic choice.
Un marks one type / a kind of feeling, not a unique or universal one:
- Ce roman transmet un sentiment de liberté.
→ The novel conveys a (certain) feeling of freedom.
If you say:
- Ce roman transmet le sentiment de liberté.
it sounds like there is one specific, defined feeling of freedom that this novel uniquely conveys. Grammatically correct, but stylistically heavy and less natural in most contexts. The indefinite article un is the normal choice here.
The structure here is:
[noun 1] + de + [noun 2]
a feeling of freedom
Sentiment is the main noun, and liberté specifies what kind of feeling it is.
The reverse (liberté de sentiment) would mean freedom of feeling (a different concept), and even that would sound unusual; you’d probably say liberté d’expression, liberté de pensée, liberté de mouvement, etc.
So the normal, idiomatic way to express a feeling of X is:
- un sentiment de X
- une impression de X
- une sensation de X
You pluralize the subject and adjust the verb:
- Ces romans transmettent un sentiment de liberté.
Breakdown:
- ces → plural of ce/cet/cette
- romans → plural of roman
- transmettent → 3rd person plural present of transmettre
- rest of the sentence stays the same
Approximate pronunciation (IPA):
[sə ʁɔ.mɑ̃ tʁɑ̃s.mɛ t‿œ̃ sɑ̃.ti.mɑ̃ də li.bɛʁ.te]
Key points:
- Ce → [sə]
- roman → [ʁɔ.mɑ̃] (final n not pronounced, it nasalizes the vowel)
- transmet → [tʁɑ̃s.mɛ]; final t normally silent, but
- before un, there is a liaison: transmet un → [tʁɑ̃s.mɛ t‿œ̃] (you hear the t)
- un → [œ̃] (nasal vowel)
- sentiment → [sɑ̃.ti.mɑ̃] (again, final t and n not pronounced; en is nasal)
- de → [də] (often a very light, almost d’ sound)
- liberté → [li.bɛʁ.te] (final é pronounced [e])
No liaison after sentiment (next word starts with d), but there is a likely liaison between transmet and un.