Learn Hardcore French: La fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment. - Black smoke comes out through the windows of the building.

In French, you almost always need an article before a noun. Where English can say “black smoke” with no article, French generally must choose one: la, une, de la, etc.

Here, la fumée noire uses the definite article la (the), which suggests:

Either we’re talking about specific smoke we can see,
Or we’re describing the smoke coming from this particular building (the situation makes it specific).

Compare:

La fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment.
→ The black smoke is coming out through the windows of the building. (specific)
De la fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment.
→ Some black smoke is coming out through the windows of the building. (more indefinite/unspecified quantity)

So the article is required; the choice of which article depends on how definite or specific the smoke is in context.

Why is fumée feminine, and how can I know that?

In French, every noun has a grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine. Fumée (smoke) happens to be feminine, so you say:

la fumée, not le fumée
une fumée noire, not un fumée noir

Unfortunately, gender is mostly arbitrary and must be learned with each word. Some helpful hints:

Many nouns ending in -ée are feminine:
la fumée, la journée, la pensée, la vallée, la soirée…
But there are exceptions, so always learn the noun with its article:
- la fumée (feminine)
- le bâtiment (masculine)

Why is noire placed after fumée? In English we say “black smoke,” adjective before the noun.

In French, the normal position of most adjectives is after the noun:

une voiture rouge – a red car
un chat noir – a black cat
la fumée noire – the black smoke

Some common adjectives go before the noun (often size, beauty, age, goodness, number), e.g.:

un grand bâtiment – a big building
un vieux bâtiment – an old building
de beaux bâtiments – beautiful buildings

But noir / noire (black) is a color adjective; colors almost always go after the noun. So:

la fumée noire, not la noire fumée (which would sound poetic or marked in modern French).

Why is it noire and not noir?

Adjectives in French agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

fumée is feminine singular → the adjective must also be feminine singular.
The masculine form is noir.
The regular feminine form is made by adding -e: noire.

Some examples:

un chat noir (masc. sing.)
une robe noire (fem. sing.)
des chats noirs (masc. pl.)
des robes noires (fem. pl.)

So in la fumée noire, noire matches fumée (feminine singular).

Why does the verb sort not have a subject pronoun like elle in the sentence?

The subject of sort is actually la fumée noire, a noun phrase. French often uses full noun phrases as subjects rather than pronouns, just like English does:

La fumée noire sort par les fenêtres.
→ The black smoke is coming out through the windows.

If we already know what we’re talking about and want to avoid repeating la fumée noire, we could replace it with elle in a following sentence:

La fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment. Elle est très épaisse.
→ The black smoke is coming out through the windows of the building. It is very thick.

But in the original sentence, we’re introducing or describing the smoke, so using the full noun phrase la fumée noire as subject is natural.

What is the exact meaning of sort here? Is it “goes out,” “comes out,” or “leaves”?

The verb sortir basically means to go out / come out / exit.
In the 3rd person singular present tense:

il / elle sort → he/she/it goes out / comes out / exits

In this sentence:

La fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment.
→ Literally: The black smoke goes out through the windows of the building.

In natural English, you’d usually say:

Black smoke is coming out through the windows of the building.

So sort here means the smoke is emerging, exiting the building.

Why is it sort par les fenêtres and not sort des fenêtres?

Both par and de can relate to movement, but they’re used differently.

par emphasizes the route / passage / medium:
→ “through,” “by way of,” “via”
de (or du / des) emphasizes the starting point / origin:
→ “from,” “out of”

sort par les fenêtres highlights the way or route:

It comes out *through the windows* (using the windows as openings).

sort des fenêtres would sound more like:

It comes out from the windows
(grammatically possible, but less idiomatic in this context; French speakers usually say par les fenêtres for smoke, water, people, etc. coming out through windows).

So par is used because the windows are the passage the smoke uses.

Why is les fenêtres plural? In English we might say “the window” even if there are several.

French is being more literal here: a building typically has several windows, and the image is that smoke is coming through multiple of them, so les fenêtres (plural) feels natural:

les fenêtres – the windows

You could say la fenêtre (singular) if you want to focus on one specific window:

La fumée noire sort par la fenêtre du bâtiment.
→ The black smoke is coming out through the building’s window (one window in particular).

But if you imagine a fire and smoke billowing out of many windows, French speakers will naturally use the plural les fenêtres.

Why is it du bâtiment instead of de le bâtiment?

Du is simply the contraction of de + le:

de + le bâtiment → du bâtiment

French always contracts de + le to du, and à + le to au:

de + le → du
à + le → au

Some examples:

la porte du bâtiment = la porte de + le bâtiment
le toit du bâtiment = le toit de + le bâtiment
il va au bâtiment = il va à + le bâtiment

So du bâtiment literally means of the building / from the building, just with the mandatory contraction.

What’s the difference between bâtiment, immeuble, and maison?

All three can translate as “building” or “house” in some contexts, but they’re not interchangeable:

un bâtiment
- General word for a building, structure (any kind: school, warehouse, office, hangar, etc.).
- Neutral, often used in more general or technical contexts.
un immeuble
- Usually an apartment building, a multi‑story residential (or mixed‑use) building with flats.
- Focuses on a building divided into different units or floors.
une maison
- A house, usually a single-family home (though it can be attached or semi-detached).

In your sentence, bâtiment is suitable because we’re talking about some kind of generic building; we don’t know if it’s specifically a house or an apartment block.

How would this sentence be pronounced, and are there any liaisons?

Approximate pronunciation with IPA:

La fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment.
/la fy.me nwaʁ sɔʁ paʁ le fə.nɛtʁ dy ba.ti.mɑ̃/

Key points:

La – /la/ (clear a as in “father”).
fumée – /fy.me/ (u is like German ü; lips rounded).
noire – /nwaʁ/ (final -re is not pronounced as in English rare; French r is guttural).
sort – /sɔʁ/ (final t silent).
par – /paʁ/ (again guttural r).
les – /le/ (like “lay”).
fenêtres – /fə.nɛtʁ/ (final -s silent).
du – /dy/ (same rounded u as in fumée).
bâtiment – /ba.ti.mɑ̃/ (final -t and -nt are silent; nasal vowel -ment).

Liaisons:

There is no obligatory liaison between par and les here; most speakers will say:
- par les → /paʁ le/ (no /z/ sound in between).
In les_ fenêtres, liaison is also typically not made in everyday speech:
- les fenêtres → /le fə.nɛtʁ/ (not /lez fə.nɛtʁ/ in casual usage).

If I want to emphasize that it’s happening right now, can I say something like “is coming out” in French?

French doesn’t have a separate -ing progressive tense like English. The simple present is usually used for both:

La fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment.
→ Can mean The black smoke comes out… or
→ The black smoke is coming out… (right now, in this situation)

If you really want to insist on the ongoing action, you can add a time phrase:

En ce moment, la fumée noire sort par les fenêtres du bâtiment.
→ Right now, black smoke is coming out through the windows of the building.

But grammatically, sort alone is already fine for a present, ongoing action.