Les pompiers arrivent vite avec leurs camions rouges.

The firefighters arrive quickly with their red trucks.

Breakdown of Les pompiers arrivent vite avec leurs camions rouges.

• rouge: red
• avec: with
• vite: quickly
• arriver: to arrive
• leurs: their
• le camion: the truck
• le pompier: the firefighter

Questions & Answers about Les pompiers arrivent vite avec leurs camions rouges.

What does les pompiers literally mean, and is it always plural?

Les pompiers literally means “the firefighters”.

• pompier = firefighter (singular)
• pompiers = firefighters (plural)
• les = the (for plural nouns, masculine or feminine)

It’s not always plural. You can also say:

• un pompier – a (male or unspecified) firefighter
• une pompière – a female firefighter (less common in everyday speech; often un pompier is used for any gender)
• les pompiers – the firefighters / the fire brigade / the fire department (collectively)

In this sentence, les pompiers refers to a group, like “the fire brigade” or “the firefighters” in general.

Why is it arrivent and not arrive?

Because the subject les pompiers is plural.

The verb is arriver (to arrive). In the present tense:

• il / elle arrive – he / she arrives
• ils / elles arrivent – they arrive

Since les pompiers = they, you must use arrivent (3rd person plural) to agree with the plural subject:

• Le pompier arrive. – The firefighter arrives.
• Les pompiers arrivent. – The firefighters arrive.

In English I’d say “The firefighters are arriving quickly.” Why is there no separate word for “are” or “-ing” in French?

French usually uses a single simple present tense form where English has both:

• they arrive
• they are arriving

The French present can cover both meanings:

• Les pompiers arrivent.
  = “The firefighters arrive” or “The firefighters are arriving,” depending on context.

You don’t normally make a continuous form like “sont arrivant” in French; that’s not how French works. The regular present tense arrivent already expresses what English splits into arrive / are arriving.

Why is vite used instead of rapidement? What’s the difference?

Both mean “quickly / fast”, but there is a nuance:

• vite

  • very common in everyday speech
  • short, informal, very frequent
  • can mean “fast” in both physical speed and metaphorical speed

• rapidement

  • a bit more formal or neutral
  • sounds slightly more “bookish” or careful

In your sentence:

• Les pompiers arrivent vite… sounds very natural and colloquial.
• Les pompiers arrivent rapidement… is correct, just a bit more formal or less spontaneous.

Both are grammatically fine; vite is just the more common choice in speech here.

Why does vite come after arrivent? Could it go before?

In French, most adverbs (including vite) usually come after the verb they modify:

• Ils arrivent vite. – They arrive quickly.

You cannot normally put vite directly before the conjugated verb like in English:

• ❌ Vite ils arrivent. (not standard)
• ✅ Ils arrivent vite.

You can start a sentence with Vite ! as an exclamation:

• Vite, les pompiers arrivent ! – Quick, the firefighters are arriving!

But inside the sentence, the normal order is:

[subject] + [verb] + [adverb]
→ Les pompiers arrivent vite.

Can vite mean “soon”? Could the sentence mean “The firefighters are arriving soon”?

No. vite means “quickly / fast”, not “soon”.

• vite = quickly (high speed)
• bientôt = soon (in a short time from now)

So:

• Les pompiers arrivent vite.
  = They are arriving quickly (the manner of arrival).
• Les pompiers arrivent bientôt.
  = They are arriving soon (the time of arrival).

Your sentence is about how they arrive (fast), not when they arrive.

Why is it leurs camions and not leur camion or ses camions?

It’s about number and who owns what:

1. leur vs leurs

• leur = their (before a singular noun)
  
  • leur camion – their truck (one truck)
• leurs = their (before a plural noun)
  
  • leurs camions – their trucks (several trucks)

Since the sentence talks about trucks (more than one), we need camions (plural) and therefore leurs.

2. Why not ses camions?

• ses = his / her / its (plural things owned by one person/thing)
• leurs = their (plural things owned by several people/things)

Here, the owners are les pompiers (more than one firefighter), so you use leurs:

• Les pompiers arrivent avec leurs camions.
  = The firefighters arrive with their trucks (belonging to them as a group).

Why is camions plural? Could it be singular?

It’s plural because the sentence is talking about more than one truck.

• un camion rouge – a red truck / one red truck
• des camions rouges – (some) red trucks
• leurs camions rouges – their red trucks

If you wanted to talk about just one truck, you would say:

• Les pompiers arrivent vite avec leur camion rouge.
  – The firefighters arrive quickly with their red truck.

In the original, leurs camions rouges clearly suggests several trucks/engines.

Why is rouges after camions, and why does it end in -s?

Two separate rules:

1. Position of the adjective

Most adjectives of color come after the noun in French:

• un camion rouge – a red truck
  (not un rouge camion)

So the normal order is:

• camions rouges – red trucks

2. Agreement of the adjective

Adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun:

• camion is masculine singular → un camion rouge
• camions is masculine plural → des camions rouges

So rouge becomes rouges to agree with camions (plural).
The extra -s is written but silent in pronunciation.

Could you say rouge camions like in English “red trucks”?

No. French word order is mostly noun + adjective, especially for colors:

• ✅ des camions rouges – red trucks
• ❌ des rouges camions

There are a few adjectives that usually go before the noun (like grand, petit, beau), but rouge is not one of them. Colors normally come after the noun.

Why is it avec leurs camions rouges and not dans leurs camions rouges?

Both prepositions are possible, but they don’t mean exactly the same thing:

• avec leurs camions rouges
  – with their red trucks
  – focuses on the fact that they have the trucks / are accompanied by them

• dans leurs camions rouges
  – in their red trucks
  – specifies that they are inside the trucks while arriving

So:

• Les pompiers arrivent vite avec leurs camions rouges.
  → They are arriving quickly, accompanied by their red trucks (maybe in them, maybe following them, etc.).

• Les pompiers arrivent vite dans leurs camions rouges.
  → They are arriving quickly in their red trucks (clearly inside, driving them).

The original sentence doesn’t insist on “inside,” just on “with.”

How do you pronounce les pompiers arrivent vite? Which letters are silent?

Approximate pronunciation in IPA: [le pɔ̃.pje za.ʁiv vit]

Key points:

• les → [le]
  
  • final s is silent
• pompiers → [pɔ̃.pje]
  
  • om → nasal sound [ɔ̃] (like “on” in French)
  • -ers → [je] (like “yé”)
  • final s is silent
• arrivent → [a.ʁiv]
  
  • the -ent at the end of verbs is always silent in the 3rd person plural present
• vite → [vit]
  
  • all letters pronounced; final e = [ə] is basically not heard here; sounds like “veet”

Also, there is a liaison between pompiers and arrivent:

• les pompiers arrivent → [le pɔ̃pje zaʁiv]
  
  • you hear a [z] sound linking pompiers and arrivent.

Is pompiers masculine? How would the sentence change if they were all female firefighters?

Grammatically, pompiers here is masculine plural.

French often uses the masculine plural for mixed groups or when gender is not specified. So les pompiers can refer to:

• all men
• all women
• a mixed group

If you want to explicitly refer to only women, you could use the feminine form pompières:

• Les pompières arrivent vite avec leurs camions rouges.

Everything else in the sentence stays the same, because:

• arrivent doesn’t change between masculine and feminine plural
• leurs, camions, rouges are unchanged by the gender of the people; they agree with camions (masculine plural), not with pompières.