Learn Hardcore French: Pendant leurs vacances, Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique. - During their vacation, Paul and Marie visit a volcanic island.

leur (no s) is used before a singular noun:
- leur voiture = their car
leurs (with s) is used before a plural noun:
- leurs voitures = their cars

Here, vacances is always plural in French (even if English says vacation in the singular), so you must use leurs:

leurs vacances = their vacation(s)

Why is vacances plural in French when English often says “vacation” in the singular?

French almost always uses les vacances in the plural to talk about holidays/vacation time:

Je pars en vacances. = I’m going on vacation.
Les vacances d’été. = the summer holidays / summer vacation.

So even when English uses vacation (singular), French normally uses vacances (plural). That’s why you see leurs vacances and not something like leur vacance.

What is the difference between pendant leurs vacances and en vacances?

Both relate to the holiday period, but they’re not used the same way.

pendant leurs vacances = during their vacation
- Emphasizes the time span.
- Often introduces an action that happens within that period.
- Pendant leurs vacances, Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique.
en vacances = on vacation / on holiday
- Describes the state of being on holiday.
- More like saying “when they are on vacation”.
- Paul et Marie sont en vacances. = Paul and Marie are on vacation.

You could say:

En vacances, Paul et Marie visitent souvent des îles.
but pendant leurs vacances sounds more precise about when they visit the island in this specific sentence.

Could I move pendant leurs vacances to the end and say:
Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique pendant leurs vacances?

Yes, that is perfectly correct.

Pendant leurs vacances, Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique.
Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique pendant leurs vacances.

Both are grammatical and mean the same thing.

Differences are very slight and mainly about rhythm and emphasis:

At the beginning, pendant leurs vacances sets the time frame first, almost like a topic: “As for their vacation…”.
At the end, it feels more neutral in everyday speech, just adding when the action takes place.

Why is it visitent and not visite?

Visitent is the 3rd person plural form of the verb visiter in the present tense:

je visite
tu visites
il / elle visite
nous visitons
vous visitez
ils / elles visitent

The subject here is Paul et Marie, which is plural (equivalent to ils / elles). So the verb must agree in number:

Paul et Marie visitent (they visit)

Paul et Marie visite would be incorrect in French.

If the verb is plural, why don’t I hear the -ent in visitent?

In spoken French, the -ent ending of 3rd person plural verbs in the present tense is completely silent.

ils visitent is pronounced exactly like il visite:
- both sound like [vee-ZEET].

The only way you know it’s plural is from the subject (here Paul et Marie, or ils). The written form shows agreement; pronunciation does not.

Can this present tense visitent refer to the future, like “will visit”?

Yes. French often uses the present tense to talk about a planned or scheduled future, especially in narratives:

Pendant leurs vacances, Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique.
→ could mean a regular habit (whenever they go on vacation) or a planned future trip, depending on context.

If you want to be clearer about the future, you can also say:

Pendant leurs vacances, Paul et Marie vont visiter une île volcanique. (near future, “are going to visit”)
Pendant leurs vacances, Paul et Marie visiteront une île volcanique. (simple future, “will visit”)

Why don’t we say visitent à une île volcanique (with a preposition) like in English “visit to an island”?

In French, visiter is a direct transitive verb. It takes a direct object without a preposition:

visiter un musée = to visit a museum
visiter une ville = to visit a city
visiter une île volcanique = to visit a volcanic island

So you must say visiter quelque chose, never visiter à quelque chose.

Why is it une île (feminine) and not un île?

French nouns have grammatical gender, and île is a feminine noun.

une île = an island
l’île = the island

The gender is not always predictable; it’s something you memorize with the noun. When you learn a new noun in French, it’s a good habit to learn it with its article:

une île (f.)
un volcan (m.)
une ville (f.)
un pays (m.)

Why is the adjective volcanique placed after île, and not before like in English?

In French, most adjectives usually come after the noun:

une île volcanique = a volcanic island
une maison rouge = a red house
un film intéressant = an interesting film

Some short, frequent adjectives often come before the noun (the classic “BANGS” list: Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size):

une belle île (a beautiful island)
une grande île (a big island)

But volcanique is a descriptive adjective of type/origin (like italien, tropical, électrique), and these typically go after the noun:
une île volcanique.

Why isn’t there an -s on volcanique if île is singular but we’re talking about more than one volcano?

The adjective volcanique agrees with the noun île, not with “volcano(es)” in any logical sense.

une île → une île volcanique (singular feminine noun → singular feminine adjective form)
des îles volcaniques → plural noun → add -s to the adjective: volcaniques

Whether the island has one volcano or many is irrelevant to the grammar; what matters is the grammatical number and gender of île.

How would the meaning change if we said une île volcanique vs l’île volcanique?

The article changes whether the island is specific or not:

une île volcanique = a volcanic island
- non-specific: any island of that type, not identified to the listener.
l’île volcanique = the volcanic island
- specific: a particular island that has already been mentioned or is clear from context.

So:

Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique.
→ They visit some volcanic island (not specified which).
Paul et Marie visitent l’île volcanique.
→ They visit the volcanic island (the one you already know about).

What does the accent in île do? Could I write ile?

The little hat is called the accent circonflexe.

Correct: une île
Spelling ile without the accent is considered a spelling mistake in standard French.

Historically, the circumflex often marks a missing letter (frequently an s), but here it mainly affects spelling. Pronunciation is [il] in both cases: the accent doesn’t add a separate sound, but it can slightly change vowel quality depending on the word. For île, think of a clear “eel” sound: [il].

How should I pronounce the whole sentence, especially the tricky parts and liaisons?

A slow, careful pronunciation (with one common liaison) would be:

Pendant leurs vacances, Paul et Marie visitent une île volcanique.
→ [pɑ̃-dɑ̃ lœʀ‿z va-kɑ̃s, pɔl e ma-ʁi vi-zit yn il vɔl-ka-nik]

Key points:

pendant → nasal en sound: [pɑ̃-dɑ̃]
leurs vacances
- leurs = [lœʀ] (the s is normally silent)
- With liaison → [lœʀ‿zvakɑ̃s], you hear a [z] before vacances.
visitent → [vi-zit]; the -ent is silent.
une île → [yn il]
volcanique → [vɔl-ka-nik]; final -que is [k].

Liaisons you might hear:

often: leurs‿vacances (recommended in careful speech)
no liaison after et: Paul et Marie is simply [pɔl e maʁi].

Could we replace Paul et Marie with a pronoun? How would that change the sentence?

Yes. Paul et Marie can be replaced by ils (“they”), since they form a mixed or masculine group:

Pendant leurs vacances, ils visitent une île volcanique.

If you also replace une île volcanique with a direct object pronoun (for example, if the island is already known), you get:

Pendant leurs vacances, ils la visitent.
- la refers to l’île (feminine singular).

Notice that in French, object pronouns like la go before the verb: ils la visitent, not ils visitent la.

What’s the difference between pendant leurs vacances, ils visitent… and pendant leurs vacances, ils vont visiter…?

Both are correct; they differ in nuance:

ils visitent
- Present tense; can describe:
  - a habitual action (whenever they’re on vacation, they do this), or
  - a scheduled future plan in a narrative context.
ils vont visiter
- aller + infinitive = near future (“are going to visit”).
- Emphasizes that it’s a future plan during those holidays.

So:

Pendant leurs vacances, ils visitent une île volcanique.
→ habit or narrative simple present; sometimes future from context.
Pendant leurs vacances, ils vont visiter une île volcanique.
→ clearly about what they are going to do on that upcoming vacation.