Sur cette carte touristique, la grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués.

On this tourist map, the cave and the volcano are clearly marked.

Breakdown of Sur cette carte touristique, la grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués.

• être: to be
• et: and
• sur: on
• cette: this
• touristique: touristic
• le volcan: the volcano
• la grotte: the cave
• la carte: the map
• bien: clearly
• indiqué: marked

Questions & Answers about Sur cette carte touristique, la grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués.

Why is it sur cette carte and not dans cette carte?

In French, you normally use sur (“on”) with things that are drawn or written on a flat surface:

• sur cette carte = on this map
• sur ce plan = on this plan
• sur cette feuille = on this sheet (of paper)

Dans (“in”) would suggest something physically inside the map, which doesn’t fit. So you look for something on a map, not in a map, in French just like in English.

What does carte touristique literally mean, and why is the adjective after the noun?

Literally, carte touristique is “touristic map,” i.e. “tourist map.”

• carte = map (feminine noun)
• touristique = “touristic / for tourists” (an adjective derived from touriste)

In French, most adjectives come after the noun, unlike English:

• une carte touristique = a tourist map
• une attraction touristique = a tourist attraction

Only certain adjective types (size, beauty, age, goodness, etc.) often come before the noun (like petit, grand, beau, etc.). Touristique is not in that group, so it follows the noun.

Why is it cette carte and not ce or cet carte?

French has four basic forms of “this/that”:

• ce
  • masculine singular noun starting with a consonant: ce volcan
• cet
  • masculine singular noun starting with a vowel or silent h: cet arbre
• cette
  • any feminine singular noun: cette grotte, cette carte
• ces
  • any plural noun: ces grottes, ces volcans

Since carte is feminine singular, you must use cette:

• cette carte = this/that map

Why is it la grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués and not est bien indiqué?

The subject here is la grotte et le volcan — that’s two things, so the subject is plural.

• For a singular subject: est (il/elle est)
• For a plural subject: sont (ils/elles sont)

So we need:

• La grotte et le volcan sont… (plural verb)

The past participle used as an adjective (indiqué) also has to agree with this plural subject, so it becomes indiqués (masculine plural). Hence:

• La grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués.

Why is indiqués masculine plural when one noun is feminine (la grotte) and the other is masculine (le volcan)?

In French, when you have a mixed group (masculine + feminine), masculine wins for agreement.

• la grotte → feminine singular
• le volcan → masculine singular
• Together: masculine plural

So the adjective / past participle takes the masculine plural form:

• La grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués.
  
  • -és marks masculine plural.

If it were only the cave:

• La grotte est bien indiquée. (feminine singular, -ée)

Is indiqués here a past participle in a passive form or just an adjective?

It’s grammatically a past participle of indiquer, but in this sentence it behaves much like an adjective describing the state of the cave and the volcano.

You can interpret:

• sont indiqués ≈ “are indicated” / “are marked (on the map)”

So it’s a kind of passive construction with être + past participle, but it mainly describes their state on the map (they are well-marked), not focusing on the agent (“by whom” they are marked).

Why do we say bien indiqués and not très indiqués or clairement indiqués?

Bien here means something like “properly, clearly, really”:

• sont bien indiqués = “are clearly / properly / really well marked”

Some nuances:

• bien with a participle often means “in a good/clear way”:
  • C’est bien expliqué. = It’s well explained.
• très mostly intensifies adjectives:
  
  • très clair, très grand, etc.
    But très indiqué is unusual here; indiqué doesn’t take très naturally in this sense.
• clairement indiqués would be correct and means “clearly indicated,” but it’s a bit more explicit; bien is shorter and very idiomatic.

So bien indiqués is the usual, natural way to say “well marked / well indicated.”

Could we change the word order to La grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués sur cette carte touristique?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct and very natural:

• Sur cette carte touristique, la grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués.
• La grotte et le volcan sont bien indiqués sur cette carte touristique.

Both are grammatical. The difference is just one of emphasis:

• Starting with Sur cette carte touristique emphasizes this specific map.
• Starting with La grotte et le volcan emphasizes the cave and volcano first.

French allows this kind of movement of place expressions without changing the basic meaning.

Why do we use la grotte and le volcan (definite articles) instead of something like une grotte and un volcan?

La / le are definite articles (“the”), used when the speaker has specific things in mind, or things that are identifiable in the context.

Here, we’re talking about:

• a particular cave (the one on that map)
• a particular volcano (the one on that map)

So the French uses la and le, just like English would use the:

• la grotte et le volcan = the cave and the volcano

If you said une grotte et un volcan, it would sound like “a cave and a volcano (some cave, some volcano)” rather than specific features shown on this tourist map.

How do we pronounce the end of sont bien indiqués? Are there any liaisons or silent letters?

Key points:

• sont: the final -t is silent here because the next word (bien) starts with a consonant.
  
  • Pronounced roughly: [sɔ̃]
• bien: pronounced [bjɛ̃], nasal vowel at the end.
• indiqués:
  
  • -és at the end is pronounced like [e], but the final -s is silent (no [s] sound).
  • Whole word roughly: [ɛ̃dike]

No liaison between sont and bien, and none between bien and indiqués in this sequence.