Ce panneau solaire produit assez d'électricité pour notre appartement.

This solar panel produces enough electricity for our apartment.

Breakdown of Ce panneau solaire produit assez d'électricité pour notre appartement.

• pour: for
• de: of
• ce: this
• l'appartement: the apartment
• notre: our
• assez: enough
• produire: to produce
• l'électricité: the electricity
• le panneau solaire: the solar panel

Questions & Answers about Ce panneau solaire produit assez d'électricité pour notre appartement.

Why is it Ce panneau solaire and not Cet panneau solaire or Cette panneau solaire?

Panneau is a masculine singular noun that starts with a consonant sound (the p in panneau).

French demonstrative adjectives (this/that) agree with the gender and number of the noun and also depend on the initial sound:

• ce
  • masculine singular noun starting with a consonant: ce panneau
• cet
  • masculine singular noun starting with a vowel or mute h: cet arbre, cet homme
• cette
  • any feminine singular noun: cette voiture
• ces
  • any plural noun: ces panneaux, ces voitures

Since panneau is masculine singular and starts with a consonant, the correct form is ce panneau, not cet or cette.

Why is it panneau solaire and not solaire panneau?

In French, most descriptive adjectives come after the noun, unlike in English.

• English: solar panel (adjective before noun)
• French: panneau solaire (noun before adjective)

Here:

• panneau = panel
• solaire = solar

So the natural French order is panneau solaire.
Putting solaire before panneau (solaire panneau) would sound wrong in standard French.

Why is the verb produit and not produis or produisent?

The verb is produire (to produce). It is conjugated in the present tense like this:

• je produis
• tu produis
• il / elle / on produit
• nous produisons
• vous produisez
• ils / elles produisent

The subject of the sentence is ce panneau solaire, which is third person singular (like il).

So we need the il/elle/on form: produit.
That is why it is Ce panneau solaire produit..., not produis (first/second person singular) and not produisent (third person plural).

Why is it assez d'électricité and not assez de l'électricité?

After adverbs of quantity like:

• assez de (enough)
• beaucoup de (a lot of)
• trop de (too much / too many)
• peu de (little, not much/many)

French uses de followed directly by the noun, without an article.

So you say:

• assez de temps (enough time)
• beaucoup de travail (a lot of work)
• trop de sucre (too much sugar)
• assez d'électricité (enough electricity)

Using de l'électricité here (assez de l'électricité) would be ungrammatical in this pattern. The rule is: adverb of quantity + de + noun.

What is the role of de in d'électricité, and why is there an apostrophe?

De here is required by the quantity expression assez de. Structurally:

• assez de + noun

When de comes before a noun starting with a vowel sound (like é in électricité), French usually elides de to d' to make pronunciation smoother.

So:

• de + électricité → d'électricité

The apostrophe simply marks this contraction (elision). It does not change the meaning; de électricité and d'électricité would be the same grammatically, but de électricité is never written or said – only d'électricité is correct.

Is électricité masculine or feminine, and does that matter here?

Électricité is a feminine noun in French: une électricité, l'électricité.

In this particular sentence, the gender is not directly visible because assez de is followed just by the bare noun, with no article or adjective that would show gender agreement.

However, in other contexts, the gender would affect agreement:

• toute l'électricité (all the electricity – feminine)
• cette électricité (this electricity – feminine demonstrative)
• une électricité statique (static electricity – feminine article and adjective)

Here, you simply need to remember that électricité is feminine for when you use it in other constructions.

Why is it pour notre appartement and not something like dans notre appartement?

The preposition pour in this sentence expresses purpose or intended use:

• produit assez d'électricité pour notre appartement
  = produces enough electricity for our apartment (to supply/power it)

If you said dans notre appartement:

• Ce panneau solaire produit assez d'électricité dans notre appartement

this would mean the panel produces enough electricity *inside our apartment, which sounds odd (panels are usually outside) and changes the meaning: it talks about the *location of production, not the purpose or recipient.

So:

• pour + noun = for (benefit, purpose, destination)
• dans + noun = in, inside (location)

Here, you want purpose/benefit, so pour is the correct preposition.

Why is it notre appartement and not nos appartement or nos appartements?

Notre and nos are possessive adjectives for we / our:

• notre = our (before a singular noun, masculine or feminine)
• nos = our (before a plural noun)

In the sentence, appartement is singular:

• un appartement → notre appartement

If you had more than one apartment, you would say:

• nos appartements (plural noun, so nos)

So:

• notre appartement = our apartment (one apartment)
• nos appartements = our apartments (several apartments)

Nos appartement (plural possessive + singular noun) would be incorrect.

Could I say suffisamment d'électricité instead of assez d'électricité? Is there a difference?

Both are grammatically correct and very close in meaning:

• assez d'électricité = enough electricity
• suffisamment d'électricité = a sufficient amount of electricity

Nuance:

• assez is more common in everyday speech, shorter, more neutral.
• suffisamment can sound a bit more formal or technical, but is still normal.

You could say:

• Ce panneau solaire produit suffisamment d'électricité pour notre appartement.

Meaning stays essentially the same; it just sounds slightly more formal or precise.

Could I say Ce panneau solaire produit de l'électricité suffisante pour notre appartement instead?

That sentence is grammatically possible, but it is not idiomatic for this idea.

Problems and nuances:

1. Structure
   The usual French way to say enough electricity is assez d'électricité or suffisamment d'électricité, not de l'électricité suffisante.

2. Meaning
   De l'électricité suffisante focuses more on the quality of the electricity as “sufficient”, rather than expressing a clear quantity of “enough”. It sounds a bit awkward for describing power capacity.

The most natural ways are:

• Ce panneau solaire produit assez d'électricité pour notre appartement.
• Ce panneau solaire produit suffisamment d'électricité pour notre appartement.

These clearly express the idea of enough electricity.

How would the sentence change if we were talking about several solar panels instead of just one?

You would need to make the subject plural and adjust the demonstrative and the verb accordingly:

• Ce panneau solaire produit assez d'électricité pour notre appartement.
  This solar panel produces enough electricity for our apartment.

Plural:

• Ces panneaux solaires produisent assez d'électricité pour notre appartement.
  These solar panels produce enough electricity for our apartment.

Changes:

• ce → ces (demonstrative, singular → plural)
• panneau solaire → panneaux solaires (both noun and adjective in plural)
• produit → produisent (verb, singular → plural)