Ce document postal doit rester dans le dossier jusqu’à demain.

This postal document must stay in the file until tomorrow.

Breakdown of Ce document postal doit rester dans le dossier jusqu’à demain.

• dans: in
• demain: tomorrow
• rester: to stay
• ce: this

Questions & Answers about Ce document postal doit rester dans le dossier jusqu’à demain.

Why does the sentence start with ce?

Ce means this or that before a masculine singular noun.

Here, document is masculine singular, so ce document means this document or that document, depending on context.

A quick comparison:

• ce
  • masculine singular noun: ce document
• cet
  • masculine singular noun starting with a vowel or silent h: cet hôtel
• cette
  • feminine singular noun: cette lettre
• ces
  • plural noun: ces documents

Why is it document postal and not postal document like in English?

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

So:

• document postal = postal document

The adjective postal describes the noun document, and its normal position is after the noun.

This is very common in French:

• service postal
• adresse postale
• code postal