Le café est trop chaud, alors je vais attendre.

The coffee is too hot, so I am going to wait.

Breakdown of Le café est trop chaud, alors je vais attendre.

• je: I
• être: to be
• aller: to go
• alors: so

Questions & Answers about Le café est trop chaud, alors je vais attendre.

Why is it le café and not un café or du café?

Le café means the coffee.

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a specific coffee that is already there, so le makes sense.

• le café = the coffee
• un café = a coffee / a coffee drink
• du café = some coffee / coffee in a general substance sense

So if you are talking about the cup in front of you, Le café est trop chaud is very natural.

Why is it le? Is café masculine?

Yes. Café is a masculine noun in French, so it takes le in the singular definite form:

• le café = the coffee

If you wanted to say a coffee, it would be un café.

As with many French nouns, grammatical gender is something you usually have to learn with the word.

Why do we say est chaud? Why is chaud after the noun here?