La moisissure couvre la tache d’humidité.

The mold covers the damp patch.

Breakdown of La moisissure couvre la tache d’humidité.

• couvrir: to cover
• la tache d’humidité: the damp patch
• la moisissure: the mold

Questions & Answers about La moisissure couvre la tache d’humidité.

Why is there la twice in La moisissure couvre la tache d’humidité?

Because there are two different feminine singular nouns:

• la moisissure = the mold / mildew
• la tache = the stain / mark

In French, nouns usually need an article, and the article must match the noun’s gender and number. Here, both nouns are feminine singular, so both take la.

Why is it d’humidité and not de humidité?

This is because of elision.

The preposition de becomes d’ before a word that starts with a vowel or a silent h:

• de + humidité → d’humidité

French does this to make pronunciation smoother. Since humidité begins with a silent h, you must say d’humidité, not de humidité.

What does tache d’humidité mean grammatically?

It is a noun phrase made of:

• tache = stain / spot
• d’humidité = of dampness / caused by moisture

So literally it is something like a moisture stain or a damp patch.

This pattern is very common in French:

• une bouteille d’eau = a bottle of water
• une table de cuisine = a kitchen table
• une tache d’huile = an oil stain

So de / d’ often links one noun to another.