L’année dernière, Paul a remporté la partie.

Last year, Paul won the game session.

Breakdown of L’année dernière, Paul a remporté la partie.

• Paul: Paul
• avoir: to have
• la partie: the game session
• remporter: to win a contest

Questions & Answers about L’année dernière, Paul a remporté la partie.

Why does L’année have L’ instead of La?

Because année begins with a vowel sound, la contracts to l’ in French.

• la année ❌
• l’année ✅

This is called elision. It happens very often with le and la before a vowel or a silent h.

Examples:

• l’école
• l’homme
• l’amie

So l’année dernière means the last year or, more naturally in English, last year.

What does l’année dernière mean exactly, and why is dernière after the noun?

L’année dernière means last year.

French adjectives often come after the noun, and dernier / dernière is commonly placed after time words in expressions like:

• la semaine dernière = last week
• le mois dernier = last month
• l’année dernière = last year

So even though English says last year, French says something closer to the year last.

Also, dernière is feminine because année is feminine:

• un an dernier would not be used here
• l’année dernière is the normal expression