| Grammar Notes: Sentence 1: Une jeune femme aux longs cheveux. * Une: An indefinite article, feminine singular. It means "a" or "one". * jeune: An adjective meaning "young". It describes the noun 'femme'. Its position before the noun is standard for common adjectives of beauty, age, goodness, and size (BAGS). * femme: A feminine noun meaning "woman" or "wife". Infinitive: N/A (it's a noun). * aux: A contraction of the preposition à + the definite article les. It means "to the" or "at the", but here it indicates possession or characteristic, translating as "with". * longs: An adjective meaning "long". It is masculine plural to agree with the masculine plural noun "cheveux". Infinitive: N/A (it's an adjective). The masculine singular form is long. * cheveux: A masculine plural noun meaning "hair" (on the head). The singular cheveu means "a single strand of hair". Grammar Point: The structure "aux longs cheveux" uses à + [definite article] to denote a characteristic or feature someone possesses, literally "with the long hair". Sentence 2: Elle a l'air surprise. * Elle: A subject pronoun, third person singular feminine. It means "she". * a: The third person singular present tense of the verb avoir (to have). Here it forms part of the expression avoir l'air. * l'air: A masculine singular noun meaning "the air", "the look", or "the appearance". The l' is the elided form of the definite article le (the). * surprise: An adjective meaning "surprised". It is feminine singular to agree with the subject Elle. The masculine form is surpris. Grammar Point: The expression "avoir l'air" means "to look" or "to seem". The adjective that follows (surprise) can agree with the subject (Elle) *or* with the noun l'air (masculine). Agreement with the subject is more common in modern French. Related Vocabulary: Other adjectives that could be used with "avoir l'air" include content(e) (happy), triste (sad), fatigué(e) (tired), or fâché(e) (angry). |
