"My boy has a new coat."
Translation:Mon garçon a un nouveau manteau.
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According to the BAGS rule, adjectives that have to do with Beauty, Age, Goodness, and Size go before the noun. All other adjectives go after. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_4.htm
But since nouveau and neuf both mean the same thing, shouldn't they both follow the same BAGS principle? Why then does one go before, and one after, the noun?
BAGS/BANGS is a mnemonic device to help you remember the key adjectives which are usually placed before nouns. However, it is not a hard rule or principle. Not ALL adjectives that describe beauty, age, goodness, or size go before the noun.
most helpful advice ever! Thanks ;) I was kinda getting lost on which went before or after. Was hoping the muscle memory would kick in EVENTUALLY and I wouldn't have to worry about how to figure that out.
I said "mon fils" and that didn't work even though it would also work, n'est ce pas?
"Mon fils" translates to "my son". "Mon garçon" translates better to "my boy".
I believe that you are correct. I also wrote "mon fils". we can not understand from the context if he is talking about a boy, or his son.
True. The context of the questions are based on the previous lessons, so if you skip ahead, I think it's easy to substitute words that weren't taught. Garçon is taught in an earlier lesson, but fils is not.
Either can be used depending on the meaning.
Both words mean "new", but in different situations. Nouveau relates to something new that has changed, whereas neuf relates to something that has been newly-made. Nouveau precedes the noun but neuf follows the noun it modifies.
So if we used neuf for this sentence, it would read as follows: Mon garçcon a un manteau neuf.
Thanks! helpful stuff! Wish I had like a note-pad or something in duo where I could go copy-pasting useful things I come across like your comment ;)
Mon garcon a un manteau neuf. Why does 'neuf' follow 'manteau' but 'nouveau' preceeds 'manteau'?
Because French adjectives are fickle! Most of them are placed after the noun except for ones which describe beauty, age, goodness, or size (BAGS). That's a good rule of thumb to know.
But both 'neuf' and 'nouveau' mean new. Shouldn't they BOTH go before the noun? I'm questioning why 'neuf' follows the noun. Is this a weird exception that one needs to just memorize? Thanks for your help.
Adjectives that go before the noun tend to have a more figurative sense. Brand-new as in neuf is pretty literal whereas having a new job as in nouveau is more figurative; it's not a newly made job, it's just new to you.
Nouveau goes before the noun; neuf goes after the noun. It's all about context. (It might help to think of neuf as meaning "brand new" rather than just "new".)
If you think about new in English, it can have distinctly different meanings based on context. The same goes for nouveau and neuf. Sometimes the two are interchangeable, and sometimes they aren't. You just have to remember that nouveau goes before the noun and neuf goes after the noun.
This article from about.com might help you visualize the difference: http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a/new.htm
"Mon gars" translates to "my guy", while "mon garçon" translates to "my boy". It's based on previous lessons, so the context is implied from those.
Why is it 'nouveau' instead of 'nouvel' They are both masculine.. how do you know when to use each one?
It's usually written nouvel if it's before a noun with a starting vowel sound, from what I remember.
- 766
_karsh is correct.
In French when you have a collision of vowels where the last letter of a word is a vowel which is confronting a vowel as the first letter of the next word it is common to slip an L in there just to make it easier to speak.
I used a similar device from English when I wrote the previous sentence. I wrote an L instead of a L because that is just what we do in English. I slipped an N in there just for comfort.
Wait a minute, I must have missed something. Neuf means nine, not new, doesn't it?
