French 101: Lesson 2

Making Words Ending in -EAU Plural

Inspired by a t-shirt I recently saw, I've decided to take a break from politically-driven posts to correct your French, oh ye masses.

That said, I will get right down to it.

Adding an "s" to the end of a French word is not always the correct way to make it plural.

Sometimes, you use an "x."

For example, take the word beau. In French, this means "handsome" when used as an adjective.

Raoul est beau.

Raoul is handsome.

Tu n'es pas beau.

You are not handsome.

Now let's use an "-x" to make it plural:

Les chevaux sont beaux.

The horses are handsome/beautiful.

The "x"--though important--is not audibly pronounced. In speech, you have to use context clues to figure out if someone is speaking about more than one thing.

Another common word borrowed from French with this ending is nouveau(x), meaning "new."

Now--in English--the word "beau" is often used to describe an attractive, well-mannered young man, the complement to a belle (French for "beautiful").

So, mes amis, if you were having an Old South theme for your prom, you would want the back of your shirt to read,

"Belles and Beaux"

NOT

"Belles and Beaus"

. . . and you would definitely not want to sit in front of me wearing a shirt that said the latter unless you wanted to be added on to my list of people to skewer with a baguette.

Fin.

The End.