Today’s lesson explores the adjective dernier, dernière, which means last, most recent and latest. We’ll contrast dernier with prochain (next) as the their grammatical rules are the same. Dernier comes from deretro (behind) in Latin. Deretro combines the prefix de- with retro (back, formerly).

dernier, dernière

last, most recent, latest

Pronunciation [dɛʀnje, dɛʀnjɛʀ]

Dernier, dernière – last

Example sentences

This first sentence uses noun + dernier, meaning “last + noun”. This usage follows the same pattern as noun + prochain (next + noun). For example, la semaine prochaine (next week).

Qu’est-ce que tu as fait la semaine dernière ? – Rien. Je suis resté chez moi parce que j’étais enrhumé.

What did you do last week? – Nothing. I stayed home because I had a cold.

This sentence uses dernier + noun, meaning the last “noun” in a series of nouns. Again this follows the same pattern as prochain. For example, la prochaine semaine de nos vacances (the next week of our vacation).

Nous allons passer le dernier jour de nos vacances à Reims.

We’re going to spend the last week of our vacation in Reims.

For this last sentence, the meaning of dernier is the most recent or latest.

J’ai beaucoup apprecié le dernier roman de Gilles Legardinier.

I really liked Gilles Legardinier’s most recent novel.

Note that dernier/dernière can also be a noun, meaning “the last”. For example, Marcel a été trés lent. C’est le dernier. Marcel was very slow. He’s the last.

Related lessons

French adjectives overview

References

Word of the Day archive | Lessons by David Issokson

David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language learner and speaks over seven languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private lessons. When not teaching or writing his French Word of the Day lessons, David enjoys his time skiing, hiking and mountain biking in Victor, Idaho.

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