Today’s lesson covers the adjective vieux, vieille, which means “old”. This adjective always precedes the noun: Une vieille voiture (an old car). Vieux comes from vetus in Latin.
vieux, vieille
old
Pronunciation [vjø, vjɛj]
Vieux, vieille – old
Example sentences
This first sentence uses être en train de + infinitive, which is used to form the present progressive tense: to be verb+ing.
L’investisseur est en train de vendre un vieux bâtiment.
The investor is selling an old building.
This second sentence uses the le présent (present tense). In French, la famille achète can translate to both “the family buys” and “the family is buying”.
La famille achète une vieille maison à la campagne.
The family is buying an old house in the countryside.
This final sentence uses vieil for the masculine form of vieux. The pronunciation of vieil is essentially the same as the feminine form vieille.
This is done to affect a liaison (the linking of two words) as the -h in homme (man) is non-aspirated and considered to be a vowel. Another example is un vieil appartement (an old apartment).
Monsieur Dupuis est un vieil homme et il a quatre-vingt dix-huit ans.
Mr. Dupuis is an old man and is 98 years-old.
Related lessons
Word of the Day archive | Lessons by David Issokson
