les candidats ont pu choisir le nombre de voyelles présentes au tirage.

Question

I've a feeling I've been here before in another dictée ! I thought that it was the number (singular)[of vowels] that was present. I can't get my head round why "présentes" agrees with "de voyelles". If "de voyelles" weren't there, it would read, "..le nombre présent au tirage." "The number" is still something singular, however many things it might be encompassing, surely ?

What am I missing here?

Accepted Answer

Hi Jim,
I think I see what you are getting at.
The general rule for adjective agreement after "le nombre de..." (the number of...) in French is that the adjective usually agrees with the noun that follows "de" and not with "le nombre."
 The verb, however, will agree with '"le nombre".
Le nombre de personnes présentes était important =The number of people present was significant

Le nombre de femmes élues a augmenté = The number of elected women has increased.

Le nombre d'enfants adoptés reste stable = The number of adopted children remains stable
And présent/présente is an adjective as pointed out by Maarten.
Hope this helps!

Answer

Jim,

This is not verb agreement, but adjectival agreement.

it is ‘ (le nombre) de (voyelles présentes) . . . , with ‘ présentes ‘ being an adjective modifying the feminine plural noun ‘ voyelles’.

https://www.wordreference.com/fren/pr%C3%A9sent%C3%A9

Answer

Merci Maarten,  je l'ai bien compris - quand je le vu dans le phrase comme vous avez expliqué. Que je me trompe si je voyais cela à l’avenir... C’est une autre affaire !! :D

Answer

Jim,

the clue here was that ' présentes ' could only be a verb form for ' tu ' in present tense or subjunctive, which clearly doesn't fit at all.

To be a past participle, whether adjectival ( or part of a compound verb structure if that had been an option), the basic form would be ' présenté '. However, there was still no way, without more than 1 typo having slipped in, to understand ' présentés ' being used- it simply could not be masculine plural form !

Having seen that, I did my dictionary checks and discovered the adjectival forms " présent/présente " and finally the ultimate check available to me - I asked my wife whether I was right or wrong !

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/pr%C3%A9sent/63690#62977

Answer

Merci tous les deux, Cécile et Maarten !