Hi,

I just have a couple of questions regarding nouvelle, nouvelles, nouveaux and nouveau. Are they all variations of each other but masculine or feminine?

From my lesson, I understand that nouvelles means news, as in a news report.

Nouveaux means new, as in the latest thing.

But then what do nouvelle and nouveau mean and when are they used instead?

Thanks!

Nouveau (masc. sing.), nouvelle (fem. sing.), nouveaux (masc. plur.) and nouvelles (fem. plur.) are the four form of the same adjective. By the way, "nouveau" is written "nouvel" when it comes before a name starting with vowel (un nouvel ami - a new friend).

But nouvelles is also a noun meaning news, as you correctly understood.

Thanks Mike,

This is my first encounter with masc/fem words in French so I think this will take some getting used to. I have to say one of the benefits of LingQ is that you get a response extremely quickly from the community, which is brilliant.

"nouveau" can also become "nouvel" before a word starting with the letter "H", but not all of them.

nouvel hôpital : new hospital
nouveau haricot : new bean

The same thing happens with "beau / bel / beaux / belle / belles"

The rule about the "h" is confusing though, and we tend to say "nouvel" or "bel" before every word starting with H to make the liaison.

It is very simple.
"nouveau" is written "nouvel" when it comes before a name starting with vowel like:
un nouvel ami

Ok mon ami

"I have to say one of the benefits of LingQ is that you get a response extremely quickly from the community, which is brilliant."

But why did that user (seanf-001) already leave LingQ after 4 forum posts, if everything is so "brilliant"?

"...we tend to say "nouvel" or "bel" before every word starting with H to make the liaison."
That's definitely not correct usage.
"haricot", "handball", "Hollande" starts with an "h aspiré", and this is treated like a consonant, so nouvel, bel, etc. would be wrong.

I said "we tend to...". There are lots of "rules" we don't know and/or respect in French. Correct usage is how people speak. For some of your examples it would be strange to say "bel" but for others it would be OK, especially for "haricot".