Comparisons with adjectives and a feminine and masculine noun

Question

I thought I understood this and that you have to base gender and number on the subject (first noun) as it was done here in the examples. So I would say, and have in fact been saying "Elle est plus grande que son frère" and "Il est plus grand que sa sœur".

Now I have a workbook that told me to write:

"Un village est plus petitE qu'une ville"---> Using the gender of ville, the second noun in the comparison, rather than the gender of village. That's wrong, right?

It also told me to write "Paris est plus grandE que Bordeaux". The only explanation for this I have is that they are "La ville de Paris/Bordeaux" here and hence feminine. Does that sound right?

I think it's time to recycle my workbook...

Accepted Answer

Hi Michelle,
The workbook is definitely wrong!
It should be -
‘Un village est plus petit qu’une ville’
In the case of Paris , it is more tricky but normally cities which end in ‘e’ are said to be feminine and those ending in consonants are said to be masculine but it is somewhat arbitrary and there is much debate about it on the internet...
I would say:
‘Paris est plus grand que Bordeaux‘
Hope this helps!

Answer

Yes, it does. Thank you very much. The workbook is going to be recycled. I'm glad to hear that I know how to do this after all.