Question about agreement

Frank C.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Question about agreement

In the sentence, "Je vais me laisser tenter par la deuxième option qui a l'air vraiment intéressante à faire.", the adjective, intéressante, is féminine.   I would have thought that this adjective is modifying the word 'air', which is masculine, rather than obliqely referring to the feminine noun, 'option'.  Could you explain?

Asked 2 months ago
Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Frank, 

‘ avoir l’air ‘ is usually a fixed verbal expression, and is most frequently treated grammatically as a verb unit. It is not treated as the verb  ‘ avoir ‘ followed by the noun ‘ l’air ‘ in this particular situation.

( After initial posting, found the 2nd link that discusses in much more detail, in French. Worth a look if you want further information )

The subject noun being modified by the adjective is ‘ la deuxième option ‘, hence feminine adjectival agreement. 

One ‘trick’ is that you can replace ‘ avoir l’air ‘ with sembler or paraître, or follow with d’être,  to check/verify the agreement .

 https://www.wordreference.com/fren/avoir%20l'air 

 

https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/fr/cles-de-la-redaction/avoir-lair-accord-de-ladjectif-qui-suit

                   avoir l’air (accord de l’adjectif qui suit) 

Article sur l’accord de l’adjectif qui suit l’expression avoir l’air. 

         – chose 

         Accord avec le sujet:  Lorsque le sujet est une chose, l’adjectif s’accorde en principe avec le sujet. Avoir l’air a le sens de « paraître, sembler, avoir l’air d’être » : 

 

 

Question about agreement

In the sentence, "Je vais me laisser tenter par la deuxième option qui a l'air vraiment intéressante à faire.", the adjective, intéressante, is féminine.   I would have thought that this adjective is modifying the word 'air', which is masculine, rather than obliqely referring to the feminine noun, 'option'.  Could you explain?

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