French Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the French language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I wanted to send a text message with the phrase "my dear handsome friend", so I typed mon cher bel ami. But then I double-checked this on Google Translate and it gave me mon cher beau ami. This seems to defy my textbook which says that the second masculine form, bel, is used before a vowel sound.
Which would you use, bel or beau, and why?
The correct translation for "my dear handsome friend", when talking about a male friend, is "mon cher bel ami". You need to use "bel" when the following word begins with a vowel, like your textbook says. Note that in all cases, you would use "belle" for a female friend. This is because the pronunciation of "beau ami" is not fluid and requires a break between both words while "bel ami" can be pronunced as a single word.
If you look at Google Translate with only "handsome friend", it will give you the correct translation. It looks as though the longer "my dear hansome friend" throws off Google Translate.
