🇫🇷 French

cauchemars

masculine

les cauchemars

nightmares

Try it

cauchemars
/le koʃmaʁ/
← masculine feminine →

How do you say cauchemars in French?

IPA
/le koʃmaʁ/

How do you pronounce cauchemars in French?

cauchemars is pronounced /le koʃmaʁ/ in French.

Example sentences

Le cauchemar récurrent du patient l'empêche de dormir profondément chaque nuit.

The patient's recurring nightmare prevents him from sleeping deeply every night.

Ce cauchemar horrible a laissé mon frère terrifié et en sueurs ce matin.

This horrible nightmare left my brother terrified and sweating this morning.

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Why is it masculine?

Cauchemars is masculine. The word derives from Old French "cauche" (from Latin "calcare," to tread) combined with "mare" (from Old Norse "mara," a nightmare demon or spirit). In French, the gender of compound nouns is not determined by a simple rule of taking the gender of the second element. Rather, "cauchemar" is masculine by convention, likely influenced by the masculine noun "mar" or through analogy with other masculine nouns. The word originally meant "demon that treads on sleepers," reflecting medieval beliefs about the supernatural cause of nightmares.

What is the French word for nightmares?

The French word for nightmares is les cauchemars — masculine.

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