I’ve been studying French church architecture this week and had thought I understood that the saint themself is written with no hyphen, but if their name is used for a road, church, town etc, it becomes hyphenated. For example, Saint Denis for the person and Saint-Denis for the basilica or commune. So I was surprised in this exercise to see the archangel spelt Saint-Michel.
I also noticed that sauvé and sauvée are both accepted for Orléans - presume either is ok here?
Bonjour Anne,
In French, when using the name of a city, you can use both the masculine form or the feminine (implying you're saying "la ville de" + [city]"). The gender of cities is not fixed in French so it's a bit vague. So, when in doubt, you'll tend to assume they are masculine unless there's a clear indication with an article for example:
-> definite/possessive article present clearly stating the gender ; hence, the adjective is in the feminine form
Take a look here too:
Also, you're right about the name of saints so we've amended the sentence:
-> if you're talking about the person
-> if you're talking about a street, building, a bank holiday, a religious order...
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !
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