un étrange personnage

Question

Pourqoi disons-nous "un étrange personnage", quand "une personne étrange" sonne plus français ?

Accepted Answer

Hi Observablebear,
It is because the word 'personnage' is masculine and the word 'personne' is feminine.

un étrange personnage = an odd character
une étrange personne = an odd person

Both can be applied to talk about men and women.
Hope this helps!

Answer

Cécile - feel free to remove this as unsure how else to raise the suggestion,  but I think the question may be as much or more on positioning of the adjective étrange ?

Answer

Thanks, Maarten, I am still unsure whether Observablebear is questioning the placing of 'étrange' before or after the noun but if this is the case we also accept in that particular text -
un personnage étrange 
as we would accept talking about 'une personne'
une étrange personne
Hope this helps!

Answer

Can we use curieux for strange?