nouvel vs nouveau

Question

Why is it "nouvel" instead of "noveau" in this sentence, if the word hotel is masculine?
Le nouvel hôtel a une nouvelle piscine.

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Maria,

the lesson you have attached explains this.

“ Note that the masculine form changes when it's followed by a noun starting with a vowel or mute h.

This 3rd form exists to ease pronunciation. “

Regardless of the reasoning, there are just some French adjectives that have a different form before masculine nouns that start with vowels or a mute h.

The noun ‘ hotel ‘ is masculine singular, commencing with an h muet, hence the ‘ variant ‘ masculine form of the adjective nouveau is used - that is ‘ nouvel ‘.

Martha Chauya · Answer

Nouvel is used when the noun it precedes is a singular masculine and it begins with a vowel or semi vowel (i.e. h & y).