#mymilkbun
1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)
Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.
Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.
it's called "euphonic t"
it doesn't mean anything, it's just there because "m'obsède-elle" would be less harmonic to pronounce
it happens in inversions, with il/elle/on, when the verb ends with an a or an e
So the “elle” in this case would still mean “her”? So if I were to translate it literally, it would be something like “Why this girl, I obsess (over) her?”
oh and i didn't reply to your other question, yes "Pourquoi suis-je obsédé par cette fille" is right has the same meaning
Pourquoi cette fille m’obsède-t-elle : Why does this girl obsess me over (idk if it's good english here lmao)
Pourquoi suis-je obsédé par cette fille : Why am I obsessed over her
No real difference in the meaning
Ah okay so same meaning. I guess the structure of it also kinda throws me off. But I’m assuming it’ll become more natural to me as I immerse more.
Just pointing out that there is nothing more or less harmonic about “obsède-elle”. The word “hirondelle” which ends with the same string of sounds isn’t considered “ugly” or “unharmonic”. People don’t correct it to “hironde-telle”
The only reason the T is there in “obsède-t-elle” is because all third person verb forms used to end with a T in old French, and for most verbs it was lost in all positions except for the subject-verb inverted form.
And if you don’t add the T, it doesn’t sound unharmonic, it sounds “wrong” because it is wrong. It’s a grammar mistake, which always sounds wrong
Folk etymology