#garlicbread4047

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

rain novaBOT
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Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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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.

swift osprey
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The devil lies in the verb construction.
A relative pronoun introduces a relative clause, giving details on something by using another phrase.

"comprendre" is specifically followed by a noun, and cannot be followed by a relative clause.
Because of that, you have to add the noun "ce" which is the noun and object in your sentence, and qualify that noun using the relative clause "à quoi Kevin pensait"

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another verb like "savoir" absolutely accepts relative clauses and doesn't accept nouns
"Jesse ne savait pas à quoi Kevin pensait"

cerulean cipher
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So, just to clarify, the reasoning is the verb itself?

swift osprey
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as another example, if you want to say you forgot something, but want to describe that something using a relative clause, you would have to do the same

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because you still forgot a thing, you're just describing what that thing is

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j'ai oublié quelque chose
j'ai oublié ce que je voulais dire

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In English, this is usually translated as "what"

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I forgot [something]
I forgot [what I wanted to say] (the what is indicating that's something you're describing)

cerulean cipher
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Thank you so much!! My prof did not explain it that well so my whole class was confused 💀

swift osprey
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it is not an easy concept

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especially with "comprendre" because it also requires you to understand the difference between comprendre and savoir

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the two verbs function very differently in French but are translated the same in English (to know)

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it would be way easier to navigate each of those two concepts separately at first as we're combining both here

cerulean cipher
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maybe its wrong, but i think of comprendre more like "to understand" rather than "to know"

swift osprey
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oh

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I am sorry

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you are right
I did mix it up with savoir vs connaître
not comprendre

cerulean cipher
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dont worry, its no prob, im just grateful i can understand the "ce" more

swift osprey
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yeah so it's basically the "what" in "Jesse did not understand [what] was Kevin thinking"