4.8 Demonstratives and possessives — Epoché
What you will be able to do Choose between the four forms of this and that , including the special masculine form that exists only for the ear. Use the whole set of possessives, from the first person singular to the third person plural, and pick the right form of each. Explain why French cannot tell you whether a thing belongs to a man or to a woman — one of the biggest differences between the two languages in this volume. Say what English does instead at each point, and what you have to add in French when the owner really does need to be identified. Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the French aloud; all of them come back below. French English Ce chien mord. [1] This dog bites. Ce livre m'appartient. [2] That book is mine. Connais-tu cet hôtel ? [3] Do you know that hotel? Prerequisites : 4.7 — you need the gender and the plural of nouns, and it helps to have the preposition à from 4.7 Grammar . If you need it. This lesson covers the two remaining families of little words that stand in front of a noun. One family points: it says that you mean this book rather than some other book. The other family attributes: it says whose book it is. English has both families too, so nothing here is conceptually new, and the demonstratives will take you about ten minutes. The possessives are a different matter. They contain the one difference between English and French that reliably produces a sentence which is grammatically perfect and means something the speaker did not intend. It is not a subtle difference and it is not rare. It turns up in the first week of any French course and it goes on tripping people up years later, because the English habit it collides with is so deeply automatic that speakers cannot hear themselves doing it. Here is the difference in one line. In English, the word you choose tells the listener about the owner. In French, the word you choose tells the listener about the thing owned. That is the whole of it, and the rest of this lesson unpacks the consequences. How English does it English possessives agree with the owner; French possessives agree with the thing owned. His and her differ because the owners differ; the object is irrelevant. French has one word covering both, and it changes shape according to whether the noun after it is masculine, feminine or plural. So the same French word means his in one sentence and her in the next, and the two sentences may be identical apart from the noun. English can therefore say things French cannot, and French can say things English cannot. English cannot tell you, from the possessive alone, whether a brother or a sister is being talked about; French cannot tell you whether the owner is a man or a woman. Each language leaves out what the other supplies. When you need what French leaves out, you add a phrase with the preposition from the previous lesson, exactly as English adds of his when it wants to be unambiguous. English has two demonstratives; French has one, spread over four spellings. This and that mark near and far. French draws no such line: a single word covers both, and its four forms vary for gender and number. English demonstratives do not carry gender information at all, but they do carry number. When a French speaker needs to insist on near against far, a small tag is added to the end of the noun, which is the closest thing to the English pair. English drops the possessive where French keeps it, and keeps it where French drops it. English says I brushed my teeth , with the possessive; French usually prefers the plain definite article there, because the owner is obvious from the verb. The reverse happens with body parts and clothing in other constructions. This is a small thing, but it is the kind of small thing that makes a sentence sound foreign while being entirely correct. English has an extra form for a reason of sound, and so does French. English says a book but an apple ; the extra letter exists purely so that two vowels do not collide, and it has nothing to do with gender. French does the same with its masculine demonstrative, which has one spelling before a consonant and another before a vowel. If you understand why English needs the second article, you already understand why French needs the second demonstrative, and you can stop treating it as an exception to be memorised. The four demonstratives One word, four shapes, and the choice is made by the noun that follows. Nothing here depends on distance. Form When you use it ce before a masculine noun beginning with a consonant cet before a masculine noun beginning with a vowel or a mute h (not an aspirated one) — the extra consonant is there only for the ear cette before any feminine noun, whatever it begins with ces before any plural noun, masculine or feminine alike Two of these four are pronounced identically, which matters when you are listening rather than reading. The masculine vowel form and the feminine form sound the same, so the only clue in speech is the gender of the noun you already know. In writing they are distinct, and getting them the wrong way round is one of the most visible beginner errors there is. French English Ce chien mord. [1] This dog bites. Ce livre m'appartient. [2] That book is mine. Connais-tu cet hôtel ? [3] Do you know that hotel? Reconnais-tu cet homme ? [4] Do you recognize that man? Cette maison m'appartient. [5] That house belongs to me. Connais-tu cette chanson ? [6] Do you know this song? Prends ces fleurs. [7] Take these flowers. Ces chaussures sont démodées. [8] Those shoes are old fashioned. Look at the English glosses of the first eight sentences and count the demonstratives. Some say this and some say that , and the French is the same word throughout. Nothing in the French chose between near and far; the translator did, from context. When you produce French you therefore have one fewer decision to make than in English, and when you read French you have to supply that information yourself. The third