A Few French Grammar Questions

Hey cud anyone clear up these points of french grammar for me plz:
- is it un desir pour or de qch (or neither)?
- une croyance dans or en qch (or neither)?
- to say what he lacks, the verb is manquer de so do you say ce dont il manque? or can you say ce dont lui manque?
- ceux, celui, celle and celles are these the demonstrative pronouns aswell adjectives?? how do is ay these ones here? is it celles/ceux-ci
- quelque chose qu'il a su toute sa vie allait se passer - do i need to add an 'e' onto su to make it agree with quelque chose?
If anyone cud help with jus one of these it wud be reli helpful!! :smile:

Thanks

Reply 1

james99

1

1. It's un desir de qqc
2. une croyance en qqc
3. ce dont il manque is right :smile:

4. Yep, these ones here = ceux/celles-ci
5. I'm not sure about this one. I'm thinking probably not....but don't quote me on that!

Hope this helps anyway :smile:

Reply 2

*soph*

14

James probably knows more than me, but isn't it "ce dont lui manque"? Normally if you want to say "I miss it" it'd be "il me manque", literally "it is missing to me" - so therefore you should use "ce dont lui manque"?

Reply 3

james99

1

*soph*

James probably knows more than me, but isn't it "ce dont lui manque"? Normally if you want to say "I miss it" it'd be "il me manque", literally "it is missing to me" - so therefore you should use "ce dont lui manque"?

It can't be "ce dont lui manque", because "to lack" is manquer + de + direct object. For example: vous manquez de patience / ce thé manque de lait. So, "that which he lacks" would simply be "ce dont il manque"

"To miss somebody or something" is manquer + à. This is more confusing, as you said. You still couldn't say "ce dont lui manque" here because "dont" indicates that the verb was followed by 'de', but in this sense it's followed by à. The fact that an indirect object is present gets across this fact, (in the same way: téléphoner à --> je lui téléphone). So to say, "that which he's missing" it would be "ce que lui manque".

I think. :p:

Reply 4

*soph*

14

Yeah, you're right, I was getting confused between the missing and the lacking. My bad!

Reply 5

kellywood_5

17

I'm pretty sure su wouldn't need an e because past participles only agree when they take etre (sorry about lack of accent, don't know how to do them).