Ce que versus ce dont

Teagan W.C1Kwiziq community member

Ce que versus ce dont

The question I'm looking at says "Tu ne veux pas savoir ________ je pense de ton costume" and the correct answer indicated is "ce que." However, because it's "... _______ je pense DE" shouldn't it be "ce dont?" 


Similar examples would be:

"Tu sais ce dont je suis capable."

"C'est ce dont j'ai peur."

"Je ne sais pas à quoi tu penses." (This is 'penser à' instead of 'penser de')


What am I missing here?

Asked 3 years ago
CécileNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hi Teagan,

Just to keep the structure of this sentence -

Tu ne veux pas savoir ce que je pense de ton costume ----> Tu ne veux pas savoir ce que j'en pense ( en replaces 'de ton costume' )= You don't want to know what I think of your suit 
Tu ne veux pas savoir à quoi je pense = You don't want to know what I am thinking about
Tu ne veux pas savoir ce dont j'ai envie = You don't want to know what I fancy 
Tu ne veux pas savoir ce dont je suis capable = You don't want to know what I am capable of 

Hope these help!

Nick H.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

One of the other guys might be able to explain it better, but I believe it's because the clause which includes the prepositional verb (penser de) is already complete (i.e. je pense DE ton costume) therefore there is no need to replace it with a relative pronoun (ce dont) - ce que suffices.

Nick

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

This actually parallels the English use:

You know what I think -- Tu sais ce que je pense. ("what" and "ce que" are both the COD of penser).

You need "de" when you are thinking "about" something. In the example below, this is the reason for using "en".

What do you think about this? -- Qu'est-ce que tu en penses?

Jim J.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Teagan,

Just to supplement the answers of both Nick and Chris:-

"Je ne sais pas à quoi tu penses." (This is 'penser à' instead of 'penser de')"

The point that I like to bear in mind is that "penser à" takes the sense of "ponder" or "I'll think about it ..." as in the mind  --  whereas "penser de" takes the sense of "opinion" "What is your or my opinion ...." as to be expressed (to others)

Jim

Teagan W. asked:

Ce que versus ce dont

The question I'm looking at says "Tu ne veux pas savoir ________ je pense de ton costume" and the correct answer indicated is "ce que." However, because it's "... _______ je pense DE" shouldn't it be "ce dont?" 


Similar examples would be:

"Tu sais ce dont je suis capable."

"C'est ce dont j'ai peur."

"Je ne sais pas à quoi tu penses." (This is 'penser à' instead of 'penser de')


What am I missing here?

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