Replace desquelles with dont

Adam B.C1Kwiziq community member

Replace desquelles with dont

Hello,

In the sentence 'il y avait de petites huttes aux fenêtres desquelles de minuscules visages hirsutes avaient l'air préoccupé.'

 Is it possible to replace desquelles with dont?


Asked 3 weeks ago
CélineKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

Bonjour Adam,

In French, "dont" is used to replace "de" + a person or thing when the verb or expression directly uses "de" (e.g., parler de, avoir besoin de, se souvenir de). It cannot replace a more complex prepositional phrase like "aux fenêtres de...". Here, the sentence does not include a prepositional verb or verbal expression with de. Instead, we’re using a place/location: "at the windows of which tiny hairy faces looked preoccupied". And we’re:

-  combining "à + les fenêtres" = aux fenêtres

and

- adding "de" for "the faces of the windows"

So, the full phrase becomes: "aux fenêtres desquelles" "at the windows of which"

 

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I would have said that the problem is that there is no word order that will allow you to use both à and dont, since they both need to precede fenêtres. You could translate "the windows of which" as "dont les fenêtres", but you can't write "à dont les fenêtres". 

Alan G.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Surely desquelles means "the windows of the huts", not "the faces of the windows"? 

This is the point: desquelles can be placed after fenêtres, but refer to an earlier noun, which is not possible with dont

Adam B. asked:

Replace desquelles with dont

Hello,

In the sentence 'il y avait de petites huttes aux fenêtres desquelles de minuscules visages hirsutes avaient l'air préoccupé.'

 Is it possible to replace desquelles with dont?


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