Question 1

In English, we use "say" and "tell." Why does French use both dire and raconter here?

Accepted Answer

Dire generally means "to say" or "to tell" a fact or a statement, which is why we use it for "They say that..." (Ils disent que...). Raconter, however, specifically means "to recount" or "to narrate." You wouldn't use dire for telling a story; in French, you always use raconter une histoire.

Question 2

How do you pronounce ils disent?

Accepted Answer

The -ent ending for the "they" form of verbs is always silent in French. You pronounce disent just like dise (sounds like "deez"). Keep in mind that dire is irregular: its "they" form has an 's' sound in the middle, which is different from the "you" form you learned (vous dites).

Question 3

Why is it qu'ils instead of que ils?

Accepted Answer

The word que (which means "that" here) drops its e and adds an apostrophe when the next word starts with a vowel or a silent 'h'. Since ils starts with an 'i', que ils must combine into qu'ils.

Question 4

Why is raconter not conjugated here?

Accepted Answer

This sentence uses the near future tense to express what they are going to do. Just like in English, you conjugate the verb "to go" (ils vont) and leave the main action verb in its unconjugated infinitive form (raconter).

Question 5

Why do we use cette before histoire?

Accepted Answer

Histoire is a feminine noun, so we must use the feminine demonstrative adjective for "this/that," which is cette. While it's true that words starting with a silent 'h' sometimes need a special form to sound nice (like cet), that only applies to masculine words (like cet homme). Feminine words always just use cette.

Ils disent qu'ils vont raconter cette histoire.

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