Breakdown of L'enfant croit que les monstres existent.
l'enfant
the child
croire
to believe
que
that (introducing a clause)
exister
to exist
Questions & Answers about L'enfant croit que les monstres existent.
How does the verb croire conjugate for this sentence?
Croit is the il/elle/on (he/she/it/one) form of the irregular verb croire (to believe). In the present tense, its singular forms are je crois, tu crois, and il/elle/on croit. Since l'enfant (the child) is a single person, we use croit.
In English, we often just say "The child believes monsters exist." Can I drop que in French?
No, you can never drop que (that) in French. Even though English often skips it, French requires the conjunction to connect the two parts of the sentence: Il croit que... (He believes that...).
Why does it say les monstres instead of just monstres?
In English, we talk about general things without an article (like "monsters exist"). In French, you must always use a definite article (le, la, l', or les) when talking about a general category or concept. So, "monsters" generally becomes les monstres.
Do I pronounce the -ent at the end of existent?