Breakdown of Ils reçoivent une récompense pour leur travail.
une
a / an (feminine)
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
pour
for
leur
their (singular and plural forms: leur, leurs)
le travail
the job
recevoir
to receive
la récompense
the reward, an award
Questions & Answers about Ils reçoivent une récompense pour leur travail.
Why does reçoivent have a cedilla (ç) here?
In the verb recevoir (to receive), the letter c needs to keep its soft 's' sound. In French, a c followed by an o normally makes a hard 'k' sound. To keep the soft sound before the o in reçoivent, we add a cedilla to make it ç. You will also see this in the singular forms: je reçois, tu reçois, il/elle reçoit.
The infinitive is recevoir, but here it is spelled with 'reçoi-'. Does the stem always change like this?
No, recevoir is an irregular verb with a 'boot' pattern in the present tense. The stem changes to reçoi- for the singular forms (je, tu, il) and the third-person plural (ils/elles). However, for nous and vous, it keeps the original stem without the 'i' and without the cedilla: nous recevons, vous recevez.
Why is it leur travail and not leurs travail since the subject ils (they) is plural?
The possessive adjective leur (their) must match the thing being owned, not the owners. Even though 'they' are plural, the word travail (work) is singular here, so you use the singular leur. If they were receiving an award for multiple tasks, it would be leurs travaux.
How do you pronounce the end of reçoivent?
Just like regular verbs, the -ent ending for the ils/elles form is completely silent in the present tense. You only pronounce the letters up to the 'v', so the whole word sounds roughly like 'ruh-swahv'.
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