L'étudiant reçoit une bourse pour étudier.

Questions & Answers about L'étudiant reçoit une bourse pour étudier.

Why does reçoit have a little tail under the 'c' (ç)?
That is a cedilla. The base verb is recevoir. In French, a 'c' before an 'o' makes a hard 'k' sound. To keep the soft 's' sound of the verb, we change the 'c' to ç before the -oit ending. You will also see this in je reçois (I receive).
Are there other present tense forms of recevoir that use the cedilla?
Yes! Any form where the ending starts with 'o' needs it. So you have je reçois, tu reçois, il/elle reçoit, and ils/elles reçoivent. However, nous recevons and vous recevez do not need it, because a 'c' before an 'e' already makes a soft 's' sound without any help.
I thought bourse meant a purse or a bag. Does it also mean scholarship?
Exactly! A bourse originally meant a small bag of money. Over time, it became the standard French word for a student grant or scholarship. You might also see it used with a capital letter for the stock market (la Bourse).
Why do we use pour before étudier here?
In English, we often just say "to study" to mean "in order to study". In French, when you want to express the purpose of an action (meaning "in order to"), you must use pour followed by the infinitive (the dictionary form) of the verb, like étudier.

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