Learn French: Quelqu'un cache quelque chose sous la table. - Someone is hiding something under the table.

Quelqu'un cache quelque chose sous la table.

Someone is hiding something under the table.

Breakdown of Quelqu'un cache quelque chose sous la table.

Questions & Answers about Quelqu'un cache quelque chose sous la table.

Why does quelqu'un take the singular verb cache?

Just like "someone" in English, the pronoun quelqu'un is treated as a third-person singular subject. This means it takes the exact same verb form as il (he), elle (she), or on (we/one).

Why does quelqu'un have an apostrophe but quelque chose doesn't?

Quelqu'un is made by combining quelque and un. Because un starts with a vowel, the "e" at the end of quelque is dropped to make it flow better when speaking. In quelque chose, the word chose starts with a consonant, so the "e" stays.

The translation says "is hiding". Why isn't there a word for "is" before cache?

French doesn't have an "is doing" (present continuous) tense like English does. The single present tense verb cache naturally translates to both "hides" and "is hiding". Trying to say est cache to mean "is hiding" would be grammatically incorrect!

I always mix up sous and sur. Which one is which again?

Sous means "under" (like in this sentence), while sur means "on" or "on top of". A helpful trick is to remember that sur sounds a bit like "surface" (which is on top of something), while sous means you are completely covered or underneath.