Questions & Answers about Nous avons peur de l'araignée qui est sur le mur.
Why do we use qui here instead of que?
In French, qui is used as the subject of the relative clause, meaning it is the person or thing doing the action. Here, the spider is the one doing the action of being on the wall (est sur le mur). If the spider was the object (for example, "the spider that we see"), you would use que instead. Why does the sentence use avons peur instead of translating "are afraid" directly?
In French, you do not use the verb "to be" for feelings like fear, hunger, or thirst. Instead, you "have" them. The set expression is avoir peur. Since the subject is nous (we), we conjugate the verb avoir to get nous avons peur (literally: we have fear). Why is there a de before l'araignée?
The complete French expression is avoir peur de (to be afraid of). You must always include de when saying what you are afraid of. Because araignée (spider) starts with a vowel, the definite article becomes l', giving us de l'araignée. Is araignée masculine or feminine, and can we tell from this sentence?
It is feminine (une araignée), but you cannot tell just by looking at de l'araignée. The l' hides whether the article is normally le or la. However, words ending in -ée are almost always feminine in French. Learn Nous avons peur de l'araignée qui est sur le mur and more in French
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free