Learn French: Il n'a pas gardé le collier que j'aime. - He did not keep the necklace that I like.

Word

Il n'a pas gardé le collier que j'aime.

Meaning

He did not keep the necklace that I like.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

French

Lesson

Direct object relative pronouns (que)

Breakdown of Il n'a pas gardé le collier que j'aime.

avoir

to have

not (used before the verb)

Questions & Answers about Il n'a pas gardé le collier que j'aime.

Why do we use que instead of qui in this sentence?

We use que because it acts as the direct object of the verb in the second part of the sentence (j'aime). You are saying "I like the necklace". If the necklace were the subject performing an action (for example, "the necklace that is blue"), you would use qui.

Why are n' and pas placed around a rather than gardé?

In the past tense (passé composé), the negative words ne... pas always go around the helping verb. In this case, the helping verb is a (from avoir). The past participle gardé (kept) comes right after pas.

Why is it que j'aime? Doesn't que sometimes shorten to qu'?

que becomes qu' only when the word immediately after it starts with a vowel or a mute h. Here, the next word is je, which starts with a consonant, so it stays que. However, je drops its "e" to become j' because it is followed by aime, which starts with a vowel.

How do we know j'aime means "I like" and not "I love" here?