Breakdown of Je crois qu'il a licencié son collègue.
je
I
il
he
avoir
to have
le collègue
the colleague
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
croire
to believe
que
that (introducing a clause)
licencier
to fire
Questions & Answers about Je crois qu'il a licencié son collègue.
Why is it written as qu'il instead of que il?
Can I drop qu' and just say Je crois il a licencié son collègue, like we often drop the word that in English?
No, you can never skip it in French. Even though English speakers frequently drop the word that in sentences like I believe he fired his colleague, French absolutely requires the conjunction que (or qu') to link the two parts of the sentence.
What tense is a licencié?
This is the passé composé, the standard past tense for completed actions. It is made of the present tense of the helper verb avoir (il a) and the past participle of the verb licencier (licencié).
If the person getting fired was a woman, would the sentence change?
Yes! The noun collègue can be either masculine or feminine. If he fired a female colleague, you would use the feminine possessive adjective and write sa collègue instead of son collègue.
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