Question 1

Why do we use qui here instead of que?

Accepted Answer

In French emphasis structures, you use qui when the emphasized part is the subject of the action that follows. Here, cette équipe (this team) is doing the action of deserving. If the emphasized part were the object of the action, you would use que instead, such as in C'est cette équipe que je soutiens (It is this team that I support).

Question 2

Can I just say Cette équipe mérite la victoire?

Accepted Answer

Yes, that is perfectly correct and simply means 'This team deserves the victory.' Using the C'est ... qui structure adds strong emphasis. It singles the team out, making it clear that it is exactly this team, and no other, that deserves to win.

Question 3

Why is the verb mérite conjugated in the singular when a team has many players?

Accepted Answer

The pronoun qui acts as the subject for the verb mérite, and it takes on the gender and number of the noun it refers back to. Since cette équipe is a grammatically singular noun (equivalent to 'it' or 'she'), the verb takes the third-person singular form. Even though a team contains many people, the grammatical noun itself is singular.

Question 4

Why is it cette équipe and not cet équipe since it starts with a vowel?

Accepted Answer

The noun équipe (team) is feminine. The demonstrative adjective for 'this' or 'that' must match the noun's gender, so we use the feminine singular form cette. The special form cet is only used for masculine singular nouns that start with a vowel or mute h, like cet homme (this man).

C'est cette équipe qui mérite la victoire.

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