Breakdown of C'est notre adversaire qui a gagné la coupe.
qui
who
avoir
to have
notre
our (singular and plural forms: notre, nos)
gagner
to earn / to win
c'est
it is, that is
l'adversaire
the opponent
la coupe
the cup (trophy, championship)
Questions & Answers about C'est notre adversaire qui a gagné la coupe.
Why is it qui and not que in c'est notre adversaire qui...?
In French, when you want to emphasize the subject (the person or thing doing the action), you use the structure c'est ... qui. Here, notre adversaire is the one doing the winning. If we wanted to emphasize the object (the thing being won), we would use que: C'est la coupe que notre adversaire a gagnée (It's the cup that our opponent won).
Since a starts with a vowel, why isn't qui a shortened to qu'a?
Is adversaire masculine or feminine in this sentence?
We actually can't tell just by looking at this sentence! The word adversaire is spelled the same way for both male and female opponents. Because the possessive adjective notre (our) is the same for both masculine and feminine singular nouns, there are no grammatical clues here to give the gender away.
Why use the passé composé (a gagné) rather than the imparfait?
Winning the cup is a specific, completed event that happened at a distinct point in time. The passé composé is used for these completed actions. If you used the imparfait (gagnait), it would sound like an ongoing background action ("was winning") or a habit ("used to win").
Does la coupe mean a cup you drink from?
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