Cette comédie manque du suspense dont le public a envie.

Questions & Answers about Cette comédie manque du suspense dont le public a envie.

Why do we use dont here instead of que for "that"?
Because of the verb phrase at the end of the sentence. To say "to want," French uses avoir envie de (literally "to have desire of"). Since the phrase requires the preposition de, you must use dont to link it back to le suspense, rather than que.
If dont replaces de, why does the first half of the sentence use du?
The du belongs to a completely different verb! The verb for "to lack" is manquer de. Because the sentence is talking about the specific suspense the audience wants, it uses the definite article le. The preposition de (from manquer) plus le contracts into du.
What would this look like as two separate simple sentences?
Breaking it down helps show how dont works behind the scenes. Sentence 1: Cette comédie manque du suspense. (This comedy lacks the suspense.) Sentence 2: Le public a envie de ce suspense. (The audience wants this suspense.) When we combine them, de ce suspense turns into dont.
Is it possible to drop dont like we drop "that" in English?
No. In English, we can often skip the connecting word and just say "the suspense the audience wants." In French, you can never drop the relative pronoun. You must always include dont (or qui, que, etc., depending on the sentence structure).

Learn Cette comédie manque du suspense dont le public a envie 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