Le psychologue se méfie de ce dont tu te plains.

Questions & Answers about Le psychologue se méfie de ce dont tu te plains.

Why do we use ce dont instead of ce que in this sentence?
We use ce dont to mean "what" when the following verb requires the preposition de. The verb here is se plaindre, which is used as se plaindre de (to complain about). The word dont replaces the de plus the thing you are complaining about.
Why is there a de right before ce dont? Doesn't dont already include "of"?
Yes, but this sentence actually has two verbs that require de! The main verb is se méfier de (to be wary of), which gives us de ce (of the thing). The second verb is se plaindre de (to complain about), which gives us dont (of which). Literally, the sentence means: The psychologist is wary of the thing of which you complain.
Where is the word for "about" in the French sentence?
In English you complain "about" something, but in French you complain "of" it using the structure se plaindre de. The idea of "about" is built right into that de, which then gets absorbed into the relative pronoun dont.
Why are we using te plains instead of just plains?
The verb for "to complain" is se plaindre, which is a reflexive verb. Since the subject is tu, the reflexive pronoun changes to match it, giving us tu te plains. You can see the same pattern with the first verb in the sentence, se méfier (to be wary), which is also reflexive.

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