Breakdown of Vous devriez vous méfier de ce dont elle a peur.
elle
she
vous
you (plural/formal)
devoir
to have to / must
avoir peur
to be afraid
ce dont
what / that which (of which)
se méfier de
to beware of / to be suspicious of
Questions & Answers about Vous devriez vous méfier de ce dont elle a peur.
Why do we use ce dont here instead of ce que for "what"?
Why is there a de right before ce dont? Doesn't dont already mean "of which"?
Yes, but there are two different de requirements happening here! The first one belongs to the main verb: se méfier de means "to beware of." The dont acts as the de for the second verb: avoir peur de (to be afraid of). So literally, this sentence is "You should beware of that of which she is afraid."
Why is it vous devriez instead of vous devez?
Vous devriez is the conditional tense of devoir. When you want to give advice and say "you should," you use the conditional. If you used the present tense vous devez, it would mean a much stronger "you must" or "you have to."
Why is there a second vous before méfier?
The verb for "to beware" or "to distrust" in French is reflexive: se méfier. Even though it is in the infinitive form here because it follows devriez, its reflexive pronoun still has to match the subject vous.
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