Breakdown of C'est la femme qui a déclaré que le taxi avait reculé.
être
to be
la femme
the woman
ce
it / this (with être)
qui
who
avoir
to have
le taxi
the taxi
que
that (introducing a clause)
déclarer
to declare
reculer
to back up
Questions & Answers about C'est la femme qui a déclaré que le taxi avait reculé.
Why is avait reculé in the plus-que-parfait (had backed up) instead of the passé composé?
This sentence uses reported speech in the past. If we heard the woman speak at the time, she would have used the passé composé: 'Le taxi a reculé' (The taxi backed up). Because the reporting verb is in the past (a déclaré), we must shift the tense she used one step further back in time. The passé composé backshifts to the plus-que-parfait (avait reculé).
Why do we use C'est la femme instead of Elle est la femme?
In French, when you want to say 'He is,' 'She is,' or 'It is' followed by a noun that has a determiner (like un, une, le, or la), you must use C'est. Because we have la femme, we use C'est. You generally only use Elle est when it is followed by an unmodified adjective or a profession (like Elle est avocate).
Why is it qui a déclaré and not que a déclaré?
We use qui because it acts as the subject of the verb that follows it. Here, the woman is the one doing the declaring. If the relative pronoun were the object of the verb (for example, 'the woman that I saw'), you would use que. A helpful trick is that qui is usually followed directly by a verb, while que is followed by a new subject.
Does reculer always mean 'to recoil'?
It can mean 'to recoil' or 'to step back' for a person, but in the context of a vehicle like le taxi, it means 'to reverse' or 'to back up.'
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