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Le marin dont le bateau avait disparu a navigué sur l'océan.

Le marin dont le bateau avait disparu a navigué sur l'océan.
The sailor whose boat had disappeared sailed on the ocean.
From Lesson 204:Concession preposition (malgré)·French

Questions & Answers about Le marin dont le bateau avait disparu a navigué sur l'océan.

Why do we use dont here instead of qui or que?
In French, dont is a relative pronoun that replaces a phrase introduced by de. Here, it translates to "whose" and shows possession: the boat of the sailor (le bateau du marin).
Why are there two different past tenses (avait disparu and a navigué) in this sentence?
avait disparu is in the plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) tense, meaning "had disappeared." It is used to show this event happened before another past action. a navigué is in the passé composé for that second, more recent past action ("sailed").
Does dont act as the subject for the verb avait disparu?
No, the subject of avait disparu is le bateau (the boat). Because the boat is singular, we use the singular verb avait, even though it refers back to the sailor's possession.
Why do we say sur l'océan instead of dans l'océan?
Because a boat travels on the surface of the water, French uses sur (on). If the sailor were swimming or diving underwater, you would use dans (in).

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