Breakdown of Le ministre avait démissionné à cause de la polémique désastreuse.
avoir
to have
démissionner
to resign
à cause de
because of
le ministre
the minister
Questions & Answers about Le ministre avait démissionné à cause de la polémique désastreuse.
Why use à cause de here instead of parce que or grâce à?
À cause de translates to "because of" and is followed by a noun (here, la polémique). We use it because a disastrous controversy is a negative thing. If it were a positive cause, we would use grâce à (thanks to). We can't use parce que (because) here, since that must be followed by a full subject and verb.
Why is the verb avait démissionné instead of a démissionné?
Avait démissionné is the plus-que-parfait (pluperfect) tense, which translates to "had resigned." It is formed using the imperfect of the helping verb (avait) plus the past participle (démissionné). You use this tense to show that an action happened further back in the past, before another past event. A démissionné would simply mean "resigned" or "has resigned."
Does la polémique mean "the polemic"?
Why does the adjective désastreuse end in "-euse" and come after the noun?