Breakdown of À cause de cette erreur, vous avez aggravé la crise.
vous
you (plural/formal)
avoir
to have
l'erreur
the mistake, an error (f)
ce
this (before a noun)
à cause de
because of
la crise
the crisis
aggraver
to worsen
Questions & Answers about À cause de cette erreur, vous avez aggravé la crise.
Why do we 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 (cette erreur). It is specifically used when the cause has a negative or neutral result. Since worsening a crisis is clearly a negative outcome, we use à cause de. You would use grâce à ("thanks to") for a positive result, and parce que ("because") when following it with a full subject and verb clause.
Since erreur starts with a vowel, shouldn't we use cet instead of cette?
No, because erreur is a feminine noun. The feminine demonstrative adjective is always cette, regardless of whether the next word starts with a vowel or consonant. The special form cet is only used for masculine nouns starting with a vowel or silent H (like cet homme). Because the "t" in cette is already pronounced, it naturally links and flows into the vowel sound of erreur.
Why is the verb in the passé composé (avez aggravé) rather than the imparfait?
We use the passé composé here because the act of worsening the crisis is treated as a specific, completed action. The error was made, and it had the definitive result of aggravating the situation. If you were instead setting the background scene and describing a continuous, ongoing state in the past (like "the crisis was worsening day by day"), you would use the imparfait.
Does aggraver mean exactly the same thing as the English word "aggravate"?
They are very close, but watch out for a slight difference! In French, aggraver strictly means to make a situation or condition worse (like a crisis, a problem, or an illness). In everyday English, we often use "aggravate" to mean "annoy" or "irritate" a person, but you cannot use aggraver that way in French. To say a person annoyed you, you would use a verb like énerver or agacer.
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