Learn French: C'est le coffre-fort dont il doit deviner le code. - This is the safe whose code he must guess.

C'est le coffre-fort dont il doit deviner le code.

This is the safe whose code he must guess.

Breakdown of C'est le coffre-fort dont il doit deviner le code.

être

to be

it / this (with être)

devoir

to have to / must

Questions & Answers about C'est le coffre-fort dont il doit deviner le code.

Why is the word order dont il doit deviner le code instead of matching the English "whose code he must guess"?

When dont means "whose", the noun it possesses (le code) doesn't move to the front of the clause like it does in English. It stays in its normal position as the object of the verb. It helps to translate it literally in your head as "of which": "This is the safe of which he must guess the code".

Why do we use dont instead of que here?

The relative pronoun dont is used to replace a phrase that begins with the preposition de (of/from). If you split this into two separate sentences, you would say: C'est le coffre-fort. (This is the safe.) and Il doit deviner le code du coffre-fort. (He must guess the code of the safe.) Because the relationship uses de (inside du), you must link them with dont.

Why does code have the article le in front of it? Doesn't dont mean "whose"?

Yes, but unlike the English word "whose", dont doesn't replace the article. Because dont acts more like "of which" and is separated from the noun it possesses, that noun still requires its own definite article (le, la, or les). Therefore, we say dont ... le code.