Word
Ceux dont le pied est gros ne sont pas toujours comestibles.
Meaning
The ones whose stem is big are not always edible.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ceux dont le pied est gros ne sont pas toujours comestibles.
être
to be
toujours
always
ne
not (used before the verb)
pas
not (used after the verb)
Questions & Answers about Ceux dont le pied est gros ne sont pas toujours comestibles.
Why do we use dont after ceux here instead of qui or que?
Dont is the relative pronoun used for possession, meaning "whose" or "of which". So, ceux dont translates to "the ones whose". If we used qui, it would mean "the ones who" or "the ones that" acting as a subject, and que would be used if "the ones" were the object of the next verb.
Ceux is plural, so why does the sentence use the singular verb est?
Why is gros singular while comestibles is plural?
The adjectives agree with different things in the sentence. Gros (big) describes le pied (the stem), which is singular. Comestibles (edible) describes the main subject Ceux (the ones), which is plural. Remember that gros naturally ends in an "s" even in its masculine singular form!
I thought le pied meant "the foot". Why is it translated as "stem" here?