Breakdown of Cependant, le routard a peur d'oublier son carnet.
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
oublier
to forget
avoir peur
to be afraid
cependant
however
de
to (introducing an infinitive after a verb)
le routard
the backpacker
le carnet
the notebook (small, pocket-sized)
Questions & Answers about Cependant, le routard a peur d'oublier son carnet.
Why do we use the infinitive d'oublier here instead of the subjunctive qu'il oublie?
Because the person who is afraid (the backpacker) is the same person who might forget. When the subject is the same for both actions, French avoids the subjunctive and uses an infinitive instead.
What would the sentence look like if he was afraid of someone else forgetting the notebook?
If the subjects were different, you would use que followed by the subjunctive. For example, to say 'The backpacker is afraid that I will forget his notebook', you would say Le routard a peur que j'oublie son carnet.
Why is there a d' before oublier?
The base expression is avoir peur de (to be afraid of). When you follow it with an infinitive verb that starts with a vowel, like oublier, the de contracts to d'.
I haven't seen the word routard before. Where does it come from?
Quick refresher: why do we use son for 'his notebook' here?
In French, possessive adjectives agree with the noun that is owned, not the owner. Because carnet (notebook) is a masculine noun, we must use the masculine possessive adjective son, regardless of the backpacker's gender.
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