Learn French: La grenouille est ce dont le serpent a besoin.

La grenouille est ce dont le serpent a besoin.

The frog is what the snake needs.

Breakdown of La grenouille est ce dont le serpent a besoin.

what / that which (of which)

le serpent

the snake

Questions & Answers about La grenouille est ce dont le serpent a besoin.

Why do we use ce dont here instead of ce que for "what"?

The phrase for "to need" is avoir besoin de. Because it uses the preposition de, you have to use the relative pronoun dont (which replaces phrases starting with de) instead of que. When you want to say "what" (meaning "the thing that"), you combine ce and dont to get ce dont.

Could I leave out the ce and just say La grenouille est dont le serpent a besoin?

No, you need ce to act as a placeholder pronoun. dont means "of which," so without ce, your sentence would literally mean "The frog is of which the snake has need." The ce provides "the thing" for dont to attach to: "The frog is the thing of which the snake has need."

Does ce dont always translate to "what"?

Yes, when it acts as the object of a verb that takes de, it translates to "what" (or "that which"). For example, if you wanted to say "what I am talking about," you would use ce dont je parle because the verb is parler de.

Is besoin the verb in this sentence?