Learn French: Elle est ravie de découvrir cette sensation. - She is thrilled to discover this sensation.

Elle est ravie de découvrir cette sensation.

She is thrilled to discover this sensation.

Breakdown of Elle est ravie de découvrir cette sensation.

Questions & Answers about Elle est ravie de découvrir cette sensation.

Why do we use de before découvrir instead of à?

When an adjective describes an emotion or a state of mind (like being thrilled, happy, or sad), it generally requires the preposition de before a following infinitive verb. Because ravie (thrilled) expresses a strong emotion, it pairs directly with de.

Why does ravie end with an -e in this sentence?

Ravi is an adjective describing the subject of the sentence, Elle (she). Because the subject is feminine singular, the adjective must agree in gender, so we add an -e to make it ravie.

Is ravie just another word for happy?

Ravie is a very strong adjective meaning thrilled, delighted, or overjoyed. If you wanted to express a milder feeling like glad or pleased, you would use contente. Both words follow the exact same grammar rule, so 'she is glad to discover' would be Elle est contente de découvrir.

How do we know to use cette instead of ce or cet here?

The noun sensation is feminine. A highly reliable rule in French is that almost all nouns ending in -tion are feminine. Therefore, we must use the feminine demonstrative adjective for 'this', which is cette.