Question 1

Why does the French use sa when the English translation says "His request"?

Accepted Answer

In French, possessive adjectives agree with the thing being owned, not the owner. Because demande (request) is a feminine noun, it must take the feminine sa, regardless of whether the request was made by a man ("his") or a woman ("her").

Question 2

Why does this sentence use est instead of a for the past tense?

Accepted Answer

The verb arriver (to arrive) is one of the specific movement verbs (often remembered with the acronym DR & MRS VANDERTRAMP) that require être as their helping verb in the passé composé, rather than avoir.

Question 3

Why is there an extra e at the end of arrivée?

Accepted Answer

Because this verb uses être in the passé composé, its past participle (arrivé) must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. The subject, sa demande, is feminine singular, so we add an -e to make it arrivée.

Question 4

How does the word demande fit into our current lesson on indirect commands?

Accepted Answer

Une demande is the noun form of the verb demander (to ask). In this lesson, you are learning how to use demander de to report a command, such as Il lui demande de partir (He asks him to leave). This sentence simply uses the related noun to mean "his request".

Sa demande est arrivée hier.

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