Learn French: Nous cherchons la cause du problème. - We are looking for the cause of the problem.

Nous cherchons la cause du problème.

We are looking for the cause of the problem.

Breakdown of Nous cherchons la cause du problème.

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

Questions & Answers about Nous cherchons la cause du problème.

Why does this sentence use la cause du instead of the preposition à cause de from this lesson?

In this sentence, cause is acting as a regular noun meaning "the cause" or "the root reason." The prepositional phrase à cause de means "because of" or "due to." Since you are looking for the noun itself, you simply use the article la followed by the noun cause.

The translation is "looking for." Why isn't there a word for "for" after cherchons?

The French verb chercher inherently means "to look for" or "to seek." It directly takes an object without needing a preposition. Adding pour after it is a very common mistake for English speakers, but you just need chercher plus the thing you are looking for.

Why is it du problème and not de le problème?

Problème is a masculine noun (le problème). In French, whenever the preposition de (of) meets the masculine article le (the), they are forced to contract into du.

Why is problème masculine when it ends in an "e"?

While many French words ending in "e" are feminine, words ending in "-ème" (like le problème, le système, le thème) are almost always masculine because of their Greek origins. This is a very common trap, so it is a great exception to memorize!