Question 1

How would I turn this into a mixed conditional expressing "If he weren't arrogant, people would have liked him"?

Accepted Answer

To express a present condition with a past result, use si + imperfect, then the past conditional: S'il n'était pas arrogant, les gens l'auraient aimé.

Question 2

Why does personne come before ne here instead of after the verb?

Accepted Answer

Personne is the subject of the second clause here. When negative pronouns like personne or rien act as the subject, they go at the start of the clause followed immediately by ne: personne ne l'aime.

Question 3

Why is the object pronoun l' placed between ne and aime?

Accepted Answer

Object pronouns always stick directly to the front of the verb they modify. In a negative sentence, ne must come before the object pronoun, giving us the order: negative subject + ne + object pronoun + verb.

Question 4

Could I use donc instead of c'est pourquoi?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Il est arrogant, donc personne ne l'aime is perfectly correct and very common in everyday speech. C'est pourquoi is slightly more formal and translates directly to "that is why", heavily emphasizing the cause-and-effect relationship.

Question 5

Why do we use Il est here instead of C'est?

Accepted Answer

When describing a specific person with just an adjective (arrogant), you use il est or elle est. You would switch to c'est if you used a modified noun, for example: C'est un homme arrogant.

Il est arrogant, c'est pourquoi personne ne l'aime.

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