Breakdown of Nous avons du mal à prouver sa culpabilité.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
prouver
to prove
avoir du mal à
to have trouble
la culpabilité
the guilt
Questions & Answers about Nous avons du mal à prouver sa culpabilité.
Why do we use avoir du mal à rather than just translating 'to have trouble' literally?
Native French speakers overwhelmingly use the fixed expression avoir du mal à to mean 'to have a hard time' or 'to have trouble' doing something. While you could technically say avoir des difficultés à, avoir du mal à is much more common and natural for everyday speech. Always follow it with an infinitive verb.
Since the English translation says 'his guilt', why does the sentence use the feminine sa instead of son?
In French, possessive adjectives always agree with the gender of the noun being possessed, not the gender of the owner. Because culpabilité (guilt) is a feminine noun, you must use the feminine possessive sa, even if the person who is guilty is male.
Is there a trick to remembering the gender of a word like culpabilité?
Yes! Abstract nouns ending in the suffix -té are almost always feminine. This suffix usually corresponds to English words ending in '-ty', such as la liberté (liberty), la sécurité (security), and la culpabilité (guilt).
Why is the verb prouver left in its infinitive form?
When a verb directly follows a preposition like à, de, pour, or sans, it must be in the infinitive form. Because the expression is avoir du mal à, the action that follows (prouver) is not conjugated.
Learn Nous avons du mal à prouver sa culpabilité and more in French
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free