Breakdown of Les mâles ont beau être provocants, les femelles les ignorent.
être
to be
les
them (direct object pronoun)
ignorer
to be unaware of / to not know
avoir beau
to try in vain to
la femelle
the female
le mâle
the male
provocant
provocative
Questions & Answers about Les mâles ont beau être provocants, les femelles les ignorent.
Why is provocants spelled with a c instead of qu like the verb provoquer?
Here, provocants is a verbal adjective, not a present participle. For verbs ending in -quer, the present participle keeps the qu (like provoquant), but the verbal adjective changes to a c (like provocant). Since it acts as an adjective describing les mâles, it takes the c spelling and adds an s to agree with the plural subject.
If this were a present participle instead of an adjective, would it still have an s at the end?
No. Present participles are invariable in French, meaning they never add an e or an s to agree with nouns. Only verbal adjectives change their endings to match gender and number. If the sentence were built to use the present participle, it would be provoquant with no s.
How does ont beau être translate to "may well be"?
The fixed expression avoir beau followed by an infinitive (here, être) expresses a concession or a futile effort. While it literally looks like "to have beautiful to be", it means "even though the subject is" or "the subject may well be". It highlights that despite the males' efforts, the females do not care.
I learned that ignorer means "to not know". Can it also mean "to ignore" like in English?
Yes! While its primary and most common meaning is "to be unaware of" or "to not know", ignorer can also mean "to intentionally pay no attention to" depending on the context. In this sentence, because the females are reacting to provocative behavior, the behavioral meaning fits perfectly.
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