Learn French: J'avais élargi ce pantalon parce qu'il était trop petit. - I had widened these pants because they were too small.

J'avais élargi ce pantalon parce qu'il était trop petit.

I had widened these pants because they were too small.

Breakdown of J'avais élargi ce pantalon parce qu'il était trop petit.

Questions & Answers about J'avais élargi ce pantalon parce qu'il était trop petit.

The lesson is about causative faire (having something done). Why don't we use fait élargir in this sentence?

In English, the word "had" can be a helper verb for the past perfect ("I had widened it myself") or a causative verb ("I had it widened by a tailor"). Here, it's the past perfect: the speaker did the widening themselves, so we just use the plus-que-parfait tense (j'avais élargi). If someone else had done it for them, you would use the causative structure: J'avais fait élargir ce pantalon.

Why is the singular ce pantalon translated as the plural "these pants"?

In French, a pair of pants is treated as a single item (un pantalon). While English treats words like "pants", "trousers", or "shorts" as inherently plural, French treats them as singular. Therefore, it takes the singular demonstrative adjective ce (this/that).

Since "pants" is plural in English, why does the second half of the sentence use il était?

Pronouns must agree with the grammatical gender and number of the French noun they replace, not the English translation. Since pantalon is masculine singular, it is replaced by il (it), and the verb must be conjugated in the singular (était).

How is the verb élargir formed?