Learn French: Il doit choisir entre fuir et se fondre parmi la multitude. - He must choose between fleeing and blending in among the multitude.

Il doit choisir entre fuir et se fondre parmi la multitude.

He must choose between fleeing and blending in among the multitude.

Breakdown of Il doit choisir entre fuir et se fondre parmi la multitude.

Questions & Answers about Il doit choisir entre fuir et se fondre parmi la multitude.

Why does this sentence use both entre and parmi?

It perfectly illustrates the lesson! We use entre (between) for the two specific, distinct choices: fuir and se fondre. We use parmi (among) for a collective mass or a larger group where the individual gets lost, like la multitude.

Why is it entre fuir et se fondre instead of using present participles like the English translation fleeing and blending?

In French, when a verb directly follows a preposition like entre, it must always be in the infinitive form. The only preposition that takes the present participle (the French equivalent of an -ing verb) is en.

I learned that fondre means to melt. Why is it used reflexively as se fondre here?

Used reflexively, se fondre literally means to melt oneself into something else. In contexts involving groups of people or environments, it is the standard and very natural way to say to blend in or to merge.

Is la multitude just another way to say a lot of things?

It can mean a multitude of objects, but in slightly formal or literary French, la multitude specifically refers to the masses or the crowd. Paired with parmi, it creates a strong image of disappearing into a sea of people.