Question 1

Does quant à change its form depending on the noun that follows it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it behaves just like the regular preposition à. Because responsabilité is feminine, it stays quant à la. If the noun were masculine, it would contract to quant au (e.g., quant au projet), and for plural nouns it becomes quant aux.

Question 2

Why do we need the pronoun elle before est énorme?

Accepted Answer

In French, phrases starting with quant à introduce a topic, but they cannot act as the grammatical subject of the main verb. You must use a subject pronoun (like elle, referring back to the feminine la responsabilité) for the verb est. Without elle, the sentence would be grammatically incomplete.

Question 3

Could I use en ce qui concerne instead of quant à here?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. You could say En ce qui concerne la responsabilité du projet, elle est énorme. Both mean exactly the same thing, but quant à is shorter. Just remember that en ce qui concerne never changes its form, whereas quant à requires contractions like au or aux depending on the noun.

Question 4

Is the 't' in quant à pronounced?

Accepted Answer

Yes, there is a mandatory liaison. The t connects smoothly to the à, so it is pronounced as /kɑ̃.ta/ (kahn-tah). It is always pronounced this way because quant is never used without à (or aux / au) immediately following it.

Quant à la responsabilité du projet, elle est énorme.

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