Breakdown of Quant à ma sœur, elle a peint toute la cuisine elle-même.
elle
she
la sœur
the sister
avoir
to have
la cuisine
the kitchen
mon
my (mon, ma, mes)
tout
all, everything
peindre
to paint
quant à
as for
elle-même
herself
Questions & Answers about Quant à ma sœur, elle a peint toute la cuisine elle-même.
Why do we use elle-même here instead of the reflexive pronoun se?
Elle-même is an emphatic pronoun that stresses she did the work personally, without help. If you used the reflexive pronoun se (as in elle s'est peinte), it would mean she literally painted her own body!
Does elle-même always go at the very end of the sentence?
Not always, but placing it at the end of the clause is the most common way to emphasize that the action was done alone. You could also place it right after the auxiliary verb (elle a elle-même peint), but the end position is very natural here.
How does Quant à work? Does the à ever change?
Quant à means 'as for' or 'regarding.' The à follows the normal rules of contraction with definite articles. If it were 'as for the brother,' it would be Quant au frère. Here, because it precedes the possessive ma, no contraction is needed.
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