Breakdown of Il a mal aujourd'hui pour avoir ignoré cette carie.
il
he
pour
for
avoir
to have
ce
this (before a noun)
aujourd'hui
today
avoir mal
to be in pain, to hurt
ignorer
to be unaware of / to not know
la carie
the cavity
Questions & Answers about Il a mal aujourd'hui pour avoir ignoré cette carie.
Why use pour avoir ignoré instead of parce qu'il a ignoré?
Both options are correct and mean he is in pain because he ignored the cavity. However, pour followed by a past infinitive (avoir or être + past participle) is a concise, slightly more advanced way to express the cause of a current situation. It translates perfectly to "for having [done something]". Keep in mind that you can only use this structure if the subject of both parts of the sentence is the exact same person.
Why can't we just use the present infinitive and say pour ignorer?
When you use pour + present infinitive, it expresses a goal or purpose ("in order to..."). Saying pour ignorer would mean he is in pain in order to ignore the cavity, which doesn't make sense! To express a cause based on an action that is already finished, you must use the past infinitive (pour avoir ignoré).
The English translates to "He is in pain." Why does the French use avoir (Il a mal) instead of être?
Could the past participle ignoré ever change its ending in this type of structure?
Yes! The past infinitive follows the exact same agreement rules as the passé composé. Because it uses the auxiliary verb avoir, the past participle ignoré must agree if a direct object comes before it. If we replaced cette carie with the pronoun l', the sentence would become: Il a mal aujourd'hui pour l'avoir ignorée (adding an -e because carie is feminine).
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