Breakdown of Elle a dû se faire arracher une dent pour avoir caché sa carie.
une
a / an (feminine)
elle
she
pour
for
avoir
to have
faire
to do, to make
cacher
to hide
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
devoir
to have to / must
la dent
the tooth
se
himself, herself, themselves (reflexive)
arracher
to pull out
Questions & Answers about Elle a dû se faire arracher une dent pour avoir caché sa carie.
Why use pour avoir caché here instead of pour cacher?
Pour avoir caché is the past infinitive. In French, pour + past infinitive is used to express the cause of an action when that cause happened before the main event. She hid the cavity first, which led to the tooth being pulled. Using pour cacher (the present infinitive) would change the meaning to express a goal: 'in order to hide'.
How does the phrase se faire arracher work?
This uses the reflexive causative construction (se faire + infinitive). The verb faire followed by an infinitive means 'to have something done' by someone else. Adding the reflexive pronoun se shows that the subject had the action done to herself. Literally, it means 'to make [someone] pull a tooth from herself'.
Why is the reflexive pronoun se placed before faire and not before a dû?
Why use the passé composé (a dû) instead of the imparfait (devait) for 'had to'?
Using the passé composé (a dû) shows that this was a specific, completed event—she was forced to get it pulled, and the action was completed. If you used the imparfait (devait), it would just describe her past circumstances ('she needed to get it pulled') but would leave it open as to whether she actually went through with the extraction.
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