Breakdown of Le garçon a pleuré à la clinique dentaire pour avoir arraché son plombage.
le garçon
the boy
pour
for
avoir
to have
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
pleurer
to cry
arracher
to pull out
dentaire
dental
la clinique
the clinic
le plombage
the filling
Questions & Answers about Le garçon a pleuré à la clinique dentaire pour avoir arraché son plombage.
Why do we use pour avoir arraché instead of pour arracher?
We use pour followed by the past infinitive (avoir or être plus the past participle) to express the cause of an action that is already completed. If we used the present infinitive pour arracher, it would indicate purpose, meaning he cried in order to pull out his filling, which does not make sense here.
How do we know who pulled out the filling? Could it have been the dentist?
No, it was definitely the boy. In French, when you use pour plus an infinitive, the subject of that infinitive must be exactly the same as the subject of the main verb. Since Le garçon is the one who cried, he must also be the one who pulled out the filling. If the dentist had done it, you would need a different structure, such as parce que le dentiste a arraché.
Does arracher just mean to pull?
Is un plombage the usual word for a dental filling?
Yes. It comes from plomb, the French word for the metal lead, because fillings historically contained lead alloys. Even though modern dental fillings use materials like resin or ceramic, un plombage remains the everyday term.
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