Breakdown of Une catégorie sociale, telle que la famille, détermine souvent la culture.
une
a / an (feminine)
souvent
often
la famille
the family
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
déterminer
to determine
social
social
la catégorie
the category
tel que
such as (tel que, telle que, tels que, telles que)
la culture
the culture
Questions & Answers about Une catégorie sociale, telle que la famille, détermine souvent la culture.
Why is it "telle que" and not just "tel que"? Does it agree with "la famille"?
The phrase tel que agrees with the noun that comes before it—the category you are giving an example of. Here, that is Une catégorie sociale, which is feminine singular, so we use telle que. It does not agree with the specific example (la famille), even though they both happen to be feminine singular in this sentence!
How would the sentence change if it started with "Social categories" (plural)?
Could I put the adverb first and say "souvent détermine la culture"?
In English, I'd probably just say "determines culture" without "the". Why is there a "la" before "culture"?
French requires definite articles (le, la, les) when talking about abstract concepts, generalizations, or categories as a whole. Since the sentence refers to "culture" as a broad, general idea, you must include la.
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