Question 1

The current lesson focuses on en dépit de. Could we use that here instead of malgré?

Accepted Answer

Yes, absolutely. Both malgré and en dépit de mean 'despite' or 'in spite of', and both are followed directly by a noun. You could completely swap it to say en dépit de la surveillance et de l'interrogatoire. En dépit de simply belongs to a slightly more formal register, whereas malgré is extremely common in everyday speech and writing.

Question 2

Why is it malgré la surveillance rather than just malgré surveillance like in English?

Accepted Answer

In French, nouns almost always require an article, including abstract concepts or general categories that skip the article in English. After prepositions of concession like malgré or en dépit de, you must retain the definite article (le, la, les, l') before the noun.

Question 3

What gender is l'interrogatoire, and is there a rule for words ending in -oire?

Accepted Answer

It is masculine (un interrogatoire). Words ending in -oire can be tricky because many common ones are feminine (like la mémoire or la gloire). However, nouns derived from verbs that indicate the result of an action or a place (like le laboratoire or l'interrogatoire) are generally masculine.

Question 4

Should I make a spoken liaison between et and l'interrogatoire?

Accepted Answer

No, it is a strict rule in French pronunciation that you must never make a liaison after the conjunction et (and). You pronounce it as a clean 'ay' sound and then start the next word without carrying the 't' over.

L'informateur parle malgré la surveillance et l'interrogatoire.

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