Breakdown of Ces incivilités, elles nous agacent toute l'année.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
elles
they (feminine)
ce
this (before a noun)
tout
all, everything
l'année
the year (f)
l'incivilité
the incivility (f)
agacer
to annoy (mildly)
Questions & Answers about Ces incivilités, elles nous agacent toute l'année.
Why use Ces incivilités, elles... instead of just Ces incivilités nous agacent...?
This is a classic example of left dislocation (la thématisation). By pulling the noun phrase Ces incivilités to the very front of the sentence and separating it with a comma, you highlight it as the main topic. Because you have detached it, you must use the pronoun elles as the actual grammatical subject for the verb agacent. This structure is extremely common in spoken French to add emphasis.
Is incivilités commonly used in French? "Incivilities" sounds very formal in English.
Yes, it is much more common in everyday French! Une incivilité broadly covers minor antisocial behaviors, public rudeness, or everyday nuisances (like littering, being loud on public transport, or cutting in line). While it sounds a bit academic in English, you will hear it constantly in French news and daily conversations.
Why does the sentence use toute l'année rather than tous les ans?
Is nous a direct or indirect object in this sentence?
It is a direct object. The verb is agacer quelqu'un (to annoy someone), which takes a direct object without the preposition à. As an object pronoun, nous is placed right before the conjugated verb.
Since agacer is a verb ending in -cer, why doesn't agacent have a cedilla (ç)?
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