Question 1

Why is the verb cachent placed before the subject les nénuphars?

Accepted Answer

This is a stylistic subject-verb inversion. In a relative clause starting with the direct object que, French often allows you to flip the subject and the verb. Saying que cachent les nénuphars instead of que les nénuphars cachent sounds more elegant and prevents the sentence from ending awkwardly with a verb.

Question 2

Since the relative pronoun is followed immediately by a verb, shouldn't we use qui instead of que?

Accepted Answer

No, because the pond isn't doing the hiding! The pronoun que acts as the direct object, while les nénuphars is the subject doing the action. If you used qui (the subject pronoun), it would mean the pond is hiding the water lilies. The stylistic inversion puts the verb next to que, which is a classic reading trap for English speakers.

Question 3

Why is cachent plural if it comes right after the singular bassin?

Accepted Answer

The verb must agree with its subject, no matter the word order. Because of the inversion, the plural subject les nénuphars comes after the verb. Since the water lilies are doing the hiding, the verb cacher must be conjugated in the plural as cachent.

Question 4

Would I use bassin to talk about any kind of pond?

Accepted Answer

Not quite. A bassin typically refers to an ornamental, man-made pool or pond, like one you would see in a botanical garden or a courtyard. If you are talking about a natural, wild pond out in nature, you would usually say un étang.

Regarde le grand bassin que cachent les nénuphars.

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