Breakdown of J'écoute la femme qui marchande les prix.
je
I
la femme
the woman
qui
who
écouter
to listen to
le prix
the price
marchander
to haggle
Questions & Answers about J'écoute la femme qui marchande les prix.
Why does the French sentence use qui marchande to mean "haggling"? Shouldn't it be a present participle?
While English uses the "-ing" form for actions in progress after perception verbs (like "listen to"), French generally avoids the present participle (marchandant) here. Instead, it uses a relative clause with qui to describe an ongoing action. So, "the woman haggling" becomes la femme qui marchande (literally "the woman who haggles").
Could I use the infinitive here and say J'écoute la femme marchander?
Yes, absolutely! With perception verbs like écouter, voir, or entendre, you can use either an infinitive or a qui clause. J'écoute la femme marchander is perfectly correct. The qui structure just puts a bit more emphasis on the fact that the haggling is happening right in the middle of your listening.
Why isn't there a preposition after écoute? I expected something like écoute à la femme for "listen to the woman".
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