Breakdown of Ce qu'il a fait est impardonnable : il a poignardé mon ami.
être
to be
il
he
l'ami
the friend (m)
avoir
to have
faire
to do, to make
mon
my (mon, ma, mes)
ce que
what (object)
poignarder
to stab
impardonnable
unforgivable
Questions & Answers about Ce qu'il a fait est impardonnable : il a poignardé mon ami.
This lesson is about the indignant independent subjunctive, but there isn't a subjunctive in this sentence. How could I express this using the lesson's grammar?
You could drop the introductory clauses and use an independent past subjunctive to express your shock directly: Qu'il ait fait ça ! (That he would do that!) or Qu'il ait poignardé mon ami ! (That he would stab my friend!). The structure Que + [subjunctive] ! shows strong emotion or indignation without needing a main clause like 'Je suis choqué que...'.
Why do we use ce qu' here instead of quoi for 'what'?
When 'what' means 'the thing that' at the start of a clause, French uses a demonstrative pronoun (ce) plus a relative pronoun (que or qui). Here, the verb a fait needs a direct object (he did the thing), so we use que. Because il starts with a vowel, ce que il contracts to ce qu'il.
Is the verb poignarder related to the word for 'fist'?
I notice there is a space before the colon. Is that a typo?
No, it is a strict rule in French typography. Two-part punctuation marks (like colons, semicolons, exclamation marks, and question marks) require a space before them. You will always see a space before the colon, as in impardonnable : il.
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