Breakdown of Nous avons recueilli un chien errant hier.
un
a / an (masculine)
le chien
the dog
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
avoir
to have
hier
yesterday
recueillir
to take in
errant
stray
Questions & Answers about Nous avons recueilli un chien errant hier.
The verb here is recueillir. Does it just mean 'to collect', or is there a specific nuance when talking about animals?
While recueillir can mean 'to gather' or 'to collect' (like data or rainwater), when used with people or animals, it specifically means 'to take in' or 'to give shelter to'. It implies an act of rescue or providing a safe haven, which makes it the standard verb for taking in a stray animal.
errant looks like an -ing verb. Is it functioning as an adjective here?
Why is hier placed at the very end of the sentence instead of between the auxiliary verb and the past participle?
Adverbs of specific time, like hier (yesterday), aujourd'hui (today), or demain (tomorrow), usually go at the very beginning or the very end of a sentence. Unlike short adverbs (such as souvent or déjà), they are almost never placed between the auxiliary verb (avons) and the past participle (recueilli).
The past participle recueilli looks intimidating. What verb family does it belong to?
It comes from recueillir, which is a highly irregular -ir verb. It conjugates exactly like cueillir (to pick/gather) and accueillir (to welcome). A tricky B2 reminder: despite ending in -ir, in the present tense these verbs actually take the endings of regular -er verbs (e.g., je recueille, nous recueillons).
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