Learn French: Pourquoi se sert-il de cette robe sublime et audacieuse ? - Why does he use this sublime and daring dress?

Pourquoi se sert-il de cette robe sublime et audacieuse ?

Why does he use this sublime and daring dress?

Breakdown of Pourquoi se sert-il de cette robe sublime et audacieuse ?

Questions & Answers about Pourquoi se sert-il de cette robe sublime et audacieuse ?

The base verb is servir (to serve). How does adding se and de change its meaning in this sentence?

This is a perfect example of a prepositional meaning shift. While servir means to serve, the reflexive structure se servir de means to use. Be careful not to confuse it with servir de without the reflexive pronoun, which means to serve as or to act as.

Since the verb is se servir de, how would we say 'Why does he use it?' instead of 'Why does he use this dress?'

Because the verb requires the preposition de, you must use the pronoun en to replace the whole phrase de cette robe. The pronoun always goes before the verb block, making the question Pourquoi s'en sert-il ?

How does the subject-verb inversion work with a reflexive verb like se servir?

In a formal question, you swap the subject pronoun and the conjugated verb. The reflexive pronoun (se) stays locked to the front of the verb. So the statement il se sert turns into the question se sert-il.

Why are the adjectives sublime and audacieuse placed after robe and joined by et?