Breakdown of La présélection contient dix croquis, dont cinq vont être écartés demain.
être
to be
cinq
five
dix
ten
aller
to go
demain
tomorrow
dont
whose / about which / of which
contenir
to contain
la présélection
the shortlist
écarter
to discard
le croquis
the sketch (drawing)
Questions & Answers about La présélection contient dix croquis, dont cinq vont être écartés demain.
How does dont work to mean "of which" in this sentence?
In French, dont replaces the preposition de plus a noun. When singling out a subset of a larger group, you use dont followed by the number or quantity. Here, dont cinq translates directly to "of which five" and refers back to the ten croquis mentioned earlier.
What is the grammatical subject of vont in the second half of the sentence?
The subject is the number cinq. Even though the relative pronoun dont connects the two clauses, the actual subject governing the verb is the subset itself. Since cinq acts as a plural subject here, the verb is conjugated in the plural form as vont.
Why does the past participle écartés end with an s?
The phrase vont être écartés uses the passive voice. In French passive constructions, the past participle must agree in gender and number with the subject. Here, the subject cinq refers to croquis, which is a masculine plural noun, so écartés takes a masculine plural s.
Does écartés mean the same thing as jetés (thrown away)?
Not exactly. While jetés implies physically throwing something in the trash, écartés comes from the verb écarter, which means to move aside, rule out, or dismiss. In the context of a présélection (shortlist), the sketches are simply being eliminated from consideration, making écartés the much more natural choice.
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