Breakdown of Le policier est licencié pour avoir fait exploser le bâtiment.
être
to be
pour
for
avoir
to have
faire
to do, to make
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
le bâtiment
the building
licencier
to fire
le policier
the police officer
exploser
to explode
Questions & Answers about Le policier est licencié pour avoir fait exploser le bâtiment.
Why does this sentence use pour avoir fait instead of just pour faire?
We use pour followed by the past infinitive (which is avoir or être plus a past participle) to show that an action was entirely completed before the main action happened. Here, the blowing up of the building happened before he was fired. It expresses a similar idea of a completed past action as une fois que, but pour also explains the reason for the firing.
Could we rewrite this sentence using une fois que to practice the current lesson?
Yes, you could say Le policier est licencié une fois qu'il a fait exploser le bâtiment (The police officer is fired once he has blown up the building). However, the original sentence using pour is much more natural here because it emphasizes the reason he was fired, whereas une fois que only focuses on the timing.
Why is there a fait before exploser?
This is the causative construction, which uses faire followed by an infinitive to mean causing something to happen or having something done. The police officer did not physically explode; he caused the building to explode, so avoir fait exploser translates to having blown up.
Is est licencié an action in the passive voice or just an adjective describing his state?
It is the passive voice, formed with être plus the past participle. In French, the passive voice often looks identical to a state described by an adjective. Here, context tells us it is the action of him being fired as a direct consequence of his actions, rather than just describing his current employment status.
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