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Le stress empêche Marie de parler.

Le stress empêche Marie de parler.
Stress prevents Marie from speaking.
FromLesson 9inHardcore French

Breakdown of Le stress empêche Marie de parler.

Marie
Marie
de
of
parler
to speak
empêcher
to prevent
le stress
the stress

Questions & Answers about Le stress empêche Marie de parler.

What is the function of the preposition de before the infinitive parler?
In French, many verbs—including empêcher—are followed by de when linking to an infinitive. This verb + de + infinitive construction is required to show that the action (in this case, parler) is being prevented.
Why is the verb empêcher conjugated as empêche in this sentence?
Empêche is the third person singular present tense form of empêcher, which means “to prevent” or “to hinder.” It agrees with the singular subject le stress.
Why does parler remain in its infinitive form instead of being conjugated?
Because parler follows the construction empêcher de, it must remain in the infinitive. In such structures, the main verb (empêcher) is conjugated, while the verb that follows stays in its base (infinitive) form to indicate the action that is being affected.
What does the article le indicate about the noun stress in this sentence?
The article le shows that stress is a masculine noun in French. Even though stress is borrowed from English, it takes on a masculine gender in French grammar.
Can you provide another example using the empêcher de + infinitive construction?
Certainly! An example would be: Le bruit empêche les enfants de dormir, which means “The noise prevents the children from sleeping.” This sentence follows the same structure: subject + empêche + object + de + infinitive.
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“How does grammatical gender work in French?”
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles and adjectives used with it. "Le" is used with masculine nouns and "la" with feminine ones. Adjectives also change form to match — for example, "petit" (masc.) becomes "petite" (fem.).

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