Breakdown of Je range chaque fichier dans un dossier auquel Marie ajoute ses notes.
Questions & Answers about Je range chaque fichier dans un dossier auquel Marie ajoute ses notes.
Ranger means to put away / to tidy / to file with an idea of order and proper place.
- Je range chaque fichier…
→ I am putting each file away where it belongs, in an orderly way.
Compare:
- Je mets chaque fichier dans un dossier.
Just “I put each file in a folder.” Neutral, no strong idea of tidying or system. - J’organise mes fichiers.
“I organize my files.” Focus on arranging or planning a system, not simply putting them away.
So ranger is the normal verb when you talk about tidying up, filing documents, or putting things back in their proper place.
Both are grammatically correct, but they don’t emphasize the same thing.
- chaque fichier
- singular noun:
- Literally “each file”
- Stresses that you handle them one by one, individually.
- singular noun:
- tous les fichiers
- plural noun:
- “all the files”
- Stresses the set as a whole.
- plural noun:
In this sentence, chaque fichier suggests the action is repeated for each file separately, which fits the idea of a regular, systematic filing process.
Remember: chaque is always followed by a singular noun, even though the meaning is “each/every” over multiple items.
- un dossier = a folder / a file (non-specific, any such folder)
- le dossier = the folder / the file (a specific one that the speaker and listener already know about)
In Je range chaque fichier dans un dossier auquel Marie ajoute ses notes, using un suggests a general procedure:
- “I file each file in a folder to which Marie adds her notes.”
(This is the way we work; it’s not necessarily one unique known folder.)
If you said dans le dossier, it would sound like all the files go into one particular, already identified folder, which is less likely in this context.
Auquel is a relative pronoun meaning “to which”. It is formed from:
- à + lequel → auquel
It refers back to un dossier, which is masculine and singular, so we choose the masculine singular form:
- masculine singular: auquel
- feminine singular: à laquelle
- masculine plural: auxquels
- feminine plural: auxquelles
Here, auquel stands for à + dossier:
- un dossier auquel Marie ajoute ses notes
= a folder to which Marie adds her notes
= a folder that Marie adds her notes to
In French, when a verb needs a preposition before its object, that preposition must stay in front of the relative pronoun; you cannot drop it.
The verb here is ajouter in the structure:
- ajouter quelque chose à quelque chose
→ to add something to something
So literally we have:
- ajouter ses notes à un dossier
→ add her notes to a folder
When we turn this into a relative clause, un dossier is replaced by a relative pronoun, and the preposition à must be kept:
- un dossier auquel Marie ajoute ses notes
(à + lequel)
If you used only que:
- un dossier que Marie ajoute ses notes
this would be ungrammatical, because:
- The preposition à is missing (we need “add notes to a folder”).
- French does not allow leaving the preposition at the end of the clause as English does (“…folder that Marie adds her notes to”).
So auquel is required to carry the preposition à.
Not with the verb ajouter in its usual pattern.
The standard construction is:
- ajouter des notes à un dossier
→ add notes to a file/folder
Because the verb takes à, the most natural relative pronoun is auquel (= à + lequel).
Dans lequel would correspond to “in which” and fits better with verbs or expressions that naturally use dans:
- un dossier dans lequel Marie range ses notes
→ a folder in which Marie stores her notes
You might occasionally see ajouter des notes dans un dossier in real usage, but grammatically the basic pattern is ajouter … à …, so for teaching and correctness, auquel is the appropriate choice here.
Ses is a possessive adjective that agrees with the thing possessed, not with the person who possesses it.
- notes is feminine plural → use ses.
So:
- ses notes = “her notes” or “his notes” or “their notes”, depending on context.
In this sentence, it is most naturally understood as Marie’s notes because:
- In the relative clause, Marie is the subject: Marie ajoute ses notes.
- With no other person mentioned in that clause, ses is taken to refer to Marie.
Grammatically, nothing forces ses to belong to Marie; the context does. But in normal reading, you will interpret ses notes here as “Marie’s notes.”
The verb agrees with the subject, not with the object.
- Subject of the relative clause: Marie (third person singular)
- Verb: ajouter → ajoute in the present tense, third person singular
- Direct object: ses notes (plural) – this does not control the verb ending.
So we get:
- Marie ajoute ses notes.
Using ajoutent would be wrong here because that form is used with a plural subject (e.g. ils/elles ajoutent).
English allows a preposition to be “stranded” at the end of a relative clause:
- “the folder that Marie adds her notes to”
French does not allow this. The preposition must come before the relative pronoun:
- le dossier auquel Marie ajoute ses notes
literally: “the folder to which Marie adds her notes”
So you cannot say:
- ✗ le dossier que Marie ajoute ses notes à
That would sound very wrong to a native speaker. The preposition à must be placed before the relative pronoun (lequel → auquel).
In French, the present tense can express:
- A general habit or routine
- Instructions or a procedure
- Something happening right now
In this sentence, it most naturally describes a regular procedure:
- Je range chaque fichier…
- …auquel Marie ajoute ses notes.
So it is understood as:
- “I (normally) file each file in a folder, and Marie (normally) adds her notes to it.”
You could use other tenses to change the time frame:
- Je rangeais… / Marie ajoutait… → I used to file… / Marie used to add… (imperfect, past habit)
- J’ai rangé… / Marie a ajouté… → I filed… / Marie added… (completed past action)
But with no specific time reference, the present tense is the default for describing a general, habitual process.