Elle raconte une histoire très drôle à ses voisins.

she

Breakdown of Elle raconte une histoire très drôle à ses voisins.

• à: to
• raconter: to tell
• l'histoire: the story

Questions & Answers about Elle raconte une histoire très drôle à ses voisins.

What does raconte tell me about the verb (tense, person, etc.), and what is the infinitive?

Raconte is the present tense, 3rd person singular form of the verb raconter (to tell, to narrate).

• Infinitive: raconter
• Present tense:
  • je raconte
  • tu racontes
  • il / elle / on raconte
  • nous racontons
  • vous racontez
  • ils / elles racontent

Here, Elle raconte = She tells / She is telling (in English, this can correspond to both simple present and present continuous).

Why is it raconte and not something like dit?

Both raconter and dire relate to communicating, but they are used differently:

• raconter = to tell / to narrate a story, an event, an anecdote
  
  • Elle raconte une histoire. – She tells a story.
• dire = to say, to tell (more about specific words, statements)
  
  • Elle dit la vérité. – She tells the truth.
  • Elle dit : “Je suis fatiguée.” – She says: “I’m tired.”

Because the sentence is about telling a story, raconter is the natural choice.