Learn Hardcore French: C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui. - She is the most serious candidate that the manager has seen today.

C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui.

She is the most serious candidate that the manager has seen today.

Breakdown of C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui.

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Questions & Answers about C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui.

Why is it C'est la candidate and not Elle est la candidate?

In French, you normally use C'est + noun to identify someone, especially when you have:

a noun (candidate)
possibly with an article (la) and an adjective (sérieuse)

So:

C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse… = She is the most serious candidate…

Elle est is used more often with:

just an adjective: Elle est sérieuse. (She is serious.)
or an occupation/noun without article: Elle est candidate. (She is a candidate.)

But once you put an article (la candidate) and more description, C'est… is the normal choice.

Why is it la candidate and not le candidat?

French nouns that refer to people usually have a masculine and a feminine form.

un candidat = a (male) candidate
une candidate = a (female) candidate

Here, the person is female, so you must use the feminine forms:

article: la (not le)
noun: candidate (not candidat)

That feminine gender then triggers agreement in the rest of the sentence (for example: sérieuse, vue).

Why do we say la plus sérieuse and not la plus sérieux?

Sérieux / sérieuse is an adjective. In French, adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

masculine singular: sérieux
feminine singular: sérieuse
masculine plural: sérieux
feminine plural: sérieuses

Here, the noun is la candidate (feminine singular), so the adjective must also be feminine singular:

la candidate la plus sérieuse

If the candidate were male, it would be:

le candidat le plus sérieux

How is the superlative built in la plus sérieuse?

French forms the “most / least + adjective” superlative like this:

definite article (le / la / les) + plus / moins + adjective

In this sentence:

definite article: la (feminine, for la candidate)
superlative marker: plus (most / more)
adjective: sérieuse

So la plus sérieuse = the most serious.

Full structure:

C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse…
→ She is the most serious candidate…

Why is it que le responsable ait vue and not qui le responsable ait vue?

The choice between que and qui in relative clauses depends on the role of the word in the clause:

qui = subject of the verb in the relative clause
que = direct object of the verb in the relative clause

In the relative part …que le responsable ait vue…:

le responsable is the subject of ait vue (the manager is the one who saw)
que refers back to la candidate and is the direct object of voir

So the structure is:

le responsable (subject)
ait vue (verb phrase)
que = whom the manager saw

That’s why you need que, not qui.

What does le responsable mean here? Is it an adjective or a noun?

Here le responsable is a noun, not an adjective.

As an adjective, responsable means responsible:
- Elle est responsable. (She is responsible.)
As a noun, un / le responsable means the person in charge, the manager, the supervisor.

In the sentence, le responsable means “the person in charge / the manager” who is doing the seeing. It is masculine here because we say le; but responsable itself is gender-neutral in form:

le responsable (male manager)
la responsable (female manager)

What tense is ait vue and how is it formed?

Ait vue is the subjunctive past (passé du subjonctif) of voir.

It is formed with:

subjunctive present of avoir (here: ait, 3rd person singular)
- past participle of the main verb (vu, which becomes vue because of agreement – see next question)

So:

infinitive: voir
subjunctive present of avoir: qu'il ait
past participle: vu → vue (agrees with la candidate)

→ (que) le responsable ait vue = that the manager has seen.

Why do we use the subjunctive (ait vue) after la plus sérieuse? Could we say que le responsable a vue instead?

With superlatives like le plus…, la seule…, le meilleur… etc., French often uses the subjunctive when the statement expresses a subjective judgment, an evaluation, or something not fully objective.

Here, la candidate la plus sérieuse is the speaker’s judgment:

the most serious candidate (in his opinion)

So French typically uses the subjunctive:

C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui.

Using the indicative instead:

…que le responsable a vue aujourd'hui

is grammatically possible, but it sounds more factual, less evaluative—as if you are just stating an objective record rather than making a subjective assessment.

In practice:

subjunctive (ait vue) → the one he considers the most serious
indicative (a vue) → more like the most serious one he happened to see (factually)

Many native speakers would naturally choose the subjunctive here.

Why is vue written with an -e? Shouldn’t the past participle of voir be vu?

The basic past participle of voir is vu.

However, with avoir as the auxiliary, the past participle agrees in gender and number with a preceding direct object.

In que le responsable ait vue:

the verb is avoir in the subjunctive (ait)
the past participle is vu
que refers back to la candidate (feminine singular)
que is the direct object of voir and it comes before ait

So vu must agree with la candidate → feminine singular: vue.

Compare:

Le responsable a vu la candidate. (no agreement; object follows, stays vu)
La candidate que le responsable a vue. (object la candidate comes before → vue)

Same logic here, even though we’re in the subjunctive:

…que le responsable ait vue…

Why is the order que le responsable ait vue and not something like qu'ait vue le responsable?

In normal (non-question) French clauses, the standard order is:

subject + verb + object

So we say:

le responsable (subject)
ait vue (verb phrase)
que (object that has been moved to the front, but grammatically it’s the object)

We do not invert subject and verb in a relative clause like this. Inversion (e.g. a-t-il, a vu le responsable) is mostly used in:

formal questions: A-t-il vu la candidate ?
some literary or very formal written styles

But here we’re in a relative clause, not a question, so we keep normal word order:

…que le responsable ait vue… ✔
…qu'ait vue le responsable… ✘ (would sound like odd, archaic or poetic style at best)

Why is aujourd'hui at the end of the sentence? Could it go somewhere else?

Time expressions like aujourd'hui often go at the end of the clause:

…que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui.

This is very natural. However, French allows some flexibility. You could say, for example:

C'est aujourd'hui la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable ait vue. (emphasizes “today”)
C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse qu'aujourd'hui le responsable ait vue. (possible but more marked / literary)

The most neutral and common position is exactly as in the original:

…ait vue aujourd'hui.

Could we say C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse des candidats que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui?

You could say:

C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse des candidats que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui.

But it is a bit heavy and redundant, because candidate already tells us she is one of the candidates.

More natural alternatives:

C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui. (original)
C'est la plus sérieuse des candidats que le responsable ait vue aujourd'hui. (dropping candidate, keeping “of the candidates”)

Both clearly express that she is the most serious among the candidates.

How do you pronounce ait here, and how is it different from est?

Both ait (from avoir, subjunctive) and est (from être, indicative) are often pronounced exactly the same in everyday spoken French:

ait → /ɛ/
est → /ɛ/

So in speech, you distinguish them only by context and grammar, not by sound.

In the sentence:

…que le responsable ait vue…

you know it must be ait (not est) because:

it is the auxiliary for a past tense of voir
être is not used as auxiliary for voir (we say a vu, not est vu, except in the passive voice)

So pronunciation:

ait = /ɛ/ (like the vowel in English “bed”, but a bit more closed)
vue = /vy/ (similar to “vu” with rounded lips)

Even though ait and est sound the same, they play different grammatical roles.

Is there a simpler, more conversational way to say this in French?

Yes, in everyday speech someone might say something like:

C'est la candidate la plus sérieuse que le responsable a vue aujourd'hui.
(using a vue instead of ait vue, dropping the subjunctive nuance)

Or even simpler, avoiding the relative clause:

Parmi toutes les candidates qu'il a vues aujourd'hui, c'est la plus sérieuse.
(Among all the candidates he saw today, she’s the most serious.)

The original sentence is correct and quite natural, but it leans slightly toward more careful or written style because of the subjunctive.