Breakdown of Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est au prochain examen de français.
Questions & Answers about Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est au prochain examen de français.
Literally, ce à quoi means that to which.
- ce = that / the thing
- à = to
- quoi = which (used for things after a preposition)
So ce à quoi Marie pense = la chose à laquelle Marie pense = the thing to which Marie is thinking / what Marie is thinking about.
Functionally, ce à quoi is a neuter relative construction used when:
- you are talking about a thing (not a person), and
- the verb in the relative clause needs à (here penser à).
Because of the preposition à required by the verb penser à.
ce que is used when the verb in the relative clause does not take a preposition:
- Ce que Marie lit, c’est un roman.
= What Marie is reading is a novel. (verb lire has no preposition)
- Ce que Marie lit, c’est un roman.
ce à quoi is used when the verb needs à before its object:
- penser à quelque chose → ce à quoi Marie pense
So:
- Ce que Marie pense = what Marie thinks (her opinion)
- Ce à quoi Marie pense = what Marie is thinking about (the topic occupying her mind)
They are not interchangeable; they express two different ideas.
Both à come from the verb penser à:
In the first part, ce à quoi Marie pense:
- The à is inside the relative clause with penser à:
penser à [quelque chose] → ce à quoi [elle pense]
- The à is inside the relative clause with penser à:
In the second part, c’est au prochain examen de français:
- This is the thing she thinks about, and it also appears with à:
underlying simple sentence: Marie pense au prochain examen de français.
- This is the thing she thinks about, and it also appears with à:
The cleft structure is:
- Simple form: Marie pense à X.
- Cleft form: Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est à X.
So the preposition à appears:
- once in the relative clause (à quoi), and
- once introducing the focused element (au prochain examen).
Because we want to keep the same preposition that the verb penser requires.
- The base sentence is: Marie pense au prochain examen de français.
- When you turn this into a cleft, you are emphasizing what she thinks about, but the underlying verb is still penser à.
- So you must keep à:
Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est à X.
If you say:
- Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est le prochain examen de français,
you are dropping the à in the second part. Many speakers will find this at least odd, often simply incorrect, because the link with penser à is broken.
So c’est au prochain examen is the grammatically consistent choice.
This is a cleft sentence (in French: phrase clivée).
- It has two parts:
- Ce à quoi Marie pense (relative clause)
- c’est au prochain examen de français (focused element)
The cleft structure is used for emphasis, similar to English "What Marie is thinking about is the upcoming French exam."
The simpler, neutral equivalent sentence (without emphasis) is:
- Marie pense au prochain examen de français.
= Marie is thinking about the upcoming French exam.
The comma marks a natural pause between the relative clause and the main clause of the cleft structure:
- Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est au prochain examen de français.
In writing:
- The comma is strongly expected in standard French because it separates:
- the dependent clause (Ce à quoi Marie pense), and
- the main clause (c’est au prochain examen de français).
In speech:
- You would normally pause there.
- Omitting the comma in informal writing is possible, but in careful written French, it is best to keep it.
No, that is not idiomatic in standard French.
You need ce to introduce this kind of cleft structure:
- Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est au prochain examen de français.
Without ce:
- À quoi Marie pense, c’est au prochain examen
sounds incomplete or incorrect, because à quoi normally refers back to an explicit antecedent, and here there is none.
So in this pattern, you really need the full ce à quoi.
They follow different prepositions:
ce à quoi is used with verbs or expressions that take à:
- penser à, s’intéresser à, réfléchir à, s’habituer à, etc.
- Example: Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est à son examen.
ce dont is used with verbs or expressions that take de:
- parler de, avoir besoin de, avoir peur de, se souvenir de, etc.
- Example: Ce dont Marie parle, c’est de son examen. = What Marie is talking about is her exam.
So:
- penser à → ce à quoi
- parler de → ce dont
au is the contraction of à + le.
- examen is masculine singular: le examen → l’examen, but after à it becomes:
- à le examen → not allowed
- au examen → still awkward because of vowel; in practice we say:
- au prochain examen (the adjective breaks the vowel clash)
So:
- à + le = au
- à + les = aux
In the sentence:
- au prochain examen de français
= à le prochain examen de français (contracted form)
The position of adjectives in French can change meaning.
With prochain:
- le prochain examen (before the noun) = the next exam (in order, the following one)
- l’examen prochain (after the noun) is rare and would sound marked, literary, or have a nuance like the exam that is coming soon, not simply the next exam in sequence.
In everyday French, when you mean next, you almost always put prochain before the noun:
- la prochaine réunion = the next meeting
- le prochain bus = the next bus
- le prochain examen = the next exam
Adjectives in French agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
- examen is masculine singular:
- un examen
- Therefore:
- masculine singular form of prochain is prochain:
- un prochain examen
- masculine singular form of prochain is prochain:
Other forms of prochain:
- feminine singular: prochaine (ex. une prochaine réunion)
- masculine plural: prochains (ex. les prochains examens)
- feminine plural: prochaines (ex. les prochaines réunions)
de français specifies the subject of the exam: the French language.
- un examen de français = an exam of French (subject: French language)
- un examen français would normally mean:
- an exam that is French in origin or style (e.g. from France), not that the topic is French as a school subject.
In school/university contexts, French almost always uses:
- un examen de maths, un examen de biologie, un examen de français, etc.
to mean an exam in [subject].
The sentence in full cleft form:
- Ce à quoi Marie pense, c’est au prochain examen de français.
sounds a bit formal or written-like, because:
- it uses a cleft structure, and
- it contains ce à quoi, which is more typical of careful French.
In everyday spoken French, you’d more likely hear:
- Marie pense au prochain examen de français.
- Ce à quoi elle pense, c’est à son prochain examen de français. (still a bit careful)
- More colloquial paraphrases:
- Ce qu’elle a en tête, c’est son prochain examen de français.
- Elle pense à son prochain examen de français.
The original sentence is perfectly correct, just slightly more formal/emphatic than the plain version.