Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.

What Marie is proud of is her village.

Breakdown of Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.

• être: to be
• Marie: Marie
• de: of
• c': it
• son: her
• fier: proud
• le village: the village
• ce dont: what ... of

Questions & Answers about Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.

Why do we use dont here instead of que or ce que?

Because dont is the relative pronoun used when the verb in the clause takes de.

The verb être fier / fière de means to be proud of. So in French, Marie is fière de quelque chose (proud of something).

• With de: you need dont
  
  • Ce dont Marie est fière... = That (thing) of which Marie is proud...

If the verb did not take de, you might use ce que instead:

• Ce que Marie aime, c’est son village.
  = What Marie likes is her village.

So:

• dont → replaces de + something
• ce que → replaces a direct object (no de)

Here, since we have être fière de, dont is the correct choice.

What exactly does ce in ce dont mean? Is it necessary?

Yes, ce is necessary here. It is an indefinite pronoun meaning roughly that / the thing.

• ce dont Marie est fière
  literally: that (thing) of which Marie is proud

You can compare:

• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.
  What Marie is proud of is her village.

Here ce doesn’t refer to any specific noun; it just introduces a general, unspecified thing. English does something similar with what meaning the thing that.

Why is there another ce in c’est? Why do we have two ce in the sentence?

The sentence has two different uses of ce:

1. Ce dont Marie est fière

   • ce = that / the thing, part of a relative clause (what Marie is proud of)

2. c’est de son village

   • c’est = it is, the usual c’est construction used to identify or emphasise something.

The overall structure is a cleft sentence (a “split” sentence used for emphasis):

• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.
  → literally: That which Marie is proud of, it is of her village.

French often uses ce… c’est… to highlight or focus information. English often collapses this into a simple What… is… construction.

Why is it fière and not fier?

Because fier / fière agrees with the person it describes, and Marie is feminine.

• Masculine: Il est fier.
• Feminine: Elle est fière.

In your sentence, Marie is the subject:

• Marie est fière.
  → so we must use the feminine form fière (with -e).

If the subject were masculine, we’d say:

• Ce dont Paul est fier, c’est de son village.

Why is it son village and not sa village, since Marie is a girl?

Possessive adjectives in French agree with the thing possessed, not with the person who possesses it.

• village is masculine singular → the correct form is son village.
• Marie being female is irrelevant here for the form of son.

Examples:

• Marie aime son village. (village = masculine singular)
• Marie aime sa maison. (maison = feminine singular)
• Marie aime ses amis. (amis = plural)

So son is used because village is masculine singular, not because Marie is male or female.

Could we just say Marie est fière de son village instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, Marie est fière de son village is perfectly correct and natural. It’s the neutral, straightforward way to say it.

The original sentence:

• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.

uses a cleft structure to emphasise the thing she’s proud of. It highlights “her village”:

• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.
  → What Marie is proud of is her village (rather than something else).

So:

• Marie est fière de son village.
  → simple statement of fact
• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.
  → draws attention to that specific thing.

Why do we have both dont and de son village? Isn’t that repeating the idea of “of”?

It does look redundant from an English point of view, but this pattern is common in French dislocation / cleft sentences.

• dont already includes de (it means of which, of what)
• de son village then restates exactly what that ce is.

You can think of it as two parts:

1. Ce dont Marie est fière
   → What Marie is proud of…

2. c’est de son village.
   → …is of her village.

A more literal breakdown:

• Ce dont Marie est fière = the thing of which Marie is proud
• c’est de son village = it is of her village (that she is proud)

So yes, the “of” idea appears twice, but this kind of resumption (repeating a preposition or pronoun) is quite natural in spoken French. It adds clarity and keeps the link with être fier de.

Could we say Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est son village (without de)? Is that better?

Yes, you can absolutely say:

• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est son village.

This version avoids the repeated de, and many teachers and grammars prefer this form in careful or formal French.

Subtle points:

• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est son village.
  → very clear, slightly more formal / neutral
• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village.
  → very common in everyday speech; some consider it a bit more colloquial or “heavier” because of the double de.

Both are widely used and understood. In exams or formal writing, c’est son village will usually be considered the safer, cleaner option.

Could we use duquel or de quoi instead of dont here?

In this exact sentence, dont is by far the most natural choice. Alternatives:

1. duquel

   • Grammatically, with a masculine singular noun it can sometimes replace dont, but here we do not have an explicit noun after it.
   • Ce duquel Marie est fière sounds unnatural or incorrect in standard French.

2. de quoi

   • Ce de quoi Marie est fière is possible but sounds much more formal or awkward; natives strongly prefer ce dont with verbs that naturally take de.
   • de quoi is more common in spoken questions like:
     
     • De quoi est-ce qu’elle est fière ? (What is she proud of?)

So in a relative structure like this, with être fier de, you should learn and use:

• Ce dont Marie est fière…

Is dont singular or plural? Does it affect the verb est?

dont itself never changes form: it is invariable (same for singular/plural, masculine/feminine).

The verb agrees with the subject of the clause, not with dont.

In your sentence:

• Subject: Marie
• Verb: est (3rd person singular to match Marie)

If we change the subject to plural:

• Ce dont Marie et Paul sont fiers, c’est de leur village.
  
  • subject = Marie et Paul (they)
  • verb = sont (3rd person plural)
  • adjective = fiers (masculine plural, because the group is mixed)

So dont does not control agreement; the subject does.

Is there another way to say this sentence with a similar emphasis?

Yes, French has several ways to emphasise son village. Two common alternatives:

1. C’est de son village que Marie est fière.

   • Focuses on de son village by putting it after c’est and moving the rest after que.
   • Very natural both spoken and written.

2. C’est son village dont Marie est fière.

   • Also possible and used, though some people find it a little heavier-sounding.

Compare:

• Marie est fière de son village. (neutral)
• C’est de son village que Marie est fière. (emphasis on the village)
• Ce dont Marie est fière, c’est de son village / c’est son village. (emphasis using the ce… c’est… structure)

All of these express the same basic idea; the differences are mainly in style and focus.