Breakdown of Le philosophe invité explique que la philosophie pose souvent plus de questions qu’elle ne donne de réponses.
Questions & Answers about Le philosophe invité explique que la philosophie pose souvent plus de questions qu’elle ne donne de réponses.
In le philosophe invité, invité is a past participle used as an adjective, not a verb form in a full clause.
- le philosophe = the philosopher
- invité = invited / guest
So le philosophe invité means “the invited philosopher” or “the guest philosopher” (for example, a visiting speaker at a conference).
Because philosophe is masculine singular, the adjective invité is also masculine singular (no extra e):
- masculine: le philosophe invité
- feminine: la philosophe invitée
In French, every noun has a grammatical gender.
- la philosophie is a feminine noun (because of la),
so the corresponding subject pronoun is elle.
Thus qu’elle ne donne de réponses literally means “than it gives answers,” where elle stands for la philosophie.
In English we often use it for abstract nouns, but in French you must choose il or elle based on the noun’s gender (la philosophie → elle).
French normally uses poser une question for “to ask a question”:
- poser une question à quelqu’un = to ask someone a question
The verb demander means “to ask” in the sense of requesting or asking for something:
- demander quelque chose = to ask for something
- demander à quelqu’un de faire quelque chose = to ask someone to do something
So when talking about questions, French idiom is poser des questions, not demander des questions. That’s why the sentence has la philosophie pose souvent plus de questions…
After plus, when you mean “more of [something]” in general, French uses de, not des:
- plus de questions = more questions
- plus de problèmes = more problems
Des is the plural indefinite article (“some”), but in quantity expressions like plus de, moins de, beaucoup de, you always use de:
- beaucoup de réponses
- moins de temps
- plus de questions
So plus des questions would be incorrect here.
The pattern is a comparison of quantities:
- plus de questions qu’elle ne donne de réponses
You have plus de [noun] que de [noun]:
- plus de questions que de réponses
- plus de théories que de preuves
Because plus de governs both nouns, French repeats de before the second one.
Even though there’s a verb donne in the middle, the structure is still plus de X que de Y, so de is required before réponses.
Here ne is not a negation; it is what grammars call le ne explétif (expletive or pleonastic ne).
It often appears:
- after comparisons: plus… que, moins… que,
- after certain conjunctions like avant que, de peur que, etc.
In this sentence, the comparison structure plus de questions que can trigger ne:
- plus de questions qu’elle ne donne de réponses
It doesn’t change the meaning; it’s stylistic and a bit formal.
The sentence would still be correct (and easier for learners) as:
- …pose souvent plus de questions qu’elle donne de réponses.
Here, que is the conjunction “that/than”, introducing the second part of the comparison:
- plus de questions qu’elle ne donne de réponses
= more questions than it gives answers
It’s written qu’ because of elision: que + elle → qu’elle (to make pronunciation smoother).
So:
- que = “than” in this comparative structure
- elle = refers back to la philosophie
- ne donne de réponses = “(it) gives answers”
Together: qu’elle ne donne de réponses = “than it gives answers.”
Yes. A perfectly correct and common version is:
- La philosophie pose souvent plus de questions que de réponses.
This is slightly simpler and very natural.
The original sentence:
- …plus de questions qu’elle ne donne de réponses
adds elle ne donne to restate the verb, which can sound a bit more formal or stylistic. Both versions are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing.
In neutral French word order, short adverbs of frequency like souvent usually come after the conjugated verb:
- la philosophie pose souvent plus de questions…
You can move souvent a bit, but some positions sound more natural than others:
- Souvent, la philosophie pose plus de questions… (fronted for emphasis)
- La philosophie pose plus de questions, souvent. (more colloquial, afterthought)
Putting it right after pose is the usual, unmarked position.
French uses the simple present much more broadly than English. It can express:
- a current action
- a habitual action
- a general truth
- or something being explained right now in context
So Le philosophe invité explique que… can correspond to English “The invited philosopher is explaining that…” or “explains that…” depending on the context.
Est en train d’expliquer exists but is used only when you want to emphasize the action in progress at this exact moment; it’s not needed here.
In French, when you talk about a subject in general (a whole field, category, or concept), you normally use the definite article:
- La philosophie = philosophy (as a field in general)
- La musique adoucit les mœurs. = Music soothes the soul.
English tends to drop the article in these cases (philosophy, music, life), but French almost always keeps le / la / les.
So la philosophie pose souvent… is the normal way to say “philosophy often… ” in French.
Yes. French often personifies abstract fields or concepts by giving them verbs:
- La philosophie pose des questions fondamentales.
- L’histoire nous enseigne beaucoup de choses.
- La science explique certains phénomènes.
This is very natural style. English can do the same (“philosophy raises questions,” “history teaches us…”), so this usage is parallel in both languages.
Yes, that is grammatically correct. Moving souvent earlier:
- …explique que souvent la philosophie pose plus de questions…
puts extra emphasis on souvent (“often”) right after que.
The original:
- …explique que la philosophie pose souvent plus de questions…
is more neutral. Both are acceptable; the difference is more about rhythm and emphasis than correctness.