Breakdown of Marie espère obtenir une bourse, parce que son diplôme lui ouvrira plus de portes.
Questions & Answers about Marie espère obtenir une bourse, parce que son diplôme lui ouvrira plus de portes.
Because espérer is followed directly by the infinitive when the same person does both actions.
- Marie espère obtenir une bourse = Marie hopes to obtain a scholarship.
French does not use a preposition here. So:
- espérer + infinitive ✅
- espérer à/de + infinitive ❌
A useful comparison:
- Marie espère obtenir une bourse = Marie hopes to obtain a scholarship.
- Marie espère qu’elle obtiendra une bourse = Marie hopes that she will obtain a scholarship.
Both are correct, but the first one is more compact.
Here, une bourse means a scholarship or a grant for studies.
It can have other meanings in different contexts, but in an education sentence like this, a French speaker will normally understand it as financial aid for study.
So in this sentence, obtenir une bourse is a very natural expression for getting/winning a scholarship.
Obtenir suggests getting something through effort, selection, or qualification. That makes it a very good verb for a scholarship.
- obtenir une bourse = obtain / secure a scholarship
- avoir une bourse = have a scholarship
- recevoir une bourse = receive a scholarship
So:
- obtenir focuses on successfully getting it
- recevoir focuses on the act of receiving it
- avoir focuses on the resulting situation
In this sentence, obtenir sounds slightly more precise and natural.
Because French possessive adjectives agree with the thing possessed, not with the owner.
- diplôme is a masculine noun
- so you need son diplôme
It does not matter that Marie is a woman.
Compare:
- son diplôme = her diploma/degree
- sa bourse = her scholarship
The gender of Marie does not control the choice here; the gender of the noun does.
Lui means to her here.
The idea is:
- son diplôme ouvrira plus de portes à Marie
- then à Marie becomes lui
So:
- son diplôme lui ouvrira plus de portes
French often uses an indirect object where English uses a direct expression like open more doors for her or open more doors to her.
Because object pronouns in French usually go before the conjugated verb.
So:
- son diplôme lui ouvrira...
not:
- son diplôme ouvrira lui... ❌
This is a very common French word-order pattern:
- Je lui parle
- Elle me voit
- Nous leur écrivons
In simple tenses, object pronouns usually come right before the verb.
Because the sentence is talking about a future result: her diploma will open more doors for her.
Ouvrira is the simple future of ouvrir:
- j’ouvrirai
- tu ouvriras
- il / elle ouvrira
The idea is that once she has that qualification, it will create more opportunities later.
French could sometimes use the present for a general truth, but the future sounds very natural here because the speaker is looking ahead.
Plus de portes means more doors.
After plus when it means more, French normally uses de before the noun:
- plus de temps = more time
- plus d’argent = more money
- plus de portes = more doors
So des is not used here.
This is the same pattern you see with other quantity expressions:
- beaucoup de portes
- moins de portes
- trop de portes
It is figurative here.
Ouvrir des portes is a common expression meaning to create opportunities or to give someone better prospects.
So son diplôme lui ouvrira plus de portes means that her diploma will give her access to more possibilities, such as:
- better jobs
- further study
- more professional opportunities
It is very similar to English open doors.
Yes, car could work, but parce que is the more common everyday way to say because.
- parce que = because
- car = because / for, but often more formal or written
So:
- Marie espère obtenir une bourse parce que... sounds very natural in normal speech.
- Marie espère obtenir une bourse, car... is also correct, but a bit more formal or literary.
For most learners, parce que is the safest everyday choice.
No, it is not usually necessary.
In many French sentences, you would simply write:
- Marie espère obtenir une bourse parce que son diplôme lui ouvrira plus de portes.
The comma can appear for rhythm, emphasis, or style, but it is often omitted before parce que.
So the version with the comma is not impossible, but the version without it is often more standard.
It can, depending on context.
Diplôme is a broad word that can refer to a qualification, certificate, or degree. In this sentence, the most natural interpretation is probably something like degree or qualification.
French also has more specific terms, such as:
- une licence
- un master
- un doctorat
So diplôme is a general word, while those are more precise.
Here, plus usually means more, and in that use the final s is often silent before a consonant.
So plus de portes is usually pronounced roughly like plu de portes.
That said, pronunciation of plus can vary a little depending on speaker, region, and emphasis. For a learner, the safest thing to remember is:
- in plus de portes meaning more doors, the final s is usually not pronounced.