Breakdown of Nous revenons chez la fleuriste parce que le premier bouquet plaît beaucoup à Marie.
Questions & Answers about Nous revenons chez la fleuriste parce que le premier bouquet plaît beaucoup à Marie.
Why is chez used in chez la fleuriste?
Chez is used for someone’s place: their home, office, shop, or business.
So chez la fleuriste means at/to the florist’s place. In English, we often say the florist’s in the same way.
You would not normally use dans la fleuriste, because that would be like saying in the florist rather than at the florist’s shop.
Why is it la fleuriste and not le fleuriste?
What form is revenons?
Revenons is the present tense of revenir for nous:
- je reviens
- tu reviens
- il/elle revient
- nous revenons
- vous revenez
- ils/elles reviennent
So nous revenons means we come back, we are coming back, or sometimes we are going back, depending on context.
French often uses the simple present where English might prefer are coming back or are going back.
Why use revenir here? How is it different from retourner?
Both revenir and retourner can involve returning, but they are not always felt the same way.
- revenir = to come back
- retourner = to go back / return
In many contexts, both can work, but revenir often sounds like returning to a place from the speaker’s or story’s point of view.
So Nous revenons chez la fleuriste suggests we’re coming back to the florist’s.
Why is it parce que?
Why is it le premier bouquet and not un premier bouquet?
With ordinal numbers like premier (first), French often uses the definite article:
So le premier bouquet means the first bouquet.
This is natural because first usually identifies a specific item in an order or sequence.
Also, bouquet is masculine, so it is le premier bouquet, not la première bouquet.
Why does French say le bouquet plaît à Marie instead of something like Marie aime le bouquet?
This is because plaire works differently from aimer.
With plaire, the thing that is pleasing becomes the subject:
In more natural English, that usually becomes:
- Marie likes the bouquet
So the structure is:
- thing + plaire + à + person
Examples:
- Ce film plaît à Paul. = Paul likes this film.
- Les fleurs plaisent à Marie. = Marie likes the flowers.
This is one of the most important things to notice in the sentence.
Why is it à Marie?
Because plaire takes an indirect object for the person who experiences the liking.
So:
That is why it is à Marie, not just Marie directly.
If you replace à Marie with a pronoun, you use an indirect object pronoun:
- Le premier bouquet lui plaît beaucoup. = The first bouquet pleases her / She likes the first bouquet a lot.
Why is it plaît beaucoup and not plaît très?
In French, très usually modifies adjectives or adverbs, not verbs.
So you say:
- très beau = very beautiful
- très bien = very well
But with a verb like plaire, French normally uses beaucoup:
- plaît beaucoup = pleases a lot / is liked a lot
So:
- Le bouquet plaît beaucoup à Marie = Marie likes the bouquet a lot
Using très here would be incorrect.
What does the accent in plaît do?
The circumflex in plaît is mostly a spelling feature here. It often reflects an older s that disappeared from the language over time.
For learners, the important point is:
- plaît = form of plaire
- it is pronounced roughly like plè
The accent does not mean you stress the word differently the way you might in English. French stress works differently.
You should mainly treat plaît as the correct spelling of the il/elle/on form:
- il plaît
- elle plaît
- ça plaît
Could we also say Marie aime beaucoup le premier bouquet?
Yes, that would be grammatically correct and very natural.
- Marie aime beaucoup le premier bouquet = Marie likes the first bouquet a lot
- Le premier bouquet plaît beaucoup à Marie = The first bouquet pleases Marie / Marie likes the first bouquet a lot
The basic meaning is very similar, but the focus is slightly different:
- aimer focuses more directly on Marie
- plaire puts the spotlight on the bouquet as the thing creating the positive reaction
French uses both, but plaire à quelqu’un is especially common when talking about whether something appeals to someone.
Can nous revenons mean we are going back, even though revenir literally looks like come back?
Yes. French and English do not always divide come and go in exactly the same way.
French revenir often covers the idea of returning, and in English the most natural translation in context may be:
- we’re coming back
- we’re going back
- we return
So even if the literal idea is come back, you should choose the English version that sounds natural in the situation.
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