Breakdown of Le verre s'est cassé quand il est tombé sur le carrelage.
sur
on
quand
when
il
it
tomber
to fall
Questions & Answers about Le verre s'est cassé quand il est tombé sur le carrelage.
What does le verre mean here? Is it glass the material or a drinking glass?
In this sentence, le verre most naturally means a drinking glass.
French verre can mean:
- glass as a material
- a glass as an object you drink from
Context tells you which one is meant. Since it fell and broke, the usual interpretation is the drinking glass.
If you wanted to say windowpane, French would usually use vitre, not verre.
Why is it s'est cassé instead of a cassé?
Because se casser is a very common way to say that something broke on its own.
- Le verre s'est cassé = The glass broke
- J'ai cassé le verre = I broke the glass
So:
- se casser is used when the subject undergoes the breaking
- casser with a direct object is used when someone breaks something
Using a cassé with le verre as the subject would sound like the glass broke something, which is not the meaning here.
What is s' in s'est cassé?