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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

What is the grammar of “I watch you speaking French” vs “I want you to speak French”?

Pattern 1 and pattern 2 are different. Let’s start with pattern 2 which is simpler.

Here the basic construction is a clause which is used as a component of another sentence. For example:

Je veux que tu chantes.

To turn the full sentence « tu chantes » (“you sing”/“you are singing”) into a subordinate clause, add the conjunction que: « que tu chantes ». This subordinate clause can be used as the direct complement of « je veux ». So far it’s straightforward.

There is a special case when the subject of the subordinate clause is the same as the subject of the main clause. In this case, we don’t say *« je veux que je chante ». Instead, we drop the repeated subject, we drop the conjunction, and we conjugate the verb in the infinitive mood: « Je veux chanter. »

Switching to the infinitive when the subjects are the same is not optional. For example, there is a clear difference in meaning between the following two sentences:

Il veut chanter.   [the person who wants is the person who sings] (He wants to sing.)
Il veut qu’il chante.   [the person who wants is different from the person who sings] (He wants him to sing.)

Pattern 2 is modeled on the special same-subject case of pattern 1, but this time it’s more of a double-object. In pattern 2, you are describing a perception. When the perception is neutral, you can use a simple subordinate clause.

Je vois qu’il mange.   (I see that he’s eating.)

If you want to focus the perception on the subject of the action, it’s natural to make the subject of the action the direct complement of the verb.

Je le regarde.   (I’m watching him.)

This doesn’t leave room for the action, however. You can express it with an adverbial clause:

Je le regarde pendant qu’il mange.   (I’m watching him while he eats.)

But this doesn’t express a focus on observing the specific action. It’s possible to tie the observation, the subject of the action and the action that is observed together by making both the subject and the action direct complements of the perception verb. In this case, since the clause containing the action doesn’t have a subject, its verb must be in a mood that doesn’t require a subject. We use the infinitive when the subject of the action is the object of the observation.

Je le regarde manger.   (I’m watching him eat, i.e. I’m watching him while he’s eating.)

I want to know how French speakers’ brains think of "Je te regarde manger". Is it that you think "Je regarde manger" ("I watch eating"), and then your brains add in the meaning of the direct object ("you")? Or instead, do you think "Je te regarde", and then add in the idea of "manger" ("I watch you" + eating)?

I don’t think of it as “Je te regarde” + “manger” nor as *“Je regarde manger” + “te”, but as “Je regarde” + “tu manges”.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?