FR: Ce n'est pas moi qui l'ai écrit - accord du verbe

[Moon_Moon_Moon_Blue_Moon]

Hi, In English, I think this would be 'It is not I who has written it'.

So in English 'to have' is made to conjugate with 'It', i.e. the person who did really write it.

But in French it seems that 'avoir' conjugates with 'moi' who is not the person who wrote it.

I don't understand the French one as it doesn't seem logical. But I'm sure it's me who is missing something!

 

[jekoh]

But in French it seems that 'avoir' conjugates with 'moi' who is not the person who wrote it.

Are you saying you don't understand Ce n'est pas moi qui l'ai écrit because the sentence is negative, but you're fine with the positive sentence C'est moi qui l'ai écrit ?

 

[Moon_Moon_Moon_Blue_Moon]

Hi, Thanks for your reply. Actually I should have just put the sentence in its positive form to make it simpler. I don't understand why 'avoir' accords with 'moi' and not 'ce', like it would in English, as logically it's a third person who wrote it.

 

[jekoh]

It's not a third person who wrote it, it's "me".

As for the English, it doesn't seem as clear cut as you make it out to be :
It's not I who has/have
It is I/me who determine/s how they treat me.

 

[Moon_Moon_Moon_Blue_Moon]

Oh yeh hang on, I do understand it in the positive version of the sentence. Sorry. It is indeed the negative version I don't understand. As it's not 'me' who wrote it, but 'avoir' is conjugated for first person singular, who is the person who definitely did not write it.

 

[Maître Capello]

In French, verbs must be conjugated according to their subject. When that subject is the pronoun qui, it takes the gender and number of the noun it refers to. Whether the sentence is positive or negative is irrelevant.

C'est moi qui ai écrit cela / Ce n'est pas moi qui ai écrit cela.
C'est toi qui as écrit cela / Ce n'est pas toi qui as écrit cela.
C'est lui qui a écrit cela / Ce n'est pas lui qui a écrit cela.
C'est nous qui avons écrit cela / Ce n'est pas nous qui avons écrit cela.
C'est vous qui avez écrit cela / Ce n'est pas vous qui avez écrit cela.
C'est elles qui ont écrit cela / Ce n'est pas elles qui ont écrit cela.

 

[Moon_Moon_Moon_Blue_Moon]

Thanks a lot for this. It's starting to make sense now! Thanks for going to all that effort.