Answers
Apr 01, 2012 - 03:44 AM
Explanation: It's grammatically incorrect to follow peut-être (perhaps, maybe) directly by a subject and verb. You must either add que or invert the subject and verb. So to translate "maybe he's hungry," you can say either peut-être qu'il a faim or peut-être a-t-il faim, but you can't say "peut-être il a faim."
Apr 12, 2012 - 08:26 AM
The 2 main structures for "peut-être" are:
1) at the beginning of a statement, followed by "que": Peut-être qu'il a faim/Maybe he's hungry, or
2) after the conjugated verb, without "que": Il a peut-être faim/Maybe he's hungry.
Another example: Maybe they're going to come can translate: Peut-être QU'ils vont venir OR Ils vont peut-être venir.
Andyguck is right, a third structure is possilbe, inverting the subject and verb (Peut-être a-t-il faim/Peut-être vont-ils venir), but this form is very formal and mostly for written French.
As for your second question: in a statement, "que" means "that": The car that I want is expensive = La voiture que je veux est chère
And "ce que" means "what", in the sens of "that which": I don't know what I want = Je ne sais pas CE QUE je veux
If it helps you think of "that which" I want...
Hope this helps :)
1) at the beginning of a statement, followed by "que": Peut-être qu'il a faim/Maybe he's hungry, or
2) after the conjugated verb, without "que": Il a peut-être faim/Maybe he's hungry.
Another example: Maybe they're going to come can translate: Peut-être QU'ils vont venir OR Ils vont peut-être venir.
Andyguck is right, a third structure is possilbe, inverting the subject and verb (Peut-être a-t-il faim/Peut-être vont-ils venir), but this form is very formal and mostly for written French.
As for your second question: in a statement, "que" means "that": The car that I want is expensive = La voiture que je veux est chère
And "ce que" means "what", in the sens of "that which": I don't know what I want = Je ne sais pas CE QUE je veux
If it helps you think of "that which" I want...
Hope this helps :)