Describe an object without knowing its French name

Level B1

Describe an object without knowing its French name

You know what an object looks like and what it does, but its French name escapes you. Give clues, then ask for the word. Three frames help: ce qui for what does something, ce que for what someone acts on, and a named thing + dont j'ai besoin for what you need.

Words for giving clues

Petit means small, plat means flat, en métal means made of metal, and la porte is the door. Chercher means look for, utiliser means use, and ouvrir means open: je cherche, j'utilise, j'ouvre; ouvre can also go with a singular thing. Avoir besoin de means need: j'ai besoin de… means I need… . Earlier relative clauses identify a thing with qui or que; here you recover the same difference in the job each word does, even without the object's name.

Start with shape and use

C'est petit, plat et en métal gives three clues: it is small, flat and made of metal. This describes an unnamed thing with ce, shortened to c' before est, so petit and plat are masculine singular here. To explain its use, say Je l'utilise pour ouvrir la porte: I use it to open the door. L' stands for the object and goes before utilise; pour + infinitive gives the purpose, and ouvrir stays in the infinitive after pour.

What does something: ce qui

Ce qui opens a description of an unnamed thing: Ce qui ouvre la porte est petit et plat means What opens the door is small and flat. Inside ce qui ouvre la porte, qui is the subject of ouvre: the thing opens the door. There is no separate il between qui and ouvre in this frame. Unlike a question asking what opens the door, this whole sentence supplies information about the thing.

Ce qui verbe + complément est description

What I am looking for: ce que

Ce que je cherche est petit et plat means What I'm looking for is small and flat. Inside ce que je cherche, je is the subject of cherche, and que stands for the thing being sought. Both ce qui and ce que can translate as what in English; choose by the word's job inside that small clause, not by the translation. Compare qui ouvre (what opens) with que je cherche (what I look for); keep je in the second frame.

Ce que sujet + verbe est description

Ask for the word and get a name

Comment dit-on ça en français ? means How do you say that in French? Learn it as a reusable question: comment = how, dit = says, on = people in general, ça = that, en français = in French. Dit-on puts the verb before on and joins them with a hyphen; French does not add English do here. The reply C'est une clé gives the missing name: a key; clé is feminine, so it takes une or la. If you then describe la clé directly, use petite and plate, unlike the neutral description C'est petit et plat.

The thing you need: dont

Start from J'ai besoin de la clé, meaning I need the key. To identify that key, say C'est la clé dont j'ai besoin: This is the key I need. In this frame, dont carries the de link required by avoir besoin de; do not add de or repeat la clé after besoin. Here dont does not mean whose: it connects a need to its object. This is one useful frame, not a rule for every use of dont or every phrase containing de.

C'est nom dont j'ai besoin.

A missing word does not stop the conversation

A describes a small, flat metal object used to open a door, then asks for its French name. B supplies une clé; A uses that new word to identify the needed key. Listen to the whole exchange, then replay A's clues without looking at the name. These lines have no tu/vous contrast: the naming question works without choosing either form of address.

Your turn: give clues, then identify the key

Imagine you cannot remember the French word for a small, flat object that opens a door. Before reading the models, say in French: “What I'm looking for is small and flat”; “I use it to open the door”; then ask how to say that in French. Your partner tells you une clé; now say “This is the key I need.” Check the four models in that order, then repeat the exchange while looking at an actual key.

Three frames to reuse, one extra to recognize

Use ce qui + verb when the unnamed thing is the subject of that verb; use ce que + subject + verb when it is the direct object in that clause. With avoir besoin de, use a named thing + dont j'ai besoin to identify what you need. Shape and use give your partner enough information to supply a name. The last example means This is the key with which I open the door: avec laquelle is a compound relative referring to feminine la clé; recognize it for now, without learning the full set of compound forms.

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