"I cannot tell you what we did yesterday."
Translation:Je ne peux pas te raconter ce que nous avons fait hier.
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2258
Here, "ce" means "that".
It is followed by a second part of the sentence which is introduced by a relative pronoun "que" (= "which"). FYI: this second part is called "relative clause".
Literally, you could translate the French sentence into:
- "I cannot tell you that which we did yesterday."
But it is more natural to translate it to:
- "I cannot tell you what we did yesterday."
2258
Usually, the past imperfect is used to describe something that used to happen for a long time (ex: "Nous faisions du sport à l'école" for "We practiced sports at school).
In this sentence, you can use either the past imperfect or the compound past. The past imperfect tense implies that you are talking about what people did for a long period during this day (not a precise event, in which case you would use the compound past).
2258
In French, it does not sound good when you pronounce two vowels one after the other (ex: "ce quE On").
In such case, and for the sentence to sound better, you can either say:
- "ce que l'on" (formal)
- "ce qu'on" (informal)
2258
The following tenses are accepted:
-
imparfait (past imperfect): "Je ne peux pas te raconter ce que nous faisions hier."
-
passé composé (compound past): "Je ne peux pas te raconter ce que nous avons fait hier."
2258
It is paired with "que".
See:
In this sentence, "ce" is the antecedent of the relative pronoun "que".