# FR: I do, X does - (C'est) moi/X



## zapspan

If I ask someone, "Chez toi, qui fait la lessive?", I imagine that "C'est moi qui fais la lessive" and "C'est moi qui la fais" would be correct answers.

But would it also be correct to answer in any of the following ways?
Moi, je fais la lessive.
Je fais la lessive moi.
Moi.
C'est moi.


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## Downbow

Of your four alternatives, I think "Moi" is best.
"Moi, je fais la lessive" would counterbalance "Lui, il fait la cuisine."
But my French was acquired as an adult, so we want to hear from the native speakers.


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## Maître Capello

All of your suggestions are possible, but some are more idiomatic than the others.

_C'est moi qui fais la lessive._  (perfectly correct but a bit wordy)
_C'est moi qui la fais._ 
_Moi, je fais la lessive._ (while correct from a pure grammatical standpoint, it wouldn't be natural to answer this in this context)
_Je fais la lessive moi._ (same as above, but more sloppy and less idiomatic)
_Moi._ (OK, but a bit terse)
_C'est moi._  (probably the most frequent and natural solution)


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## zapspan

Merci beaucoup, Maître Capello.

I am imagine that like "Moi, je fais la lessive" and "Je fais la lessive moi", which are correct sentences but not natural answers to the question "Chez toi, qui fait la lessive?", the sentence "Je fais la lessive" (without "moi" at all) would also be an inappropriate answer to this question.

However, if the answer to the question is noun phrase like "ma mère" (rather than a pronoun like "moi"), can the answer simply be "Ma mère fait la lessive"?  Or would I have to use one of these formulas:
C'est ma mère.
C'est ma mère qui la fait.
C'est ma mère qui fait la lessive.
Ma mère.


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## Oddmania

Hi,

I would definitely use one of the formulas you've come up with instead  I would only say _Ma mère fait la lessive_ if I wanted to contrast it with something else. For instance, _Ma mère fait la lessive, et moi je fais la vaisselle._ In this case, you could also say _Ma mère*, elle,* fait la lessive, et moi je fais la vaisselle _to emphasize it even more.


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## zapspan

If one wishes to answer "Everyone does it" (meaning "Everyone does it together") (referring to the question "Chez toi, qui fait la lessive?"), how would one say this in French?

Voilà mes essais:
Tout le monde la fait (ensemble).
On la fait ensemble.
Nous la faisons tous (ensemble).
I imagine that you cannot say "C'est tout le monde qui la fait" or "c'est tout le monde", due to the nature of the expression "tout le monde" (a quantifier), but if these are also possible answers, I'd love to know.

Qu'est-ce que vous en pensez?

Merci d'avance.


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## OLN

Je n'aurais pas compris que "Everyone does it" signifiait "Everyone does it together" (= We do it all together?). Merci pour la précision.

- Chez toi, qui fait la lessive ?
- Tout le monde.
signifierait que chacun peut être amené à faire la lessive et non pas que tous participent à chaque lessive. Ce n'est donc pas ça. 

Dans ce cas, je répondrais spontanément _Tout le monde y participe_ (chacun effectue une tâche particulière : l'un trie le linge, un autre remplit la machine, d'autres la vident ).

Par contre, si on imagine tous les membres de la famille lavant ensemble le linge dans une grande buanderie ou dans un lavoir, je répondrais probablement _On la fait tous ensemble._


Cette question me semble plus naturelle :
- Chez vous, qui fait les courses ?
- On les fait tous ensemble.
(tout aussi peu attrayant )


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## zapspan

Merci beaucoup, OLN.  "Everyone does it" does not have to mean "Everyone does it together" - that was just the particular interpretation that I was interested in.  Since you brought this up, if I do just want to say that everyone does it from time to time (but not together), would "tout le monde" be the only way to answer that?  What about the other options that I mention in #7 above?

In particular, I would like to know if any of these are correct under this interpretation:
C'est tout le monde.
Tout le monde la fait.
C'est tout le monde qui la fait.

Merci de nouveau.


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## zapspan

A question related to #4 above...I give my students a chart with the names of a 4 or 5 people, and then I give information about each person in different columns, and then I ask questions like "Qui fait la vaisselle?" or "Qui habite à Nice?" (i.e., among the 4 or 5 people in the chart).  In a case like that, I imagine it would be wrong to just answer "Luc fait la vaisselle" or "Luc habite à Nice" but instead, one would have to answer as above where I ask about "ma mère" above in #4 (C'est Luc, C'est Luc qui la fait, Luc, C'est Luc qui la fait, C'est Luc qui y habite, etc.).  Is that correct?


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## Maître Capello

zapspan said:


> I imagine it would be wrong to just answer "Luc fait la vaisselle"


No, it wouldn't really be wrong, but this is just not the most natural way to phrase it in the given context.

Either of the following would better fit the context:
_C'est Luc qui fait la vaisselle.
C'est Luc qui la fait._
_C'est Luc._
_Luc._


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## zapspan

Thank you so much, Maître Capello.  Is the strong preference for the formulas starting with "c'est" before the key word (vs. sentences like "Luc fait la vaisselle"), when answering a question in the context I describe above, limited to answers about the grammatical subject of a sentence? Maybe this should be another thread - I apologize if it should be.

For example, what about adverbial information?  If I were to ask, based on the chart, "Luc, où habite-t-il?", would it be most natural to answer "C'est à Paris qu'il habite.", or would it be perfectly natural to just say "Il habite à Paris", w/o using the c'est formula?


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## jekoh

"_À Paris_" and "_Il habite à Paris_" would be the most natural answers.

"_C'est à Paris qu'il habite_" does not sound very natural at all as an answer to your question (mind you, your question does not sound very natural either). Yes, it does seem to be about the answer being the grammatical subject. The "_C'est_" part adds emphasis, without it "_Luc fait la vaisselle"_ is a simple statement rather than an actual answer.


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## zapspan

Thank you very much, jekoh.  [Regarding, the question not sounding natural - I'd be curious to know what you think would be a better way to say this, but I guess that should be another thread.  In any case, I'll look into that elsewhere - thanks!]

Just one more question... what about direct objects?  For example, if I ask "Qu'est-ce que Luc a acheté?" [each person in the chart bought something] and what Luc bought was a book, I'm guessing that the following would be natural answers:
Un livre.
Il a acheté un livre.

What about the following?  Would they be natural at all as answers to the question? I'm guessing that they would be awkward at best in this context.
C'est un livre qu'il a acheté.
C'est un livre.


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## Maître Capello

You typically use _c'est_ when the answer is the subject (or when the main verb is _être_ ):
_
— Qui fait la lessive ?
— (C'est) moi._

_— Qu'est-ce qui nous éclaire et nous réchauffe ?
— (C'est) le soleil._

_— Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
— (C'est) une pomme._

Not otherwise:

_— Qu'est-ce qu'il a acheté ?
— (Il a acheté) un livre._  / _C'est un livre._ 

_— Où est-ce qu'il habite ?
— (Il habite) (à) Paris._  / _C'est à Paris._ 




jekoh said:


> mind you, your question does not sound very natural either


Je ne trouve pas la question étrange pour ma part (_Luc, où habite-t-il ?_ ), même si on dira sans doute plus couramment _Où est-ce qu'il habite, Luc ?_ et plus familièrement _Il habite où, Luc ?_ Mais bon, c'est en effet hors sujet dans ce fil…


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## zapspan

Merci beaucoup, Maître Capello.  This is such helpful information!


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