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I have read an article in lemonde.fr. I got this sentence:

L’Allemagne restera l’Allemagne, avec tout ce qui en elle nous est cher.

I see that elle is l'Allemagne. I want to ask about nous in the last sentence. How can I understand it? Is it we or us?

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    If "nous" was a subject ("we"), what would be its verb? "est" ? Impossible, "est" is the conjugated form of "être" in the third person singular.
    – Destal
    Commented Sep 8, 2016 at 8:18

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Nous is a personal pronoun, it has the same form when it is subject or when it is object, but its place in the sentence tells us what it is.

tout ce qui en elle nous est cher

The subject of est is the relative pronoun ce qui (standing for tout). It is placed before elle and nous, en elle being a phrase of place and nous an attributd (it cannot be COD).

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  • AFAIKm être being a copula introduces attribute of its subject and does not have direct or indirect objects. I'd have analyzed en elle as a complement of ce qui and nous as a complement of cher (cfr. tout en elle est cher à notre cœur.
    – Un francophone
    Commented Sep 8, 2016 at 11:30
  • @Unfrancophone Quite right and I'm aware I erred by trying to oversimply my explanation. In fact I was hoping someone would answer...
    – None
    Commented Sep 8, 2016 at 11:33

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