Ce dont vs dont

Question

Hello, I can’t find any lessons about “ce dont” on kwiziq though I’ve seen it being used by french people many times. So I look it up on lawless french and find a comparison between “ce dont” and “dont” (https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/indefinite-relative-pronouns-ce-dont-quoi/) and I still can’t tell the difference between the two. Please help. Thank you so much!

Accepted Answer

Ce dont and dont are both French relative pronouns that are used to introduce a subordinate clause that provides additional information about a noun or pronoun in the main clause. The main difference between them is that ce dont is used when the antecedent (the noun or pronoun the subordinate clause refers to) is indefinite, while dont is used when the antecedent is definite.
It's not a hard and fast rule, but if you can say "what" in English then this points toward ce dont in French. 
Here are some examples:
J'ai trouvé le livre dont je vous ai parlé. -- I found the book that I told you about. Here, dont is used because the antecedent le livre is definite.
Voici ce dont j'ai besoin. -- Here's what I need. Here, ce dont is used because the antecedent is indefinite.
La fille dont j'ai parlé hier est venue me voir. -- The girl that I talked about yesterday came to see me.Here, dont is used because the antecedent la fille is definite.
Je n'ai jamais vu ce dont tu parles. -- I've never seen what you're talking about. Here, ce dont is used because the antecedent is indefinite.

Answer

Bonjour Thy,
I agree that Laura's link does not actually define "ce dont" , but think about it as being in English  --  
"that of which" where "ce" represents the demonstrative "that". So it is a pronoun.
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/ce-dont.1971574/
Have a look at the link above  --  I think that you will find it helpful.
Bonne journée
Jim

Answer

Hi Thy,
The lesson on 'ce don't' is in draft form so you won't be able to access it yet.