Protips: The little things you learn to pro up your French

‘Libre’ and ‘gratuit’ both mean ‘free’ in French, but are used in different senses of the word.

Libre (from the verb libérer ‘to free’) usually refers to people and means free in the sense of not burdened by responsibilities, having the availability to do something or not enslaved.

Vous êtes libre de choisir ce qui vous plaît – You are free to choose what you like

Gratuit refers both to tangible and intangible things alike and means ‘free of charge’.

Voici un biscuit, c’est gratuit avec ton café – Here’s a cookie, it’s free of charge with your coffee

It is a well-known fact that translating literally from language to language (particularly where the grammar differs considerably) can result in incorrect, perplexing and at times entertaining renderings of phrases. Type the idiomatic expression ‘When pigs fly’ into Google translate, and you will get something like ‘Quand les cochons volent’. The latter is not an idiomatic expression in French, but a literal statement of a pig suddenly becoming airborne (perhaps by spontaneously sprouting wings). The correct way of rendering this expression in French is ‘Quand les poules auront des dents’ (literally, ‘When chickens have teeth’). So, you could say, ‘Les bébés arrêteront de pleurer quand les poules auront des dents.’

A simple sentence like ‘He walks quickly’ can be translated literally as ‘Il marche vite’, but the similarity is more incidental than rule-based. The sentence structure for expressing this idea just happens to be the same in both languages. Things start getting tricky when we deal with words and expressions that don’t linearly translate across languages.

Let’s take the verb ‘to break’. You are probably most familiar with it being translated as ‘casser’ in French. But what happens when we want it to mean other things? In other words, what happens when we need to convey a different sense of the word? Look at each of the examples below and note how the verb changes with each meaning in French, while being maintained in English:

break one’s leg – se casser la jambe (sense: literally split an object into pieces forcefully, as with a physical blow)

[see the end of this article for a brief note on why se casser is used instead of just casser]

break the law – enfreindre la loi (sense: contravene, refuse to comply with, go against)

break the news – révéler la nouvelle (sense: reveal details about something)

break the record – battre le record (sense: supersede, surpass, do better than, perform better than)

break someone’s spirit – briser l’esprit de quelqu’un (sense: depress, sadden, distress, trouble, cause to feel anguish about something)

It is the sense that we are really trying to translate, and it is that to which we must pay attention. Using the verb casser in every expression above, for instance, would result in meaninglessness because the connotation (or sense) of the verb is a physical change caused by a violent stimulus. You can’t casser la loi or casser la nouvelle (unless of course la nouvelle is written on a clay tablet). Each verb in turn could also be used in different senses. For example, battre can also mean ‘to beat, strike, hit’ (e.g. Il a battu la chienne avec sa canne).

Another reason literal translation doesn’t always work is subject-verb-object order. In English, the syntax is SVO (subject-verb-object), e.g. ‘He is waiting for you’. In French, however, objects appear before the verb, making the order more akin to SOV. If we translate ‘He is waiting for you’, we get Il vous attend (and not Il attend vous). Il = subject, vous = object, and attend = verb attached to ‘il’. An easy mistake to make here is to conjugate ‘attendre’ according to ‘vous’ (i.e. Il vous attendez). This would be incorrect as the verb is attached to the subject ‘il’, and must therefore be conjugated that way. (Think about it like this: Who is doing the waiting? They own the verb, conjugation-wise).

The mistake becomes even more pronounced when we put the sentence in the passé composé: Il vous a attendu. Again, the object clings to the subject and is placed before both the auxiliary verb (a – avoir) and the past participle of the main verb (attendu – attendre). The temptation may be to write Il vous avez attendu.

Look at this pair of sentences: Ils m’ont attendu | Ils m’a attendu. Which one is right and why? What is your reasoning for choosing that one?

A note on ‘casser‘ vs. ‘se casser’

In French, actions that are performed on oneself by oneself are denoted using reflexive verbs, which are marked by reflexive pronouns (‘se’ is a reflexive pronoun).

Reflexive verbs are not marked in English, which can make it difficult to know when they are required in French. While reflexive pronouns do exist (myself, yourself, himself, etc.), they are often used in different ways to French. While saying ‘I wash myself‘ is perfectly acceptable, it sounds outdated, but in French it is the correct way to express the action (‘Je me lave’). ‘Je lave’ would imply washing something (or someone) else, as in, Je lave la salade avant de manger.

More details and nuances on this topic will be covered in a future post.

Découvrez vos vrais amis français

Today’s faux amis is the word compréhensif, which is sometimes incorrectly translated as ‘comprehensive’. The French word compréhensif actually means ‘understanding’ (as in ‘The teacher was really understanding about our situation.’) The feminine form is compréhensive.

A better way to translate the word comprehensive is approfondi (‘thorough’). Other suitable translations include détaillé (detailed) and complet(-ète).

He comprehensively researched his new novel – Il a fait une recherche approfondie pour son nouveau roman

A comprehensive guide to The Beatles – Un guide complet pour The Beatles

I find him very understanding – Je le trouve très compréhensif

USES OF THE SUBJUNCTIVE

Clauses that express emotions, wishes or desires

Elle est ravie que tu sois venue – She is delighted that you came (this construction uses the past subjunctive which is discussed below)

Richard est triste que sa sœur parte – Richard is sad that his sister is leaving

J’aimerais bien que l’on se revoie – I would very much like to see you again (lit. “for us to see each other again”)

The subjunctive is used with certain expressions beginning with ‘que’ and expressing proclamation or benediction. They translate to ‘may…’ or ‘let…’ in English:

Que la bataille commence ! – Let the battle begin!

Que Dieu te bénisse ! – May God bless you!

Qu’ils mangent de la brioche! – Let them eat cake! (quote commonly attributed to Marie Antoinette but in actuality is thought to have been coined much earlier by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

Impersonal usage

Some impersonal constructions of il est or c’est + adjective use the subjunctive (‘impersonal’ means il or c’ does not refer to a person or thing):

Il est possible que – it is possible that

Il est important que – it is important that

Il est essentiel que – it is imperative that

C’est dommage que – it is a pity that

The giving of advice, caution, certain declarations, etc.

Ne sois pas si bête – Don’t be so silly

Soyez un peu modeste, chérie – Be a little modest, my love

Ainsi soit-il – Amen (lit. “so be it” or “let it be like this/that”)

This usage is similar in intent to the imperative, in that they both directly address someone.

EXCEPTIONS EXCEPTIONS EXCEPTIONS!

Not every expression preceded by ‘que’ uses the subjunctive. The reason for this is sometimes obvious, as in the case of savoir que (to know that) and être sur que (to be sure that), which express certainty and therefore take the indicative.

There are a handful of expressions that fall into this category. They include: alors que (‘while’, usually used to express a contrast between two events), tandis que (‘while’, usually used to signal two temporally simultaneous activities), espérer que (to hope that), trouver que (to find that), après que (after), pendant que (like ‘tandis que’), si bien que (so that, with the result that), tant que (as long as), supposer que (to assume/suppose that), être evident que (to be obvious that), savoir que (to know that), être sûr(e) que (to be sure that)

J’espère que tout va bien – I hope everything’s well

Tant que vous êtes là, vous pouvez m’aider à ranger les courses – While you’re here, you can help me put the shopping away

Arnaud lisait le mode d’emploi tandis que son père essayait de réparer le lave-vaisselle – Arnold read the instructions while his father tried to fix the dishwasher

AMBIGUOUS EXPRESSIONS

The expressions penser que, croire que (believe, think that) and sembler que (to seem or appear that) can use either the subjunctive or the indicative depending on the amount of certainty the speaker wants to convey and whether they are employed in the affirmative or the negative:

Je pense qu’il est là – I think he’s here (I am 80% sure he’s around)

Je ne pense pas qu’il soit là – I don’t think he’s here (I am less than 50% sure he’s around)

Il semble que Sophie prend le bus – It seems Sophie is taking the bus (i.e. we’re pretty sure, we saw her at the bus stop evidently waiting for the bus, etc.)

Il semble que Sophie prenne le bus – She declined to ride in the car with us, so we assume she is taking the bus but we’re not sure

PAST SUBJUNCTIVE

When an expression using the subjunctive is placed in the past tense, the past subjunctive is used. It is formed by combining the present subjunctive of avoir or être and the past participle of the main verb. The choice of avoir or être is dependent on which one the main verb normally uses in the passé composé, and the normal agreement rules apply (if you need a refresher on agreement rules, click here). Failure to use the correct auxiliary verb could result in a nasty case of subjunctivitis!

Elle est ravie qu’ils soient venus à la fête hier – She is happy that they came to the party yesterday. (‘Venir’, the main verb, uses être in the passé compose, hence ‘soient’ which is in the subjunctive. This is followed by the past participle form ‘venus’, with the ‘s’ at the end to agree with ‘ils’.)

There is no future subjunctive; anything taking place in the past takes the past subjunctive, otherwise the present subjunctive is used. There is however an imperfect subjunctive and a pluperfect subjunctive, but they are really only used in writing and would seem outdated in modern French.

AVOIDING THE SUBJUNCTIVE

Use the indicative

The simplest way of avoiding the subjunctive is to use the indicative. This can be achieved by replacing ‘que’ with ‘de’ which is then followed by the infinitive.

Il est important que tu sois là –> Il est important d’être là

Notice how using the indicative instead of the subjunctive here sacrifices the specificity of the statement; it now sounds like an awkward thing to say to someone you are speaking directly to.

Il faut que tu fasses tes devoirs –> Il faut faire tes devoirs

This time, the indicative does not sound quite as stilted as in the first example because of tes which directly addresses the listener. Also note that de is not needed here as the infinitive is preceded by a conjugated verb.

Inutile que je t’apprenne quelque chose – It’s useless for me to teach you anything –> Inutile de t’apprendre quelque chose

Here, t’ goes between de and the infinitive because it is an indirect object pronoun.

Reword the sentence

Another way of avoiding the subjunctive is to reword the sentence by using a different syntax that doesn’t require the subjunctive, while retaining its original meaning.

Il faut que les étudiants aient du temps pour se détendre –> Les étudiants ont besoin du temps pour se détendre (or even ‘Il faut aux étudiants du temps pour se détendre’)

Changing the sentence structure may not always work because the meaning of a sentence may be lost. This will need to be taken into consideration on a case-by-case basis.

Give in and accept the inevitable

Sometimes, there is just no way to avoid the subjunctive. For example, the expression à moins que (unless) doesn’t really have a substitute. Rewording a sentence with this expression could possibly help, but would be laborious and probably lead to clunky-sounding sentences. As a result, it is much easier to just bite the bullet and learn the subjunctive. You’ll have more ways of expressing yourself in different situations.