There are a few different ways of saying "when" in French, the most basic of which is quand. Like "when," quand can either be an adverb or a conjunction. As an adverb, it's generally used to form questions:
Quand seras-tu libre?
When will you be free?
Tu l'as inventé quand ce morceau?
When did you compose this piece?
Caption 24, Claire et Philippe - Mon morceau de piano
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À quelle heure is an adverbial expression that's more or less synonymous with quand, albeit a bit more specific. It's the equivalent of "at what time" in English:
Enfin, tu commences à quelle heure le travail?
Anyway, what time (when) do you start work?
Caption 70, Elisa et Mashal - Petit-déjeuner
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As a conjunction, quand is synonymous with lorsque:
À Paris quand vous sortez le soir,
In Paris when you go out at night,
le métro se termine à minuit trente.
the metro stops [running] at half past midnight.
Captions 15-16, Amal - Vélib
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Lorsque je vous vois, je tressaille
When I see you, I quiver
Caption 19, Bertrand Pierre - Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
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We could easily switch quand and lorsque in those examples:
À Paris lorsque vous sortez le soir, le métro se termine à minuit trente.
Quand je vous vois, je tressaille
However, you can't use lorsque as an adverb, that is, as a question word. So you would never ask someone, Lorsque seras-tu libre?
You'll also see the phrase au moment où ("at the moment when") instead of quand or lorsque:
Au moment où le chat sortit en courant,
When the cat ran out,
la calèche royale atteignait le château.
the royal carriage reached the castle.
Captions 33-34, Contes de fées - Le chat botté
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Où usually means "where," but sometimes, as in au moment où, it means "when":
Les lignes de métro vont s'ouvrir
The subway lines will open [continued to open]
jusqu'à mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix,
until nineteen ninety,
dans les années mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix,
in the nineteen nineties,
où la ligne quatorze fut ouverte.
when line fourteen was opened.
Captions 17-20, Adrien - Le métro parisien
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Le dimanche, où les gens ne travaillent pas,
Sunday, when people don't work,
on va prendre le croissant, on va prendre le pain au chocolat.
we'll have a croissant, we'll have a chocolate croissant.
Captions 29-30, Arles - Le petit déjeuner
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If you're ever in doubt when to use which word for "when," just go with quand. It has the broadest scope, so you can use it pretty much n'importe quand (whenever).
In our last lesson, we introduced the general rule for conjugating French verbs in the present subjunctive: take the third-person plural (ils/elles) present indicative form of the verb, remove the -ent, and add the subjunctive endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, and -ent. While this rule applies to the vast majority of verbs, some of the most common French verbs have irregular subjunctive conjugations.
In this video about a tile factory in Courboissy, we find two irregular subjunctive verbs in the same caption, both introduced by the phrase pour que (in order that, so that):
Alors soit pour que ça soit respirant,
So either in order for it to be breathable,
pour que vous ayez une maison respirante...
so that you have a breathable house...
Caption 37, Salon Eco Habitat - Terres cuites de Courboissy
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The first verb is être (to be), which is conjugated as follows in the subjunctive: je sois, tu sois, il/elle/on soit, nous soyons, vous soyez, ils/elles soient. Note that the first soit in the above caption is not the same as the third-person subjunctive form of être—it's a separate word meaning "either." See our lesson Either/Or for more information on that.
The second verb, avoir (to have), looks like this in the subjunctive: j'aie, tu aies, il/elle/on ait, nous ayons, vous ayez, ils/elles aient.
Like the first-person subjunctive forms of avoir, those of aller (to go) also begin with ai-: j'aille, tu ailles, il/elle/on aille.
Si vous voulez que je m'en aille
If you want me to go away
Caption 17, Bertrand Pierre - Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
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But in the nous and vous forms, the i changes position: nous allions, vous alliez. Then it goes back to where it was for the third-person plural: ils/elles aillent.
Most forms of vouloir (to want) contain the letters euille: je veuille, tu veuilles, il/elle/on veuille, ils/elles veuillent.
...il n'y a rien d'autre à faire
...there's nothing else to do
qu'à attendre que le vent veuille bien se lever.
but wait until the wind finally decides to pick up.
Captions 15-16, Il était une fois - les Explorateurs - 10. Amerigo Vespucci
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But its nous and vous forms look a little different: nous voulions, vous vouliez.
Faire (to make or to do) and pouvoir (to be able to) both have a double s in the subjunctive:
Maintenant qu'on est en numéro trois,
Now that we are on step three,
il faut qu'on fasse quatre, cinq, six.
we have to do four, five, six.
Caption 36, B-Girl Frak - Le "6-Step"
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Et maintenant pose ton assiette en or devant moi
And now set your gold plate before me
pour que je puisse manger son contenu.
so that I can eat its contents.
Captions 4-5, Contes de fées - Le roi grenouille
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The full subjunctive conjugations of these verbs are:
je fasse, tu fasses, il/elle/on fasse, nous fassions, vous fassiez, ils/elles fassent
je puisse, tu puisses, il/elle/on puisse, nous puissions, vous puissiez, ils/elles puissent
Finally, there's savoir (to know), which has a ch in the subjunctive: je sache, tu saches, il/elle/on sache, nous sachions, vous sachiez, ils/elles sachent.
Comment tu veux que je le sache moi?
How do you want [expect] me to know?
Congrats! You're now fully capable of conjugating any French verb in the present subjunctive. Feel free to send us any suggestions for future lesson topics by tweeting us @yabla or emailing us at newsletter@yabla.com.
In keeping with the Yabla French tradition of presenting three words that look or sound the same but mean different things (see our lessons on des, dés, and dès and si, si, and si), here are three more: quand, quant, and qu’en.
Of the three words, quand is the one you might be the most familiar with. It means “when,” both as an interrogative adverb (e.g. When are you going?) and as a conjunction (e.g. I’m going when I get off work).
In their discussion on multiculturalism, the R&B sister duo Les Nubians use quand as an adverb to speculate on a sort of global passport that would allow us all to become “universal citizens”:
D'ailleurs quand est-ce qu'on invente le passeport?
By the way, when will they invent the passport?
Caption 26, Les Nubians - Le multiculturalisme
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As an interrogative adverb, quand can sometimes be replaced with à quel moment... or à quelle heure... (at what time…?).
While Les Nubians are looking to the future, Axel reflects on the past in his tour of Paris’s Luxembourg Gardens, using quand as a conjunction:
Je me rappelle quand j'étais petit, quand j'étais avec mes copains.
I remember when I was little, when I was with my friends.
Caption 58, Mon Lieu Préféré - Jardin du Luxembourg
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The other adverbial form of “when” is lorsque:
Lorsque je vous vois, je tressaille
When I see you, I quiver
Caption 19, Bertrand Pierre - Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
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Quand is also used fairly often in the expression quand même, which means “still,” “even though,” or “all the same”:
Pas mal de nuages mais quand même des éclaircies.
Quite a few clouds but still some sunny spells.
Caption 9, Alsace 20 - Météo des Maquilleurs
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The words quand and quant are only off by one letter, so make sure not to confuse them in writing. Quant is always followed by à or one of its variants (à la, au, aux) and means “as for” or “regarding”:
Quant à l'adresse du destinataire, il s'agit du Père Noël.
As for the recipient's address, it's Santa Claus.
Caption 24, Télé Miroir - Adresse postale du Père Noël
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An expression to replace quant à is en ce qui concerne (concerning): En ce qui concerne l'adresse du destinataire, il s'agit du Père Noël.
Less confusable in writing is qu’en, which nevertheless sounds the same as quand and quant. Qu’en is a contraction of the relative pronoun que and the indefinite pronoun en and is used in phrases like:
Qu’en penses-tu?
What do you think about that?
As you may know, en replaces phrases beginning with de (or de la, du, des), so the above sentence could also be written as: Que penses-tu de cela?
So what do you think about these three homonyms? (Quant à vous, qu'en pensez-vous?) We hope this lesson helped clear up any confusion you may have had!
Si is a little French word that mainly corresponds to three little English words: "if," "so," and "yes." Although these are three very different words, it’s usually easy to tell which one si is referring to in context. So let’s see what si can do!
Most of the time, you’ll probably hear si used to mean "if," as Bertrand Pierre uses it in his emotional song "Si vous n’avez rien à me dire" (with text by Victor Hugo, of Les Misérables fame):
Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
If you have nothing to say to me
Pourquoi venir auprès de moi?
Why come up to me?
Captions 1-2, Bertrand Pierre - Si vous n'avez rien à me dire
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Note that when si meaning "if" is followed by il ("he" or "it") or ils ("they," masculine), it is contracted to s'. This is perhaps most commonly seen in the expression for "please," s’il vous plaît (formal) or s’il te plaît (informal), which literally translates to "if it pleases you."
Si can also be used to indicate a contrast or opposition, in which case it means "whereas":
Si Émilie aime la musique rock, Henri la déteste.
Whereas Émilie loves rock music, Henri hates it.
Since si and "so" look quite similar, it shouldn’t be too hard to remember this meaning of the word. Just keep in mind that si refers to the adverb "so" (as in "so happy"), not to "so" as a conjunction (as in "move so I can see"):
Pourquoi si long et pourquoi si las, tenir à bout de bras?
Why so long and why so weary, to hold at arm's length?
Caption 26, Dahlia - Contre-courant
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One of the first words you learn in French is the word for "yes," oui, but sometimes si can also mean "yes" (as it does in Spanish and Italian). However, si only means "yes" in a very specific context: when someone is contradicting a negative question or statement. In case that sounds kind of convoluted, here's an example:
Non! Il n'est pas bien, Sarkozy! -Si, si, si. -Si, il est bien.
No! He's not good, Sarkozy! -Yes, yes, yes. -Yes, he's good.
Captions 15-17, Interviews à Central Park - Discussion politique
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If oui were used here instead of si, the speaker would just be confirming the negative statement ("Yes, Sarkozy is not good"). On the other hand, si takes a negative proposition ("He's not good, Sarkozy!") and turns it into a positive one ("Yes, he's good"). This is why it can come in very handy when you want to correct someone or express a contrary opinion.
To conclude, here are two expressions with si that you might find useful: si ça se trouve... ("maybe" or "it could be the case that") and si ce n'est que... (apart from the fact that):
Si ça se trouve, Georges n'a jamais terminé ses études.
It could be that Georges never finished school.
Nous n'avons rien en commun, si ce n'est que nous sommes tous les deux français.
We have nothing in common apart from the fact that we are both French.
This tiny word is probably one of the most versatile in the French language. So now that you know all about si, here's a challenge for you: try writing a two-sentence dialogue using as many meanings of the word as you can. Just use this lesson as a guide, and it'll be easier than you think!
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