Homework Help: French

Posted by Deanna on Monday, January 26, 2009 at 2:55am.

WE are learning the subjunctive and we have a worksheet where we put the right tense of the word in parentheses in the blank. The question I am confused on is:

Habituellement, apres qu'ils (finir)_______ leurs devoirs, leur mere les laisse regarder la tele.

Sorry for not having accents, I don't know how to type them without copying and pasting. I don't think it is the subjunctive and I don't think the past tense is necessary, so I thought it was the indicative. But then I remembered that in French, after apres que you would use the future tense. So is it the future tense or the indicative?

French - SraJMcGin, Monday, January 26, 2009 at 10:09am
First of all, to show you how to make the accents on the computer I need to know 2 things:
1. do you have a PC or a MAC
2. do you have Windows or not

Now, as for the Subjunctive, here are some "rules:"

1. Le subjonctif is the mood of uncertainty and emotion. Verbs in the subjunctive mood are generally used in a dependent clause introduced by "que" (that). (if you need to know how to form it, let me know)

2. The subjunctive is used after impersonal expressions (except those that show certainty or probability). (If you'd like a list of those impersonal expressions, just ask.)

3. The subjunctive is used in a dependent clause when the subject of the dependent clause is different from the subject of the main clause. a) after expressions of emotion (joy, fear, sorrow) b. after expressions of wishing or commanding. c. aftr expressions of doubt and uncertainty

NOTE: If both the main and dependent verbs have the same subject, the infinitive is generally used in French instead of the subjunctive.

4. Now THIS is what you are doing here:
a. The subjunctive is used after certain conjunctions. *BTW, I can give you lists of general terms for ALL of these reasons that I'm listing here for you.

HOWEVER, the following common conjunctions take the indicative: après que, aussitôt que, dès que, parce que, pendant que, peut-êtr que, puisque, tandis que

There are a few other reasons for the subjunctive as well, but I only took you as far as we needed to go to answer your post.

Your thinking was absolutely correct here. The future tense IS one of the tenses of the Indicative. If the action refers to the future, then you would use the future, BUT the word "Habituellement" means that this happens regularly = use the Present Indicative!

Hopefully this wasn't more than you needed, but since you mentioned Subjunctive I thought I'd give you a general review!

Sra (aka Mme)

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