#Tout doucement
1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)
Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.
Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.
No, it sounds odd even
If the sentence was negative though: "parce qu'il n'y a personne qui le parle que je connaisse bien". It would work
@swift willow
when using negative after que
do i always need to use subjunctive after que? with negations
je pense que je peux pas le faire
or
je pense que je puisse pas le faire. idk
ik someone told me some about certainty but i really mean in general after que's
Je ne pense pas que je puisse le faire or je pense que je ne peux pas le faire.
The verbs that trigger the subjunctive are verbs expressing an opinion + negation, a desire, a wish, necessity, an obligation, expectation...
You should find resources about that rather easily online
yeah i did study it and ironically its quite optional with other verbs as the subjunctive can just show a lack of certainty
and not necessarily always needed with opinion all the time
Yeah with certain verbs it's optional not always though
i mean, does all verbs via negation force subjunctive ?
No, only those expressing an opinion
deepL says it works
but eh
im pretty sure i saw verbs that doesn't need negation to do it
hmm ig its different than English because someone can say i dont know and be unsure
thanks
ngl having to use subjunctive after a verb because i negated it isa extra layer of thinking but eh ima just adjust it to my vocab. I always used the reg tenses there so i was probs always understood but just sounded a bit off regardless of how fluid the speech was
You'd say "je ne sais pas si je peux voler"
If you wanted to express uncertainty here
Tbh the subjunctive is not even understood by natives and is slowly disappearing so don't trouble yourself too much
bro made me feel better
Slowly disappearing? Where
The only case I can think of where subjunctive has changed is "après que" gaining the subjunctive in everyday speech, not the other way around
In general. People don't know how to use it and don't use it when they should.
A sentence like "Je ne pense pas qu'il est là" is not that unusual of a mistake to hear. I've heard a uni professor replace the 2nd person plural form of the subjunctive with the indicative. "Il faut que vous apprenez" (just an example not an exact quote but he said stuff like that enough times for me to remember it. And my friends didn't notice until I told them).
Also I noticed that people tend not to conjugate "c'est". The plural "ce sont" gets replaced by the singular and the subjunctive by the indicative.
"Je pense pas que c'est la solution" is also not that uncommon of a mistake to hear.
The loss of the imperfect and pluperfect of the subjunctive mode creates very awkward sentences if you replace them with the present or past tenses.
Je ne pense pas qu'il fût à la fête > je pense pas qu'il était à la fête.
"Je ne pense pas qu'il soit/ait été à la fête" simply don't mean the same thing. So you do get rid of the subjunctive altogether in that example and it's not limited to specific speakers.
Some also people omit "que" in some completive clauses: "je pense il est pas là". From what I noticed the verb in the main clause is rarely negated in that kind of structure (?je pense pas il est là). But in any case the omission of "que" completely prohibits the use of the subjunctive. I think in that case it's also a matter of register
@swift willow ion gone lie bro making a strong point
its other tenses are disappearing but I'm pretty sure there are cases of it being lost in certain areas and popping up in others
maybe in the long run it's fading, but incredibly slowly, and it's still quite strong in French. Perhaps not as much as some other languages, but far more than English subjunctive, for example
Alright I'll qualify my statement for you: the use of the subjunctive is slowly shrinking. I cannot assert for a fact that it's going to disappear for certain in a distant future and that wasn't my point either. It was an overstatement because my main point was to tell @ionic crown that they shouldn't worry too much about having difficulties to understand how to use the subjunctive properly. It's a difficult mode to understand even for natives.
Apart from the example you provided with "après que" I can't think of other cases where the subjunctive is gaining new uses and values. But I have provided examples and (emerging) structures where the subjunctive has become impossible to use. I don't find the comparison with English to be fair. It's not a romance language anyway and, I mean, if that's your standard for rarity then that's fine. But I don't tend to do that, personally. I find the comparison with other romance languages to be much more relevant. I could tell you for example that in italian the subjunctive has more uses and values. Any verb expressing an opinion, whether negated or not, requires the subjunctive to be used in a subordinate clause: penso che lui sia bello (je pense qu'il est beau).
You can also find sentences like: Magari io fossi ricco ! (Si seulement j'étais riche !) where the subjunctive is used in a main clause which never happens in French which shows that it has a moral marginal position comparatively.
All of that isn't to discourage a learner from learning the subjunctive, which I love btw. My point was to help Tout doucement feel better which he said I did so I'm glad I could help.