99 Quoi de neuf

Passons

The French word “passons” comes from the verb “passer” and is the first-person plural (nous) form in the present tense or the imperative mood.

Possible Meanings:

1. Indicative Present (Nous passons)

   • “We pass” / “We are passing”
   • Example: Nous passons devant l’école tous les jours.
     (We pass by the school every day.)

2. Imperative (Command: Passons !)

   • “Let’s move on” / “Let’s skip” / “Let’s pass”
   • Example: Passons au sujet suivant.
     (Let’s move on to the next topic.)
   • Often used in discussions when changing topics.

Future Perfect

The future perfect (le futur antérieur in French) is used to describe an action that will have been completed before a certain point in the future.

🔹 Formation of the Future Perfect

It is formed using:
✅ Future tense of “avoir” or “être” + Past participle of the main verb

🚨 Use “être” for verbs in the passé composé that use être (e.g., aller, partir, venir, naître).

🔹 When to Use the Future Perfect?

1️⃣ To express an action that will be completed before another future action
➡ Quand tu arriveras, j’aurai déjà préparé le dîner.
(When you arrive, I will have already prepared dinner.)

2️⃣ To speculate about a past event from a future perspective
➡ Il aura oublié notre rendez-vous.
(He must have forgotten our meeting.)

3️⃣ In conditional sentences with “si” (hypothetical past completed actions)
➡ Si tu as travaillé dur, tu auras réussi ton examen.
(If you worked hard, you will have passed your exam.)

🔹 More Examples with dès que

1️⃣ Future Action Completed Before Another
🔹 Dès que tu auras fini ton repas, nous partirons.
(As soon as you have finished your meal, we will leave.)

🔹 Dès qu’il sera rentré, il nous appellera.
(As soon as he has returned home, he will call us.)

2️⃣ Future Plans & Deadlines
🔹 Dès que nous aurons acheté la maison, nous organiserons une fête.
(As soon as we have bought the house, we will throw a party.)

🔹 Dès qu’ils auront terminé leur travail, ils prendront des vacances.
(As soon as they have finished their work, they will go on vacation.)

3️⃣ Cause-Effect Relationships
🔹 Dès que j’aurai reçu ton message, je te répondrai.
(As soon as I have received your message, I will reply.)

🔹 Dès qu’elle aura appris la nouvelle, elle nous appellera.
(As soon as she has heard the news, she will call us.)

📔 Examples from the text

• Dès que nous aurons finalisé les derniers détails, et quand j’aurai complété le dossier, je pourrai t’en parler plus longuement.
• Je viendrai te voir dès que j’aurai terminé cet exercise.

Grammar Breakdown

Ils pensent que la solution miracle serait d’interdire tous les véhicules, qu’ils soient particuliers ou professionnels, et d’obliger tout le monde de se déplacer autrement, ou à pied, ou par les transports collectifs.

1️⃣ Main Clause & Subordinate Clause

✅ Main clause:
“Ils pensent que la solution miracle serait…”

• “Ils pensent que” → Verb penser (to think) introduces an indirect statement.
• “la solution miracle serait” → The verb serait is in the conditional present, indicating a hypothetical or suggested solution.

✅ Subordinate clause (dependent on “serait”)
“d’interdire tous les véhicules, qu’ils soient particuliers ou professionnels, et d’obliger tout le monde de se déplacer autrement, ou à pied, ou par les transports collectifs.”

• “d’interdire” and “d’obliger” → Infinitives used as the subject complement of serait.
• “qu’ils soient particuliers ou professionnels” → Subjunctive mood (soient) is used because qu’ils soient introduces a general condition or classification.
• “de se déplacer autrement” → De + infinitive is used after obliger.

2️⃣ Key Grammar Points

A) Conditional Present (“serait”)

• Serait (from être) is in the conditional present, used here to express a hypothetical solution.
• “La solution miracle serait d’interdire…”
  → (The miracle solution would be to ban…)

B) Subjunctive Mood (“qu’ils soient”)

• “qu’ils soient particuliers ou professionnels”
• The subjunctive soient (from être) is used after “qu’ils soient”, expressing a classification rather than a statement of fact.

C) Infinitive Construction (“d’interdire” & “d’obliger”)

• “d’interdire” (to ban) and “d’obliger” (to force) are in infinitive form because they are dependent on “serait”.
• “de” is used before “se déplacer” because “obliger” is followed by “de” when forcing someone to do something.

Vocabulaire