{"id":21583,"date":"2015-01-19T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T05:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=21583"},"modified":"2017-10-23T13:46:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T11:46:23","slug":"what-are-french-conjunctive-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/what-are-french-conjunctive-phrases\/","title":{"rendered":"What are French Conjunctive Phrases?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, we went over les conjonctions de la langue fran\u00e7aise<\/em>, including les conjonctions de coordination <\/em>(car, donc, ensuite, et, mais, or, ni, ou, puis<\/em>) and les conjonctions de subordination<\/em> (comme, lorsque, puisque, quand, que, si, quioque<\/em>). You can go back and look over that lesson here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, we will focus on les locutions conjonctives<\/em>, or conjunctive phrases. Conjunctive phrases are simply two or more words that work together as a conjunction and most conjunctive phrases act as subordinating conjunctions in French.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s a reason I didn\u2019t group conjunctive phrases into the last lesson. And this is because les locutions conjonctives<\/em> can be quite tricky. Why? Well, because a good amount of them require the subjunctive. For those who are not familiar with the subjunctive mood in French, it is a verb form that is used to convey subjectivity or uncertainty. I won\u2019t go into the details of le subjonctif <\/em>here, but you can almost always recognize it because it is introduced by the word que (<\/em>that). <\/em>And guess what? French conjunctive phrases often end in que<\/em>. So there is quite a lot of overlap between using les locutions conjonctives<\/em> and le subjonctif.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway, I\u2019ll just mark the conjunctive phrases that must be followed by a subjunctive verb by an asterix and will go into the details of the subjunctive in a following post.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the most common conjunctive phrases in French, as well as their English translations:<\/p>\n

*afin que<\/em> \u2013 so that<\/p>\n

ainsi que<\/em> \u2013 just as, so as<\/p>\n

alors que<\/em> \u2013 while, where as<\/p>\n

*\u00e0 moins que<\/em> \u2013 unless (This conjunction also uses the ne expl\u00e9tif<\/em>, which just means that you may see a \u201cne\u201d after the phrase that does NOT function as a negative.)<\/p>\n

apr\u00e8s que<\/em> \u2013 after, when<\/p>\n

*avant que<\/em> \u2013 before (This conjunction also uses the ne expl\u00e9tif<\/em>, which just means that you may see a \u201cne\u201d after the phrase that does NOT function as a negative.)<\/p>\n

*bien que<\/em> \u2013 although<\/p>\n

*de fa\u00e7on que<\/em> \u2013 in such a way that<\/p>\n

*de mani\u00e8re que<\/em> \u2013 so that<\/p>\n

de m\u00eame que<\/em> \u2013 just as<\/p>\n

depuis que<\/em> \u2013 since<\/p>\n

*de sorte que<\/em> \u2013 as soon as<\/p>\n

*encore que<\/em> \u2013 even though<\/p>\n

*jusqu\u2019\u00e0 ce que<\/em> \u2013 until<\/p>\n

*malgr\u00e9 que <\/em>\u2013 despite that, although<\/p>\n

parce que<\/em> \u2013 because<\/p>\n

pendant que<\/em> \u2013 while<\/p>\n

*pour que<\/em> \u2013 so that<\/p>\n

*quoi que<\/em> \u2013 whatever, no matter what<\/p>\n

*sans que<\/em> \u2013 without (This conjunction also uses the ne expl\u00e9tif<\/em>, which just means that you may see a \u201cne\u201d after the phrase that does NOT function as a negative.)<\/p>\n

tandis que<\/em> \u2013 while, where as<\/p>\n

tant que<\/em> \u2013 as long as<\/p>\n

vu que<\/em> \u2013 seeing as<\/p>\n

Phew. That\u2019s quite a list, although this list is nowhere near exhaustive. These are just the most common conjunctive phrases that you will come across, although you will surely come across others. And notice that the majority of them do take the subjunctive.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples:<\/p>\n

Je dois aller au supermarch\u00e9 \u00e0 moins que<\/strong> ton fr\u00e8re veuille<\/strong> y aller \u00e0 ma place.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have to go to the supermarket, unless<\/strong> your brother wants to go for me instead. (Notice that veuille <\/em><\/strong>is the subjunctive of the verb vouloir.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Elle est grande bien que<\/strong> ses parents soient <\/strong>de petite taille.<\/em><\/p>\n

She is tall even though<\/strong> her parents are of smaller stature. (Notice that soient <\/em><\/strong>is the subjunctive of the verb \u00eatre.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

C\u2019est le meilleur jour depuis que<\/strong> je suis ici.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the best day since<\/strong> I\u2019m here.<\/p>\n

Il a fait un voyage sans qu<\/strong>\u2019elle le sache<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

He went on a trip without <\/strong>her knowing about it. (Notice that sache <\/em><\/strong>is the subjunctive of the verb savoir. <\/em>Also, because the pronoun elle <\/em>starts with a vowel, it becomes linked to the que.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Appelle-moi apr\u00e8s que<\/strong> tu auras achet\u00e9 le g\u00e2teau.<\/em><\/p>\n

Call me after<\/strong> you buy the cake.<\/p>\n

Can you come up with some other examples in the comments using some of the conjunctive phrases listed above? If you want to give it a try, pick one of the conjunctive phrases that uses the subjunctive mood and incorporate it into your sentence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u00c0 la prochaine!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Two weeks ago, we went over les conjonctions de la langue fran\u00e7aise, including les conjonctions de coordination (car, donc, ensuite, et, mais, or, ni, ou, puis) and les conjonctions de subordination (comme, lorsque, puisque, quand, que, si, quioque). You can go back and look over that lesson here. Today, we will focus on les locutions…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":21584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[348522,346,148],"class_list":["post-21583","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-conjunctive-phrases","tag-french-grammar","tag-subjunctive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28667,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21583\/revisions\/28667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}