The Student Room Group

Is this the correct way to use the present subjunctive in french?

En ce, Je veux dire que, tout les monde ils soient plus tolerant de l'autre que la plupart des pays.

Trying to say :

By this, I mean that, everyone is more tolerant of each other, than most other countries.

1. does it make grammatical sense? I.E is the subjunctive correct etc?
2. If no, how can I say it better?
Original post by Lulu24
En ce, Je veux dire que, tout les monde ils soient plus tolerant de l'autre que la plupart des pays.

Trying to say :

By this, I mean that, everyone is more tolerant of each other, than most other countries.

1. does it make grammatical sense? I.E is the subjunctive correct etc?
2. If no, how can I say it better?


First off, 'everyone' is used as a singular, so it's 'tout le monde' instead of 'tout les monde'. That means that the conjugation you're looking for is 'soit' and I wouldn't include the pronoun either. So I would write 'tout le monde soit plus tolérant'.

Also, I'm not sure on this because I'm just an A Level student so I may be wrong, but I think you should double check whether it's appropriate to use the subjunctive here. It's normally used to express emotion or doubt, and 'je veux dire que' isn't a phrase that I'd associate with the subjunctive.

Finally, I'd double check 'en ce' to mean by this as well. I have no basis for this really but it feels a bit clunky to me. Perhaps you could avoid that clause? Maybe you could use 'donc' instead?
Reply 2
Original post by AnyRandomName
First off, 'everyone' is used as a singular, so it's 'tout le monde' instead of 'tout les monde'. That means that the conjugation you're looking for is 'soit' and I wouldn't include the pronoun either. So I would write 'tout le monde soit plus tolérant'.

Also, I'm not sure on this because I'm just an A Level student so I may be wrong, but I think you should double check whether it's appropriate to use the subjunctive here. It's normally used to express emotion or doubt, and 'je veux dire que' isn't a phrase that I'd associate with the subjunctive.

Finally, I'd double check 'en ce' to mean by this as well. I have no basis for this really but it feels a bit clunky to me. Perhaps you could avoid that clause? Maybe you could use 'donc' instead?


Okay, definitely, thanks a lot :smile: and with the subjunctive, do you think "Je veux dire que" as in " I want to say that" or "I mean that" comes under the "desire" aspect of the subjunctive as it is a want, or not really and i'm just grasping at marks lol?
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by Lulu24
Okay, definitely, thanks a lot :smile: and with the subjunctive, do you think "Je veux dire que" as in " I want to say that" or "I mean that" comes under the "desire" aspect of the subjunctive as it is a want, or not really and i'm just grasping at marks lol?


Hmm, maybe. The problem with French is that it's so often quite subjective. So I don't think you're necessarily wrong, but there are probably easier ways for you to tick the 'subjunctive box' in your essay :P A tactic I often use is to write 'il semble que + subjunctive' (it seems that...) when I'm giving an opinion about something :smile:
Reply 4
Original post by AnyRandomName
Hmm, maybe. The problem with French is that it's so often quite subjective. So I don't think you're necessarily wrong, but there are probably easier ways for you to tick the 'subjunctive box' in your essay :P A tactic I often use is to write 'il semble que + subjunctive' (it seems that...) when I'm giving an opinion about something :smile:


Okay! so how about if I say, "il semble que la Maurice soit plus tolerant de l'autre que la plupart des pays." will this be subjunctive?
Original post by Lulu24
Okay! so how about if I say, "il semble que la Maurice soit plus tolerant de l'autre que la plupart des pays." will this be subjunctive?


Yes it should be :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by AnyRandomName
Yes it should be :smile:


thank you :smile: a lot.
Original post by Lulu24
thank you :smile: a lot.


No problem, this has been a decent procrastination tool for my own French essay so you've done me a favour really :smile:

Quick Reply

Latest