A result clause states the consequence of what the main clause describes: he ran so fast that he tripped, the rain came down so hard we couldn't see, she spoke loudly enough that everyone heard. The main clause names a cause; the result clause names what followed from it. French has more granularity here than English, with several conjunctions that pick out different shades — and one important mood distinction that turns the same conjunction into a different meaning depending on whether you use the indicative or the subjunctive.
This page covers the high-frequency result conjunctions (si bien que, de sorte que, tant que, tellement que, si...que), the assez/trop pour que constructions that take the subjunctive, and the critical contrast between result (indicative) and purpose (subjunctive). Result clauses are extremely common in everyday French — you cannot have an extended conversation without using them.
The core principle: result is real, purpose is intended
Before tackling the conjunctions, internalize the mood logic. Result clauses describe what actually happened — the consequence is real, observed, established. They take the indicative.
Il a couru vite, si bien qu'il est arrivé en avance.
He ran fast, so he arrived early.
He really arrived early; the result is a fact.
Purpose clauses describe an intended outcome — the goal of the action, which may or may not be achieved. They take the subjunctive.
Il a couru vite pour qu'il arrive à l'heure.
He ran fast so that he would arrive on time.
The arrival on time is the goal; we are not asserting it as fact, only as the intent behind the running.
A handful of French conjunctions sit between these two zones — de sorte que most prominently — and let you toggle the meaning by choosing the mood. This is why understanding the result/purpose split matters even before you start memorizing conjunctions.
Si bien que: the everyday result conjunction
Si bien que is the most common explicit result marker. It always takes the indicative. The literal meaning is "so well that," but it has bleached into a pure consequence marker — there's no longer any sense of "well" in it.
Il a parlé très fort, si bien que tout le monde a entendu.
He spoke very loudly, so that everyone heard.
J'ai oublié mes clés, si bien que je suis resté dehors une heure.
I forgot my keys, so I stayed outside for an hour.
Le train était en retard, si bien que nous avons raté notre correspondance.
The train was late, so we missed our connection.
The structure is rigid: main clause + comma + si bien que + indicative clause. Si bien que never starts a sentence — it always introduces the consequence in the second half. In conversation, French speakers often use donc or du coup (informal "so") instead, but si bien que is the standard written form and appears constantly in newspapers and formal speech.
De sorte que: result or purpose, depending on mood
De sorte que is the conjunction where the result/purpose distinction is grammaticalized through mood. Both meanings exist; the verb tells you which is intended.
With indicative — result:
Il a couru, de sorte qu'il est arrivé à temps.
He ran, so that he arrived on time. (and indeed he did)
Elle a beaucoup étudié, de sorte qu'elle a réussi son examen.
She studied a lot, so she passed her exam.
The indicative est arrivé and a réussi mark these as accomplished facts. The arrival happened; the success happened. De sorte que + indicative is a near-synonym of si bien que.
With subjunctive — purpose:
Il a couru de sorte qu'il arrive à temps.
He ran so that he would arrive on time. (intended outcome)
Elle a tout préparé de sorte que rien ne soit oublié.
She prepared everything so that nothing would be forgotten.
The subjunctive arrive and soit oublié mark intent. The runner's goal was the timely arrival; the preparation aimed at completeness. Whether the goal was met is not stated — the conjunction now carries forward-looking purpose, not retrospective consequence.
The two meanings sit very close together in English, where "so that" covers both. In French they are mood-distinct. Pay attention to this contrast: it is one of the cleanest examples of mood doing semantic work in the language.
A near-synonym of de sorte que + subjunctive is afin que + subjunctive (purpose only — never result). Pour que + subjunctive is the everyday equivalent. These three conjunctions all take the subjunctive because they all express intent.
Tant ... que and tellement ... que: intensifying result
These two patterns embed a result clause inside the main clause, intensifying a verb, adjective, or noun. They mean "so much that" or "to such an extent that."
Tant ... que modifies a verb, often expressing repeated or extensive action:
Il a tant couru qu'il est tombé d'épuisement.
He ran so much that he collapsed from exhaustion.
Elle a tant insisté qu'on a fini par accepter.
She insisted so much that we ended up agreeing.
Tellement ... que is more flexible — it modifies verbs, adjectives, or adverbs:
Il pleuvait tellement qu'on ne voyait plus la route.
It was raining so much that we couldn't see the road anymore.
Le café est tellement chaud que je ne peux pas le boire.
The coffee is so hot that I can't drink it.
Il parle tellement vite qu'on a du mal à le suivre.
He speaks so fast that it's hard to follow him.
In speech, tellement dominates; tant is somewhat more literary or fixed in expressions. Both take the indicative — these are real consequences.
For nouns, you need a partitive structure: tant de + noun + que (or tellement de + noun + que).
Il y avait tant de monde qu'on ne pouvait plus avancer.
There were so many people that we couldn't move forward.
J'ai tellement de choses à faire que je ne sais plus où donner de la tête.
I have so many things to do that I don't know where to start.
The de is essential before the noun. Forgetting it is a frequent learner error.
Si ... que: with adjectives and adverbs
When the intensified word is an adjective or adverb, si + adjective/adverb + que + indicative is the standard pattern.
Il est si gentil que tout le monde l'apprécie.
He is so nice that everyone likes him.
Le film était si long qu'on s'est endormis.
The film was so long that we fell asleep.
Elle parle si bas qu'on l'entend à peine.
She speaks so quietly that we can barely hear her.
Si ... que with adjectives is essentially interchangeable with tellement ... que: il est si gentil que ... = il est tellement gentil que .... The choice is stylistic, with si slightly more compact and tellement slightly more emphatic.
A quick note on word order: in French the adjective stays where it would normally sit. Il est si gentil que ... — adjective after the verb être, with si directly before it. This is straightforward, but learners sometimes try patterns from other Romance languages and produce unnatural orderings.
Assez ... pour que and trop ... pour que: degree clauses with subjunctive
When the result clause expresses sufficient or excessive degree, French uses assez (enough) or trop (too much) plus pour que + subjunctive. This is a productive subjunctive trigger — the consequence here is conditional, not asserted as a fact.
Il est assez fort pour qu'on lui confie cette tâche.
He's strong enough that we can entrust this task to him.
Le café est trop chaud pour que je puisse le boire tout de suite.
The coffee is too hot for me to drink right away.
Elle parle suffisamment fort pour que tout le monde l'entende.
She speaks loudly enough that everyone can hear her.
The subjunctive here marks the consequence as a possible or required outcome — the strength permits the entrustment, the heat blocks the drinking. These are not assertions of fact in the same way as si bien que clauses; they are evaluations of degree.
Same-subject reductions: when the main clause and the result clause share a subject, French collapses to assez / trop + adjective + pour + infinitive (no que, no subjunctive).
Il est trop fatigué pour travailler ce soir.
He is too tired to work tonight.
Tu es assez grand pour comprendre tout seul.
You're old enough to understand on your own.
Different subjects → pour que + subjunctive. Same subject → pour + infinitive. This pattern repeats across many French subordinations: avant de / avant que, pour / pour que, afin de / afin que. It is one of the workhorses of French clause-linking.
Au point que and à tel point que: emphatic result
For dramatic emphasis, French uses au point que or à tel point que + indicative. These emphasize that the consequence reached an extreme.
Il était bouleversé au point qu'il ne pouvait plus parler.
He was upset to the point that he could no longer speak.
These are slightly more formal than si bien que and carry a stronger note of climax. They take the indicative because they describe real consequences.
Donc, alors, du coup: the conjunctive adverbs
Outside of subordinate clauses, French uses sentence connectors to link a cause to its result without forming a single complex sentence. These are not conjunctions — they sit inside the main clause and link to the previous one.
Il pleuvait. Donc, on est restés à la maison.
It was raining. So, we stayed home.
J'ai raté mon train. Du coup, je suis arrivé en retard.
I missed my train. As a result, I arrived late.
Il fait beau. Alors, on va se promener.
It's nice out. So, we're going for a walk.
Donc is the all-purpose result marker (any register). Alors is conversational and very common in speech. Du coup is colloquial and increasingly common in spoken French — some speakers overuse it as a verbal tic, but in writing it lends an informal, conversational tone.
These adverbs do not affect mood — they do not introduce subordinate clauses, they just connect independent ones.
Common Mistakes
Using the subjunctive after si bien que
❌ Il a couru vite, si bien qu'il soit arrivé à temps.
Incorrect — si bien que takes the indicative.
✅ Il a couru vite, si bien qu'il est arrivé à temps.
He ran fast, so he arrived on time.
Si bien que describes a real consequence and always takes the indicative. The presence of que and the meaning "so that" tempt learners into using the subjunctive, but the result reading blocks it.
Confusing the two senses of de sorte que
❌ Il a couru de sorte qu'il est arrivé à temps. (intended: in order to arrive on time)
With indicative this means 'and so he did arrive' (result), not 'in order to arrive' (purpose).
✅ Il a couru de sorte qu'il arrive à temps.
He ran so that he would arrive on time. (purpose)
If you mean purpose, use the subjunctive. If you mean result, use the indicative. The same conjunction expresses two different meanings.
Forgetting de with tant / tellement + noun
❌ Il y avait tant monde qu'on ne pouvait plus avancer.
Incorrect — tant before a noun requires de.
✅ Il y avait tant de monde qu'on ne pouvait plus avancer.
There were so many people that we couldn't move forward.
Both tant and tellement take de before a noun. Tant que alone (no de) is a different conjunction meaning "as long as" — a temporal clause, not a result clause.
Using indicative with pour que or assez ... pour que
❌ Il est assez fort pour qu'on lui confie cette tâche est possible.
Incorrect mood and word order.
✅ Il est assez fort pour qu'on lui confie cette tâche.
He is strong enough for us to entrust him with this task.
Pour que and assez/trop ... pour que are productive subjunctive triggers. Use the subjunctive even though the meaning may feel like an assertion to an English speaker.
Mixing up tant que (as long as) with tant ... que (so much that)
❌ Il a tant que il est tombé. (intended: he ran so much that he fell)
Wrong — for the result meaning, you need a verb between tant and que.
✅ Il a tant couru qu'il est tombé.
He ran so much that he fell.
✅ Tant qu'il y aura du soleil, on sera heureux.
As long as there is sun, we'll be happy. (different conjunction: temporal)
The difference is the verb between tant and que: with a verb, it's the result construction. Without a separating verb, tant que is the temporal "as long as."
Key Takeaways
Result clauses in French divide into two families. The first family — si bien que, tant ... que, tellement ... que, si ... que, au point que — describes real consequences and takes the indicative. The second family — pour que, afin que, assez/trop ... pour que — describes intended or evaluative consequences and takes the subjunctive. De sorte que straddles the boundary, switching from result (indicative) to purpose (subjunctive) by mood alone.
When you compose a sentence, ask whether the consequence is something that happened (indicative) or something that was aimed at (subjunctive). The answer determines both the conjunction and the mood. Once this division is automatic, the system feels less like a list of rules and more like a single semantic axis with French paying attention to a distinction that English largely ignores.
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