Question 1

Why use va augmenter (futur proche) here instead of augmentera (futur simple)?

Accepted Answer

This sentence uses the futur proche (aller + infinitive) because it treats the increase as an absolute certainty or an upcoming, logical shift based on present evidence. If the speaker were making a more distant or uncertain prediction, they would use the futur simple: elle augmentera.

Question 2

Why does the sentence use elle to mean "it"?

Accepted Answer

Every noun in French has a grammatical gender. Because la croissance (the growth) is feminine, you must use the feminine pronoun elle to refer back to it, even though we just use the neutral "it" in English.

Question 3

Why is the past tense diminuait used here instead of the passé composé (a diminué)?

Accepted Answer

diminuait is in the imparfait (imperfect) tense, which is used to describe an ongoing or continuous state in the past—translating perfectly to "was decreasing." If you used the passé composé (a diminué), it would sound like a single, sudden, and finished event ("decreased").

Question 4

Could I just say dans le passé instead of autrefois?

Accepted Answer

Yes, dans le passé works, but autrefois (which literally means "other time") is a very natural, single-word adverb. It is especially common when contrasting how things used to be a long time ago with how they are now or how they will be in the future.

Autrefois, la croissance diminuait, mais elle va augmenter.

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