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Si elle passe sous une échelle, elle attirera le malheur.

Si elle passe sous une échelle, elle attirera le malheur.
If she passes under a ladder, she will attract misfortune.
From Lesson 138:The first conditional (si...)·French

Questions & Answers about Si elle passe sous une échelle, elle attirera le malheur.

Why is the first verb in the present tense (passe) but the second one is in the future (attirera)?
This sentence uses the First Conditional structure to talk about a likely future event. Just like in English, French uses si (if) + present tense for the condition (elle passe), and the future tense for the result (elle attirera).
How do we form the future tense for attirera here?
Attirer (to attract) is a regular verb. To form the future tense for most regular verbs, you keep the full infinitive (attirer) and add the correct ending. For elle, the ending is -a, giving us attirera.
I always mix up sous and sur. Is there an easy way to remember which is 'under'?
A common trick is that sur (on) sounds like 'surface'. Since this sentence is about the bad luck of walking under a ladder, we need sous. You can also think of the word 'submarine' to remember that things starting with 'sub' or 'sou' often mean under!
Why is it le malheur with an article, when the English translation is just 'misfortune'?
In French, abstract concepts and general ideas like misfortune, love, or time almost always need a definite article (le, la, l', or les). While English just says 'misfortune', French requires le malheur.

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