Breakdown of Si l'oiseau chante, il apportera le bonheur.
il
he
apporter
to bring (to a place)
chanter
to sing
si
if
l'oiseau
the bird (m)
le bonheur
the happiness / the good luck
Questions & Answers about Si l'oiseau chante, il apportera le bonheur.
Why is the verb chante in the present tense if we are talking about what will happen in the future?
In French first conditional sentences (If X happens, Y will happen), the verb immediately following si (if) must be in the present tense. We only use the future tense for the result part of the sentence (il apportera). This is exactly how it works in English, too!
How do we form the future tense for apportera?
To form the future tense of regular -er verbs like apporter (to bring), you keep the entire infinitive word and add the future endings. Since the subject is il, we add the ending -a to the end of apporter, giving us apportera.
Since a bird is an animal, why do we use il instead of a French word for 'it'?
Why is there a le in front of bonheur? In English we just say 'happiness', not 'the happiness'.
When talking about abstract concepts like happiness, love, or time in a general sense, French requires you to use a definite article (le, la, l', or les). Because of this rule, general 'happiness' always becomes le bonheur.
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