Breakdown of S'ils quittaient le système solaire, ils exploreraient une nouvelle galaxie.
une
a / an (feminine)
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
nouveau
new
si
if
explorer
to explore
quitter
to leave (a place or person)
le système
the system
solaire
solar
la galaxie
the galaxy
Questions & Answers about S'ils quittaient le système solaire, ils exploreraient une nouvelle galaxie.
Why is it s'ils instead of si ils?
The word si (if) drops its i and uses an apostrophe only when it is followed by il or ils. This is a strict rule in French to avoid two "ee" sounds in a row. Note that this doesn't happen with elle or elles—for those, you would keep the full word: si elles.
Why is quittaient in the imperfect tense (l'imparfait) if this sentence is about the future or a hypothetical situation?
This is the classic rule for the Second Conditional in French. To express an unlikely or hypothetical situation ("If A happened, B would happen"), the verb directly following si (if) must be in the imperfect tense. Even though English uses the simple past ("if they left"), French requires the imparfait here.
How is the conditional verb exploreraient formed here?
To form the present conditional for regular -er verbs, you take the entire infinitive of the verb (explorer) and add the imparfait endings. For ils, the ending is -aient. Put them together, and you get exploreraient (they would explore).
Why does nouvelle come before the noun it describes, but solaire comes after?
In French, most adjectives go right after the noun, which is why we say système solaire. However, a small group of common, short adjectives describing Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, and Size (often memorized as "BANGS") go before the noun. Nouvelle (new) falls under the "Age" category, so it must be placed before galaxie.
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