Breakdown of Le candidat déclare que s'il gagne, il baissera les impôts.
il
he
gagner
to earn / to win
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
si
if
que
that (introducing a clause)
le candidat
the candidate
l'impôt
the tax (m)
baisser
to lower / to go down / to fade (intransitive)
déclarer
to declare
Questions & Answers about Le candidat déclare que s'il gagne, il baissera les impôts.
Since this is reported speech, why don't the tenses change after que?
Because the introductory verb (déclare) is in the present tense. When reporting speech in the present, you don't shift the tenses back like you do when the reporting verb is in the past. The original direct quote was likely "Si je gagne, je baisserai les impôts," and the tenses (present and future) remain exactly the same.
Why does si become s' in s'il? Does it always contract before a vowel?
Why is gagne in the present tense when we are talking about the future?
This follows a strict rule for "if" clauses in French, which actually works just like English: you use si + present tense to talk about a likely condition, even if it happens in the future. The result of that condition (il baissera) is then put in the future tense. You cannot use the future tense right after si.
What is the infinitive of baissera and how is this tense formed?
The infinitive is baisser, which means to lower or to decrease. Because it is a regular -er verb, its future tense is formed simply by adding the future endings directly to the full infinitive. For il, the ending is -a, making it baissera.
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