Breakdown of Je veux qu'ils puissent évacuer calmement.
je
I
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
vouloir
to want
pouvoir
to be able to / can
que
that (introducing a clause)
évacuer
to evacuate
calmement
calmly
Questions & Answers about Je veux qu'ils puissent évacuer calmement.
Why do we use the subjunctive puissent here instead of the indicative peuvent?
The phrase Je veux que expresses a wish or desire. In French, verbs expressing will, order, desire, or emotion require the verb in the following que clause to be in the subjunctive mood.
How do we form the subjunctive of pouvoir in this sentence?
The verb pouvoir (to be able to) has a highly irregular subjunctive stem: puiss-. To form the ils or elles conjugation, you simply add the standard subjunctive ending -ent to get puissent. Unlike some verbs, pouvoir uses this same puiss- stem for all subjects, such as que je puisse and que nous puissions.
Why is évacuer left in the infinitive?
When you have two verbs placed together in a sentence, the second verb typically stays in its unconjugated infinitive form. Here, puissent is the conjugated verb and évacuer is the second verb, meaning to evacuate.
Could I put calmement before évacuer, similar to calmly evacuate in English?
No, French word order rules are stricter here. Adverbs generally cannot be placed right before an infinitive like they can in English. Instead, adverbs ending in -ment usually go directly after the verb they modify. Since it modifies évacuer, it must come right after it.
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