Word
Il faut qu'ils puissent utiliser l'extincteur pour arrêter l'incendie.
Meaning
They must be able to use the fire extinguisher to stop the fire.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Il faut qu'ils puissent utiliser l'extincteur pour arrêter l'incendie.
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
pour
for
pouvoir
to be able to / can
il
it (impersonal subject)
Questions & Answers about Il faut qu'ils puissent utiliser l'extincteur pour arrêter l'incendie.
Why is the verb puissent used here instead of peuvent?
The phrase Il faut que (It is necessary that) is a classic trigger for the subjunctive mood. Because of this, we must use the subjunctive form of pouvoir, which is puissent.
Does the subjunctive form of pouvoir follow the normal conjugation rules?
No, pouvoir is highly irregular in the subjunctive. Normally, you find the subjunctive stem by taking the present tense ils form and dropping the -ent (which would give us peuv-). Instead, pouvoir requires you to memorize a completely irregular stem: puiss-. The standard ending -ent is then added to match the subject ils.
Why does utiliser stay in its unconjugated infinitive form?
Because it directly follows another conjugated verb (puissent). Just like in the normal indicative mood, when a modal or helping verb like pouvoir (to be able to) is followed by another action, that second verb stays in the infinitive.
Why do we need the word pour before arrêter?
In French, when you want to express the purpose or goal of an action, you use pour followed by an infinitive verb. Here, pour arrêter translates to 'in order to stop.'
Why use instead of for 'the fire'?