Learn French: Nous avons peur que le projet détruise la forêt. - We are afraid that the project will destroy the forest.

In French, expressions of emotion or feeling followed by que require the subjunctive mood. Because the first part of the sentence uses avoir peur que (to be afraid that), it triggers the subjunctive for the verb in the second part of the sentence.

The English translation says "will destroy", but is détruise a future tense?

No, détruise is the present subjunctive. In French, the subjunctive doesn't have a specific future tense. When expressing an emotion about something that might happen in the future, you simply use the present subjunctive. You cannot use the regular future tense (détruira) after avoir peur que.

What is the infinitive of détruise and how do we find its subjunctive stem?

The infinitive is détruire (to destroy). To find its subjunctive stem, you take the present tense ils/elles form, which is ils détruisent. Drop the -ent to get the stem détruis-, and then add the subjunctive ending for il/elle/on, which is -e, giving us détruise.

I thought we had to add an extra ne after avoir peur que. Is it missing here?