Breakdown of Ce trimestre, tu devrais répondre aux questions.
tu
you (informal singular)
ce
this (before a noun)
la question
the question
aux
to the, at the (plural) / with (flavoured with, in dish names) / with (having as a feature)
devoir
to have to / must
répondre
to answer / to reply
le trimestre
the trimester
Questions & Answers about Ce trimestre, tu devrais répondre aux questions.
Since this lesson is about expressions of will and the subjunctive, why isn't the subjunctive used here?
The subjunctive requires a trigger phrase (like je veux que, meaning 'I want that') and a change of subject. Here, there is only one subject (tu) and no que clause. We are simply giving advice directly with the conditional verb devrais, which doesn't trigger the subjunctive.
Why is it devrais and not dois?
Devrais is the conditional form of devoir. While the present tense tu dois means 'you must' or 'you have to', the conditional tu devrais softens it to 'you should', which is used here to give advice rather than a strict order.
Why is it aux questions instead of just les questions?
In French, the verb répondre (to answer) must be followed by the preposition à. Think of it as answering to a question. Because questions is plural, the preposition à and the plural definite article les combine into the required contraction aux.
Why do we use Ce for 'This trimester' rather than Cet?
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