Breakdown of Il veut que nous expliquions notre absence.
il
he
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
notre
our (singular and plural forms: notre, nos)
vouloir
to want
expliquer
to explain
que
that (introducing a clause)
l'absence
the absence (f)
Questions & Answers about Il veut que nous expliquions notre absence.
Why is it que nous expliquions instead of translating "wants us to explain" literally?
In English, we use an infinitive for "wants us to explain." In French, when you want someone else to do something, you cannot use an infinitive. You must use vouloir que followed by a new subject and a conjugated verb. Because vouloir expresses a desire, that second verb must be in the subjunctive mood.
Expliquions looks exactly like the imperfect tense. Is it?
No, it is the present subjunctive! For regular -er verbs like expliquer, the nous and vous forms of the present subjunctive are identical to their imperfect tense forms. You know it is the subjunctive here because it is triggered by the expression of desire Il veut que.
How do I build the present subjunctive for a regular verb like expliquer?
To find the stem, take the present tense "they" form (ils expliquent) and drop the -ent to get expliqu-. Then, add the subjunctive endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent. For nous, the ending is -ions, giving us nous expliquions.
Why use notre absence instead of nos absence?
Notre is the possessive adjective for "our" when the following noun is singular, as it is here. If the noun were plural, you would use nos absences.
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