Learn French: Il croit que tu regardes la vidéo. - He believes you are watching the video.

Il croit que tu regardes la vidéo.

He believes you are watching the video.

Breakdown of Il croit que tu regardes la vidéo.

you (informal singular)

Questions & Answers about Il croit que tu regardes la vidéo.

Why is regardes in the normal present tense here, especially since this lesson is about the subjunctive?

Because affirmative statements with croire que (to believe that) state a strong certainty or fact in the speaker's mind, so they take the indicative (normal) tense. This contrasts with phrases involving emotion or doubt like aimer que, which require the subjunctive. However, if this sentence were negative (Il ne croit pas que...) or a question, it would trigger the subjunctive!

The English translation says 'He believes you are watching', but where is the word for 'that'?

In English, it is common to drop the word 'that' in sentences like this. In French, you can never drop the conjunction que. It must always be included to connect the two parts of the sentence.

How do we know tu regardes means 'you are watching' instead of 'you watch'?

French does not have a separate '-ing' tense (present continuous) like English does. The simple present tense tu regardes can mean either 'you watch' as a habit or 'you are watching' right now. You just have to rely on context to know which one makes the most sense.

Do I pronounce the 's' at the end of regardes?

No, the -es ending for the tu form of regular -er verbs is completely silent. You pronounce tu regardes exactly the same way you would pronounce je regarde or il regarde.