Question 1

Why is the verb soit used here instead of est?

Accepted Answer

The conjunction quoique (meaning "even though" or "although") expresses a concession. In French, conjunctions of concession always require the following verb to be in the subjunctive mood. Since il is the subject, we use soit, the subjunctive form of être, rather than the normal indicative est.

Question 2

Could I use bien que instead of quoique in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you could say bien qu'il soit jeune. Both quoique and bien que mean "although" or "even though" and both require the subjunctive. Bien que is more common in everyday spoken French, while quoique is slightly more formal, but they are grammatically interchangeable.

Question 3

Why is it written as quoiqu'il with an apostrophe?

Accepted Answer

The word quoique drops its final "e" and takes an apostrophe (called elision) when the next word starts with a vowel or a mute "h". This always happens before vowel-starting pronouns like il, elle, on, ils, and elles.

Question 4

Why does the sentence use qui in qui surmonte? I always mix up qui and que.

Accepted Answer

You use qui when the word it replaces is the subject doing the action. Here, the man is the one doing the overcoming, so "who overcomes" is qui surmonte. If the man was receiving the action (like "the challenge that he overcomes"), you would use que.

L'homme qui surmonte ce défi extrême est fort, quoiqu'il soit jeune.

Breakdown of L'homme qui surmonte ce défi extrême est fort, quoiqu'il soit jeune.

Questions & Answers about L'homme qui surmonte ce défi extrême est fort, quoiqu'il soit jeune.

Learn L'homme qui surmonte ce défi extrême est fort, quoiqu'il soit jeune and more in French