Breakdown of Ils ajoutent de l'engrais afin que les racines soient fortes.
être
to be
fort
strong
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
de
of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)
ajouter
to add
afin que
in order that
l'engrais
the fertilizer (m)
la racine
the root
Questions & Answers about Ils ajoutent de l'engrais afin que les racines soient fortes.
Why do we use soient instead of sont here?
Soient is the subjunctive form of être (to be) for ils/elles. We must use the subjunctive here because it follows the conjunction afin que (so that / in order that). Conjunctions expressing purpose always require the subjunctive in French, because the outcome (strong roots) is a goal or intention, not a guaranteed fact yet.
Is there a difference between afin que and pour que?
They mean the exact same thing ("so that" or "in order that") and both require the subjunctive. Afin que is just slightly more formal, while pour que is very common in everyday spoken French. You could easily say ... pour que les racines soient fortes here.
Why is it de l'engrais instead of just l'engrais?
We need the partitive article de l' here because they are adding some fertilizer, not a specific, countable amount. Whenever you talk about an unspecified quantity of a mass noun (like water, sugar, or fertilizer), you use du, de la, or de l'.
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