Breakdown of Vous devez creuser avant de semer les graines.
vous
you (plural/formal)
devoir
to have to / must
avant de
before (+ infinitive)
semer
to sow
la graine
the seed
creuser
to dig
Questions & Answers about Vous devez creuser avant de semer les graines.
This lesson is about subjunctive conjunctions. Why isn't the subjunctive used here?
When the subject performing both actions is the same (here, vous is doing both the digging and the sowing), you don't use a conjunction like avant que with the subjunctive. Instead, you use the preposition avant de followed by an infinitive (semer). You would only use the subjunctive if there were a new subject, like "You must dig before I sow" (avant que je sème).
Could I just say avant semer instead of avant de semer?
No, you need the de. The word avant by itself is used before nouns, such as avant l'hiver (before winter). When you want to say "before doing" an action, the rule in French is to always use avant de followed by the infinitive.
Why does creuser attach directly to devez without a preposition, while semer needs de?
The verb devoir (here as devez) acts as a modal verb, which means it is always followed directly by an infinitive without any prepositions like à or de. In contrast, semer is preceded by de only because it belongs to the fixed prepositional phrase avant de.
I see the verb semer (to sow) here. Is there a related word for the seeds themselves?
While the noun used in this sentence is les graines (the seeds), which is the most common word for everyday gardening, there is indeed a related noun: la semence (seed/sowing seed). However, les graines is much more frequently used in daily conversation to talk about the physical seeds you plant or eat.
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