Question 1

Why does the French sentence use the future tense commencera when the English translation says "begins" in the present tense?

Accepted Answer

This is a major difference between French and English! In English, we use the present tense after time words like "when" or "as soon as" to talk about the future. In French, if the main action (ils répondront) is in the future, the action following time phrases like dès que, quand, or lorsque must also be in the future tense (commencera).

Question 2

What does dès que mean here, and could I just use quand?

Accepted Answer

Dès que means "as soon as". You could grammatically use quand (when) or lorsque (when), but dès que emphasizes that the second action will happen immediately after the first one.

Question 3

Why do we say aux travailleurs instead of just les travailleurs?

Accepted Answer

The verb répondre (to answer) is typically followed by the preposition à in French, because you answer "to" someone. When you combine à with the plural article les for "the workers", they must contract to form aux.

Question 4

I remember verbs like commencer sometimes need a cedilla (ç). Why doesn't commencera have one?

Accepted Answer

A cedilla is only added to the letter "c" to make it sound soft (like an "s") when it comes right before an "a", "o", or "u" (like in nous commençons). In commencera, the "c" comes before an "e", which automatically makes the soft sound, so no cedilla is needed!

Dès que la négociation commencera, ils répondront aux travailleurs.

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