Learn French: Dès que la grève dont ils parlent commencera, tout s'arrêtera. - As soon as the strike they are talking about starts, everything will stop.

Dès que la grève dont ils parlent commencera, tout s'arrêtera.

As soon as the strike they are talking about starts, everything will stop.

Breakdown of Dès que la grève dont ils parlent commencera, tout s'arrêtera.

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

Questions & Answers about Dès que la grève dont ils parlent commencera, tout s'arrêtera.

Why is commencera in the future tense when the English translation says "starts" in the present tense?

In French, when an action will happen in the future, temporal phrases starting with dès que (as soon as), quand (when), and lorsque (when) must be followed by the future tense. English uses the present tense here, so this is a key difference to memorize!

What does dès que mean, and how does it compare to quand?

Dès que means "as soon as". It is more immediate than quand or lorsque (which both mean "when"). It highlights that the second action (tout s'arrêtera) will happen the very second the first action happens.

Why do we use dont instead of que for "they are talking about"?

The verb parler requires the preposition de when talking about something (parler de la grève). The relative pronoun dont is used to replace objects introduced by de. Since English puts the "about" at the very end of the phrase, it is easy to forget that French requires dont up front.

Why is there an s' in front of arrêtera?

The verb used here is the reflexive s'arrêter (to come to a stop). If you used arrêtera without the s', it would mean stopping an external object (like stopping a car). Because "everything" is coming to a halt on its own, it must be reflexive.