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L'homme aime son chien, alors que la femme préfère le chat.

L'homme aime son chien, alors que la femme préfère le chat.
The man loves his dog, whereas the woman prefers the cat.
From Lesson 219:Whereas and while (alors que / tandis que)·French

Questions & Answers about L'homme aime son chien, alors que la femme préfère le chat.

Does alors que mean the same thing as tandis que here?
Yes! Both alors que and tandis que mean "whereas" or "while" when showing a contrast between two facts. You could easily say ...tandis que la femme préfère le chat and the meaning would be exactly the same.
Do I need to use the subjunctive mood after alors que?
No, alors que (and tandis que) takes the indicative mood. This means you just use normal everyday tenses, like the present tense préfère seen here. You generally save the subjunctive for conjunctions of concession like bien que (although)!
Why does the sentence use le chat (the cat) instead of son chat (her cat)?
This is a deliberate choice to show exactly what she prefers. The man loves his own dog (son chien), but the woman prefers "the cat" (either a specific shared family cat, or cats in general). If the writer wanted to say "her cat", they would have used son chat. Remember as a quick refresher: son can mean "his" or "her" because it agrees with the masculine noun chat, not with the gender of the owner!
If the second part of the sentence started with a vowel, would alors que change?
Yes, the que in alors que will drop its e and add an apostrophe before a vowel or a silent h. For example, if the sentence was "whereas he prefers", it would become alors qu'il préfère.

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