Breakdown of Le contrôleur est sur le point d'embarquer avec beaucoup de passagers.
avec
with
beaucoup de
a lot of / many
le passager
the passenger
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
être sur le point de
to be about to
embarquer
to board
le contrôleur
the ticket inspector
Questions & Answers about Le contrôleur est sur le point d'embarquer avec beaucoup de passagers.
How does the expression être sur le point de work in this sentence?
This phrase literally means "to be on the point of," but it is the standard French way to say someone is "about to" do something. You conjugate the verb être (here, est) and follow it with sur le point de plus an infinitive verb (here, embarquer). Notice that de drops its vowel and becomes d' because embarquer starts with a vowel.
What's the difference between saying est sur le point d'embarquer and just using the near future: va embarquer?
Since passagers is plural, why is it beaucoup de instead of beaucoup des?
In French, expressions of quantity like beaucoup (a lot), peu (a little), or trop (too much/many) are almost always followed by just de (or d'), even if the noun that comes next is plural. You would only use des after beaucoup if you were talking about specific passengers (meaning "a lot of the passengers"), but here it just means "a lot of passengers" in general.
Is contrôleur a false friend? Does it mean "controller"?
It can be a false friend! While it can mean "controller" in some technical contexts, on public transport (like trains or buses), un contrôleur is a ticket inspector or a conductor. They "control" or check that everyone has a valid ticket, rather than driving or steering the vehicle.
Learn Le contrôleur est sur le point d'embarquer avec beaucoup de passagers and more in French
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free