Breakdown of Chacun pense qu'il conduit le plus vite.
il
he
vite
fast, quickly
plus
more
penser
to think
que
that (introducing a clause)
conduire
to drive
chacun
each one
Questions & Answers about Chacun pense qu'il conduit le plus vite.
Why do we use le plus vite? Does the le ever change to la or les if a woman or a group is driving?
Since chacun refers to everyone in a group, why are we using the singular il and pense?
Why is conduit in the indicative? Doesn't penser que trigger the subjunctive?
Verbs of thinking and believing, like penser que and croire que, only trigger the subjunctive when they are negative (like Je ne pense pas qu'il conduise) or asked as a question. Because this is a positive, affirmative statement, it expresses a certainty in the subject's mind, so we use the normal indicative mood (conduit).
Could I use rapidement instead of vite in this sentence?
Yes, you could absolutely say le plus rapidement. Both are adverbs meaning "fast" or "quickly." Vite is shorter and extremely common in everyday conversational French, whereas rapidement can sound just a tiny bit more formal. In this sentence, they are completely interchangeable.
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