Learn French: Je suis décidé à garder l'équilibre. - I am determined to keep my balance.

Je suis décidé à garder l'équilibre.

I am determined to keep my balance.

Breakdown of Je suis décidé à garder l'équilibre.

Questions & Answers about Je suis décidé à garder l'équilibre.

Why does this use à instead of de? I thought 'to decide to' was décider de.

The key is the verb before it. Avoir décidé de is the past tense of the verb (meaning 'to have decided to'). But here, you have être décidé à, where décidé acts as an adjective meaning 'determined' or 'resolved'. When used as an adjective with être, it takes the preposition à before the next verb.

If a woman says this, does décidé change?

Yes! Because décidé is acting as an adjective connected to the subject by the verb être (to be), it must agree with the subject. A female speaker would write Je suis décidée à garder l'équilibre.

Why is it l'équilibre ('the balance') instead of mon équilibre ('my balance')?

In French, when talking about things intrinsically linked to your own body or physical state, it is standard to use the definite article (le, la, l', les) rather than a possessive word (mon, ton, etc.) as long as it is obvious whose body is involved.

What happens if I want to say I am determined not to keep my balance? Where does the ne pas go?