Breakdown of Nous partirons après que tu auras fini.
tu
you (informal singular)
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
partir
to leave / to depart
finir
to finish
après que
after (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Nous partirons après que tu auras fini.
The lesson is about the subjunctive. Why isn't auras fini in the subjunctive?
Unlike avant que (before), which requires the subjunctive, après que (after) takes the indicative. This is because the action of finishing is treated as a certainty that will actually happen, rather than a mere possibility. Note that you will often hear native French speakers mistakenly use the subjunctive after après que, but standard grammar requires the indicative.
Why does the French say tu auras fini (you will have finished) when the English just says "you have finished"?
In English, we often use the present tense to talk about the future after time words like "after" or "when". French is stricter here: since the action happens in the future, it requires a future tense. We use the future perfect tense to show that this action will be fully completed before the main action (nous partirons) happens.
How exactly is the tense for tu auras fini formed?
It is the future perfect tense (futur antérieur). You form it by combining the future simple of the helping verb (avoir or être) with the past participle of the main verb. Here, we use tu auras (the future simple of avoir) plus fini (the past participle of finir).
Would it be wrong to say après que tu finis here?
Yes, it would be incorrect for this sentence. When the main verb (partirons) is in the future tense, the action following après que must also be in a future tense. You would only use present-tense forms if you were talking about a general habit, such as Nous partons toujours après que tu as fini (We always leave after you have finished).
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