Word
Je cache le médicament de peur qu'il l'avale.
Meaning
I am hiding the medicine for fear that he might swallow it.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Je cache le médicament de peur qu'il l'avale.
je
I
il
he
cacher
to hide
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
Questions & Answers about Je cache le médicament de peur qu'il l'avale.
Why is the verb avale in the subjunctive mood here?
The conjunction de peur que (for fear that) expresses a fear of an unwanted outcome. Just like its synonym de crainte que, it always requires the subjunctive mood in the clause that follows it.
avale looks exactly like the normal present tense. How do we know it is subjunctive?
For regular -er verbs like avaler, the present subjunctive and present indicative forms are identical for the il/elle/on pronoun. We only know it is subjunctive here because grammar dictates it after de peur que. If it were an irregular verb, the change would be obvious, such as de peur qu'il le boive (for fear he might drink it).
Doesn't de peur que usually require an extra ne before the verb?
You are thinking of the ne explétif, which is a formal, untranslated ne that does not make the sentence negative (e.g., de peur qu'il ne l'avale). While common in written French, this extra ne is completely optional. Dropping it is perfectly natural in everyday spoken French, as seen in this sentence.
What does the l' before avale refer to?
It is a direct object pronoun standing in for le médicament. Notice that even in a subordinate subjunctive clause, the object pronoun is placed immediately before the verb it belongs to.