Learn French: Vous devriez réduire la cadence parce que vous vous épuisez plus qu'hier. - You should reduce the pace because you are tiring yourself out more than yesterday.

Word

Vous devriez réduire la cadence parce que vous vous épuisez plus qu'hier.

Meaning

You should reduce the pace because you are tiring yourself out more than yesterday.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

French

Lesson

Comparing actions (plus que / moins que / autant que)

Breakdown of Vous devriez réduire la cadence parce que vous vous épuisez plus qu'hier.

Questions & Answers about Vous devriez réduire la cadence parce que vous vous épuisez plus qu'hier.

Do I pronounce the 's' at the end of plus in this sentence?

Yes, you pronounce it with a hard 's' sound. When plus modifies a verb to mean 'more' (like tiring yourself out more), the final 's' is always pronounced. This is different from when it modifies an adjective starting with a consonant, like plus grand, where the 's' is silent.

Why does the sentence use plus qu' instead of plus de?

Because it is comparing the action of the verb (s'épuiser), not a quantity of a noun. If you wanted 'more of' a noun, you would use plus de. For verbs, the comparative structure is always [verb] + plus que. Here, que drops its 'e' to become qu' before the silent 'h' in hier.

Why is there a double vous in vous vous épuisez?

The verb being used is s'épuiser, which is a reflexive verb meaning 'to exhaust oneself' or 'to tire oneself out'. The first vous is the subject ('you'), and the second vous is the reflexive pronoun ('yourself').

Why use devriez instead of devez?

Devriez is the conditional form of devoir, which translates to 'should' and is used to give advice. If you used the present tense devez, it would mean 'must' or 'have to', making it a strict order rather than a strong recommendation.