Breakdown of La presse a critiqué l'équipe après que nous avons perdu.
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
avoir
to have
l'équipe
the team (f)
perdre
to lose
Questions & Answers about La presse a critiqué l'équipe après que nous avons perdu.
Why is avons perdu in the indicative mood, rather than the subjunctive?
This is a classic trap! We use the subjunctive after avant que (before) because the action hasn't happened yet—it's still just a possibility. But with après que (after), the action of losing has already taken place. Because it is a definite fact, we must use the indicative. You might occasionally hear native French speakers mistakenly use the subjunctive here, but the indicative is grammatically correct.
Could I simplify this by using the infinitive and saying après avoir perdu?
Not in this sentence, because the subjects of the two actions are different. La presse is doing the criticizing, but nous did the losing. You can only use the infinitive structure (après avoir + past participle) when the subject is exactly the same for both verbs. For example: L'équipe a pleuré après avoir perdu (The team cried after losing).
Both verbs are in the passé composé. Could I use a different tense for the second verb?
Yes, and strict grammatical rules actually prefer the plus-que-parfait for the second verb (après que nous avions perdu) to clearly show that the loss happened further in the past than the criticism. However, in everyday conversational French, using the passé composé for both is very common and perfectly acceptable, since the conjunction après que already makes the timeline of events completely clear.
La presse refers to multiple journalists. Why is the verb a critiqué in the singular?