Breakdown of Ainsi l'entraîneur a-t-il réuni l'équipe après que l'arbitre a validé le score.
il
he
avoir
to have
l'équipe
the team (f)
valider
to validate / to approve
Questions & Answers about Ainsi l'entraîneur a-t-il réuni l'équipe après que l'arbitre a validé le score.
Why does après que take the indicative a validé here, instead of the subjunctive?
While avant que (before) takes the subjunctive because the action hasn't happened yet, après que (after) refers to a completed reality, so it requires the indicative. You will often hear native speakers mistakenly use the subjunctive after après que, but this sentence follows the strict grammatical rule.
Why is there an -t-il after the verb when the subject l'entraîneur is already stated?
Starting a sentence with ainsi (thus) triggers subject-verb inversion in formal French. Because the subject is a noun (l'entraîneur), we use a structure called complex inversion: the noun stays at the front, and its pronoun equivalent (il) is inverted with the verb. The -t- is just there to separate the two vowel sounds of a and il.
Can I write this sentence without the complicated inversion if I still want to use ainsi?
Could I use the pluperfect tense instead of the passé composé for a validé since it happened first?