Lorsqu'on arrête le gaspillage et qu'on installe une éolienne, on fait des progrès.

Questions & Answers about Lorsqu'on arrête le gaspillage et qu'on installe une éolienne, on fait des progrès.

Why is it qu'on installe instead of repeating lorsqu'on installe?
In French, it's better style to avoid repeating subordinating conjunctions like lorsque, quand, or comme. Instead of saying et lorsqu'on installe, you use et que (contracted to et qu' here). It acts as a shortcut meaning 'and when'.
Does the replacement word que trigger the subjunctive here?
No. When que steps in to replace a time-related conjunction like lorsque or quand, it keeps the indicative mood of the original word. So installe is in the present indicative. Watch out, though: if que replaces si (if), it does trigger the subjunctive!
Why use lorsqu' instead of quand here?
Both mean 'when' and mean the same thing here, but lorsque is slightly more formal. Notice the written contraction: you must contract lorsque to lorsqu' before pronouns like on, il, or elle. You never write a contraction for quand (like quand'on), even though quand on heavily links together when spoken.
Why is progress translated as des progrès (plural)?
In English, 'progress' is an uncountable concept. In French, un progrès is a countable noun. To talk about making progress in general, French typically uses the plural form: faire des progrès.

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