Breakdown of L'acidité va en s'intensifiant si la cave est trop chaude.
être
to be
chaud
hot
aller
to go
si
if
la cave
the cellar
en
while / by (with gerund)
trop
too, too much
s'intensifier
to intensify
l'acidité
the acidity (f)
Questions & Answers about L'acidité va en s'intensifiant si la cave est trop chaude.
How does va en s'intensifiant translate to 'keeps intensifying'?
This sentence uses the structure aller + en + present participle (the gérondif) to express a progressive, gradual change. Literally, it means the acidity 'goes on' intensifying. You can use this pattern to show that an action is increasing or happening little by little over time.
Why is there an s' inside en s'intensifiant?
The base verb here is s'intensifier (to intensify), which is a reflexive verb. When you put a reflexive verb into the gérondif form (en + present participle), you must keep the reflexive pronoun and make it agree with the subject. Since the subject is l'acidité, the pronoun is se, which shortens to s' before a vowel.
Is la cave a false friend here?
Why does this sentence use the present tense va instead of the future tense ira?
Using the present tense for both halves of a si (if) sentence states a general rule or a guaranteed scientific fact. While ira (will go) would be grammatically correct to express a future consequence, va works perfectly here because it describes a general truth about how cellars work.
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