Breakdown of Autant l'athlétisme améliore la vitesse, autant le patinage développe l'agilité avant de sauter.
améliorer
to improve
sauter
to jump
autant
as much, as many
avant de
before (+ infinitive)
la vitesse
the speed
développer
to develop
le patinage
the skating
l'athlétisme
the track and field (m)
l'agilité
the agility (f)
Questions & Answers about Autant l'athlétisme améliore la vitesse, autant le patinage développe l'agilité avant de sauter.
Does Autant... autant... always require the indicative mood, like améliore and développe here?
Yes. Even though this structure contrasts two ideas, which might make you expect the subjunctive, it simply states two concrete, parallel facts. Because you are declaring realities rather than subjective doubts or wishes, you use the indicative mood.
Could we move autant to after the verbs, for example saying L'athlétisme améliore autant la vitesse...?
Not when using this specific comparative structure. When you use autant... autant... to mean "as much as [this is true], so much [is that true]," the word autant must be placed at the very beginning of each clause to set up the parallel balance.
Why do we use avant de sauter instead of just avant sauter?
In French, the preposition avant cannot be followed directly by an infinitive verb. You must use the phrase avant de followed by the infinitive when the action applies to the same subject or to people in general, as it does here. If the second action had a different subject, you would use avant que followed by the subjunctive mood.
Why does the translation say "track and field" for l'athlétisme instead of "athletics"?
In French, l'athlétisme specifically refers to track and field events like running, jumping, and throwing. It is a partial "false friend" for American English speakers, who use "athletics" to refer to sports in general, though it perfectly matches the British English definition of "athletics."
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