Learn French: Plus le justicier utilise son pouvoir, plus il est fatigué, quand bien même il dormirait beaucoup. - The more the vigilante uses his power, the more tired he is, even if he were to sleep a lot.

Word

Plus le justicier utilise son pouvoir, plus il est fatigué, quand bien même il dormirait beaucoup.

Meaning

The more the vigilante uses his power, the more tired he is, even if he were to sleep a lot.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

French

Lesson

Concession and hypothesis (quand bien même)

Breakdown of Plus le justicier utilise son pouvoir, plus il est fatigué, quand bien même il dormirait beaucoup.

Questions & Answers about Plus le justicier utilise son pouvoir, plus il est fatigué, quand bien même il dormirait beaucoup.

Why do we use the conditional dormirait here instead of the indicative?

The phrase quand bien même (even if) is always followed by the conditional mood. This is because it introduces an extreme or unlikely hypothesis. This differs from même si, which requires the indicative mood.

Could I use même si instead of quand bien même in this sentence?

Yes, but you would need to change the verb tense. If you use même si, you must use the imperfect tense for this type of hypothesis, resulting in même s'il dormait beaucoup. Quand bien même sounds slightly more formal and emphasizes the contrast a bit more.

In English we say 'The more... the more...'. Why isn't there a le before plus in the French sentence?

In French, the structure for 'the more... the more...' is simply plus... plus..., without any definite articles. Adding le (such as le plus) would turn it into a superlative meaning 'the most', which makes the sentence grammatically incorrect.

How is quand bien même different from quand même?

Quand bien même (even if) is a conjunction that must be followed by a subject and a verb in the conditional. Quand même (anyway or all the same) is an adverb used to show contradiction and is usually placed at the end of a phrase, such as il est fatigué quand même (he is tired anyway).