Breakdown of Il faut que tu enlèves la cagoule qui cache son visage.
tu
you (informal singular)
qui
who
cacher
to hide
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
il
it (impersonal subject)
falloir
to be necessary / must (impersonal)
le visage
the face
enlever
to remove / to take off
que
that (introducing a clause)
la cagoule
the balaclava
Questions & Answers about Il faut que tu enlèves la cagoule qui cache son visage.
The phrase "Il faut que" requires the subjunctive. Is "enlèves" in the subjunctive here?
Yes, it is! For regular -er verbs like enlever, the present subjunctive forms for je, tu, il/elle, and ils/elles are spelled and pronounced exactly like the present indicative. If you swapped tu for vous, you would clearly see the subjunctive ending: Il faut que vous enleviez.
Does the verb "enlever" have a spelling change in the subjunctive?
Yes. Just like in the present indicative, the first e in enlever changes to an è with a grave accent for the singular pronouns and ils/elles in the subjunctive. This reflects how the vowel is pronounced. It switches back to an unaccented e for nous and vous (e.g., que nous enlevions).
Why use the possessive "son visage" instead of the typical French body-part structure, "qui lui cache le visage"?
Both are actually valid here. French usually prefers the indirect object pronoun plus a definite article (like qui lui cache le visage) when a person is performing an action on someone's body part. However, because the subject doing the hiding is an inanimate object (la cagoule), using the possessive adjective (son visage) is very common and sounds completely natural.
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