Je veux lire le livre avant que le repas commence.

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Breakdown of Je veux lire le livre avant que le repas commence.

• lire: to read
• le livre: the book
• vouloir: to want
• le repas: the meal
• commencer: to start
• avant que: before

Questions & Answers about Je veux lire le livre avant que le repas commence.

Why do we use avant que instead of avant de in this sentence?

We use avant que because there are two different subjects involved:
• Je in Je veux lire
• le repas in le repas commence

When there are two different subjects in French, avant que plus the subjunctive is required. If you wanted to reference the same subject, you would use avant de plus the infinitive. For example, you could say Je veux lire le livre avant de manger if you were the one who was going to eat.

Why is commence in the subjunctive mood?

In French, avant que is one of the conjunctions that triggers the subjunctive. The subjunctive, here commence, stresses that the action (the meal starting) is viewed as not yet certain and is tied to a specific condition (reading the book beforehand).

How do I know when to use the definite article le in le livre and le repas?

French uses definite articles (le, la, les) to refer to specific or known items. In this sentence, we assume the speaker already has a particular book in mind (hence le livre) and a specific meal (hence le repas) which both the speaker and listener know about.

Is Je veux lire le livre avant que le repas commence a common way to say this in French?

Absolutely! It's a natural-sounding way to express the idea of wanting to finish reading before the meal begins. Native speakers might also use similar structures with other conjugations or slight changes in style, but the sentence is both grammatically correct and quite common.