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Je corrige l’article avant de l’envoyer.

Je corrige l’article avant de l’envoyer.
I correct the article before sending it.
FromLesson 18inHardcore French

Breakdown of Je corrige l’article avant de l’envoyer.

je
I
avant
before
de
of
envoyer
to send
corriger
to correct
l’article
the article
l’
it

Questions & Answers about Je corrige l’article avant de l’envoyer.

Why is de necessary after avant, and how do I form “before doing something” in French?
When you want to put a verb after avant, French requires avant de + infinitive. You cannot say avant corriger; you must say avant de corriger. If avant is followed by a noun instead of a verb, you drop the de (for example, avant midi, avant le repas).
What’s the difference between avant de l’envoyer and avant que je ne l’envoie?
  • avant de l’envoyer uses avant de
    • infinitive, and it’s used when the subject stays the same (here je).
  • avant que je ne l’envoie uses avant que
    • subjunctive (j’envoie) with the expletive ne. It’s required when you have a subordinate clause with a finite verb (often if the subjects differ) or when you want to emphasize the uncertainty or formality.
Why is the object pronoun l’ placed before envoyer instead of after corrige?
In French, object pronouns always precede the verb they belong to. When there’s an infinitive, the pronoun goes immediately before that infinitive. Here, l’ refers to the object of envoyer, so it must sit directly before envoyer (not before corrige).
Why is the pronoun l’ used here, and how do I know whether to use le, la, les?
The pronoun replaces l’article, which is a masculine singular noun. French uses le for masculine singular direct objects; because envoyer starts with a vowel (e), le elides to l’. For a feminine noun (e.g. la lettre), you would use la (no elision before a consonant). For plurals, you’d use les.
Could I replace l’article with le in the first clause to avoid repetition?
Yes. A more concise sentence is Je le corrige avant de l’envoyer, where both le and l’ stand for l’article. This is common practice to avoid repeating the full noun.
Why is je corrige in the present tense instead of j’ai corrigé (past) or je vais corriger (near future)?

The French present tense is versatile:

  • It can indicate an ongoing action (“I am correcting”).
  • It can also express a planned or imminent action (“I will correct”).
    If you want to stress that the correction is already done, use the past perfect (j’ai corrigé). To emphasize a future intention, use the near‐future form (je vais corriger).
Can I use the noun l’envoi instead of the infinitive envoyer?
Yes. You could say Je corrige l’article avant son envoi, employing son + the noun envoi. This is perfectly correct and gives a slightly more formal, nominal style, focusing on “the sending” rather than on the action “to send.”
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“How does grammatical gender work in French?”
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles and adjectives used with it. "Le" is used with masculine nouns and "la" with feminine ones. Adjectives also change form to match — for example, "petit" (masc.) becomes "petite" (fem.).

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