Breakdown of Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul lit les sous-titres pour vérifier sa prononciation.
Questions & Answers about Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul lit les sous-titres pour vérifier sa prononciation.
In French, pendant is the natural preposition to mean “during” a span of time.
- Pendant le dernier épisode = During the last episode (while it is playing).
- Dans le dernier épisode is usually understood more like in the last episode (as in “in the storyline of the last episode”) and is less about the time you’re watching it.
Examples:
- Pendant le film, il dort. – He sleeps during the film.
- Dans le film, il meurt. – In the film, he dies (in the story).
So here we want the time frame while the episode is going on, so pendant is correct.
Lit in this sentence is present tense (3rd person singular of lire: il lit).
- Paul lit les sous-titres. – Paul reads the subtitles / is reading the subtitles.
If you want to clearly talk about a completed action in the past, you would normally use the passé composé:
- Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul a lu les sous-titres.
→ During the last episode, Paul read the subtitles.
So:
- lit = present (he does this now / habitually, or you’re narrating in the present).
- a lu = past (he did it and it’s over).
Lit is pronounced like “lee” in English: /li/. The t is completely silent.
From the verb lire (to read), the present tense goes:
- je lis /li/
- tu lis /li/
- il / elle / on lit /li/
- nous lisons /lizɔ̃/
- vous lisez /lize/
- ils / elles lisent /liz/
So lit (he reads) sounds exactly the same as lis (I/you read), but is spelled differently.
French often uses the definite article (le, la, les) where English might use nothing or the only sometimes.
Here, les sous-titres refers to the specific subtitles on the screen for that episode, which both speaker and listener know about. That’s why les (the) is used, not des (some).
Compare:
Paul lit les sous-titres.
→ He reads the subtitles (the ones on this show / this episode).Paul lit des sous-titres.
→ He reads some subtitles (not specified which ones; more vague and unusual in this context).
Yes. Sous-titres is the normal French word for subtitles on a screen (film, series, video).
- mettre les sous-titres – to put the subtitles on
- sous-titres en français / en anglais – French / English subtitles
If you’re talking specifically about subtitles for people who are deaf or hard of hearing (with sound information), French might say sous-titres pour malentendants, but everyday learners just call them sous-titres.
To express purpose (“in order to do X”), French normally uses:
- pour + infinitive
So:
- Paul lit les sous-titres pour vérifier sa prononciation.
→ Paul reads the subtitles (in order) to check his pronunciation.
Using à + infinitive for purpose is much rarer and usually incorrect here:
- ✗ Paul lit les sous-titres à vérifier sa prononciation. – not idiomatic.
Typical structures with pour + infinitif:
- pour apprendre – to learn / in order to learn
- pour comprendre – to understand / in order to understand
- pour améliorer sa prononciation – to improve his/her pronunciation
Yes, grammatically you can:
- Paul lit les sous-titres afin de vérifier sa prononciation.
Afin de + infinitif also means “in order to”, but it sounds more formal and a bit heavier than pour. In everyday spoken French, pour is much more common.
So:
- pour vérifier – neutral, very common
- afin de vérifier – more formal / written style
In French, possessive adjectives (mon, ma, mes / ton, ta, tes / son, sa, ses) agree with the gender and number of the noun possessed, not with the owner.
The noun here is prononciation, which is feminine singular:
- la prononciation → sa prononciation
So:
- sa prononciation = his pronunciation / her pronunciation
- son accent = his accent / her accent (because accent is masculine: un accent)
The gender of Paul (male) does not affect whether we choose son or sa; only the gender of prononciation matters.
Yes, that word order is perfectly correct:
- Pendant le dernier épisode, Paul lit les sous-titres.
- Paul lit les sous-titres pendant le dernier épisode.
Both mean the same thing: Paul reads the subtitles during the last episode.
Placing pendant le dernier épisode at the beginning just sets the time frame first and adds a small emphasis on when it happens, but the basic meaning doesn’t change.
Pendant by itself is used with a noun phrase:
- pendant le film – during the film
- pendant le dernier épisode – during the last episode
To mean “while + clause”, you usually need pendant que:
- Pendant que Paul lit les sous-titres, Marie écoute.
→ While Paul reads the subtitles, Marie listens.
So:
- pendant + noun = during (a period / event)
- pendant que + subject + verb = while (someone does something)
They’re related but not identical:
la prononciation = how you pronounce sounds and words (correct sounds, stress, etc.)
- améliorer sa prononciation – to improve your pronunciation
l’accent = your overall way of speaking that shows your native language or region
- un accent anglais / un accent du sud – an English accent / a southern accent
In this sentence, vérifier sa prononciation suggests he’s checking if he is pronouncing words correctly, not necessarily trying to eliminate his accent.
Yes, a few things to notice:
- Pendant le – often pronounced /pɑ̃dɑ̃ lə/; the final t of pendant is usually silent here (no liaison).
- les sous-titres – pronounce the plural les as /le/ and sous-titres as /sutitr/ (the final s of sous-titres is silent). No liaison between les and sous in careful speech.
- pour vérifier – /puʀ veʀifje/; r is pronounced in both pour and vérifier.
- sa prononciation – /sa pʀɔnɔ̃sjasjɔ̃/; note the nasal sounds -on- /ɔ̃/ and -tion /sjɔ̃/.
- Paul lit – Paul is /pɔl/, lit is /li/; together: /pɔl li/.
There is no required liaison that changes meaning here, but getting the silent letters (like the t in lit and the s in sous-titres) right is important for sounding natural.