Si tu viens au match de football de samedi, tu verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer.

If you come to Saturday's soccer game, you will see how many goals Marie can score.

Breakdown of Si tu viens au match de football de samedi, tu verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer.

• tu: you
• Marie: Marie
• le samedi: the Saturday
• de: of
• si: if
• pouvoir: to be able to
• voir: to see
• au: to the
• combien de: how many
• venir: to come
• marquer: to score
• le but: the goal
• le match: the match
• le football: the football

Questions & Answers about Si tu viens au match de football de samedi, tu verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer.

Why is it Si tu viens … tu verras and not Si tu viendras …?

In French, after si (meaning if), you normally do not use the future tense in that clause, even when talking about the future.

Pattern for real, likely conditions is:

• Si + present tense, future tense in the main clause.

So:

• Si tu viens, tu verras… → If you come, you will see… ✅
• Si tu viendras, tu verras… ❌ (ungrammatical in standard French)

More examples:

• Si tu étudies, tu réussiras.
  If you study, you will succeed.

So, viens (present) is correct after si, and verras (future) is correct in the result clause.

Could I say Si tu venais au match… tu verrais… instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, but it changes the meaning to something more hypothetical or less likely.

• Si tu viens au match, tu verras…
  → real, likely condition: If you come to the match (and I think you probably will), you will see…

• Si tu venais au match, tu verrais…
  → hypothetical/unreal condition: If you came to the match (but I doubt you will / it’s not planned), you would see…

The structure for hypothetical situations is:

• Si + imparfait, conditionnel présent

So:

• Si tu venais, tu verrais combien de buts Marie peut / pourrait marquer.

Why is it peut marquer (present) and not pourra marquer (future) when we are talking about a future match?

Both are grammatically possible, but they don’t sound quite the same.

• Marie peut marquer (present)
  Here the present is used with a generic or timeless sense:
  You will see how many goals Marie is (capable of) scoring / can score.
  It focuses on her ability in general; the futurity is already clear from tu verras.

• Marie pourra marquer (future)
  You will see how many goals Marie will be able to score.
  This focuses more on her ability at that specific future match.

In everyday speech, using the present in a subordinate clause like this, even for the future, is very common when the main clause is in the future.

What does de mean in combien de buts, and why isn’t it combien des buts?

After combien, French always uses de (or d’ before a vowel), never des, when it’s followed by a noun.

So:

• combien de buts → how many goals ✅
• combien des buts ❌ (incorrect in this structure)

This is the same rule as with numbers and other quantity expressions:

• beaucoup de buts – a lot of goals
• peu de temps – little time
• trois kilos de pommes – three kilos of apples

So the fixed pattern is:
combien de + noun.

Why is it au match and not à le match?

Au is simply the contracted form of à + le.

• à + le match → au match

In French, these contractions are obligatory:

• à + le = au
• à + les = aux
• de + le = du
• de + les = des

So you must say:

• Je vais au match. ✅
  not
• Je vais à le match. ❌

What is the role of de samedi in au match de football de samedi? Why another de?

Here, de samedi works like “of Saturday” / “Saturday’s”, specifying which football match you mean:

• le match de samedi → Saturday’s match / the match on Saturday

The full phrase:

• le match de football de samedi
  = the football match that is (the one) on Saturday
  = Saturday’s football match

This kind of structure with de + day/date is common:

• le journal de mardi – Tuesday’s newspaper
• le contrôle de vendredi – Friday’s test

You’ll also often hear a simpler version:

• au match de football samedi
• au match de samedi

All are possible; the given sentence just uses a slightly heavier form.

What is the difference between de samedi and du samedi?

Subtle difference:

• le match de samedi
  → usually refers to one specific match that takes place on that Saturday.

• le match du samedi
  → can suggest something habitual or defined as “the Saturday match”, for example:

  • Le match du samedi est toujours à 18h. – The Saturday match is always at 6 pm.
  • Or a particular one we both know as “the Saturday match”.

In your sentence, since it’s about a specific upcoming match this Saturday, de samedi is very natural. Du samedi could also occur, but it tends to sound more generic or like we’re talking about “the usual Saturday match.”

Can I replace tu with vous? Would anything else change?

Yes. To be polite or formal, you would use vous:

• Si vous venez au match de football de samedi, vous verrez combien de buts Marie peut marquer.

Changes required:

• tu viens → vous venez (present of venir)
• tu verras → vous verrez (future of voir)

Everything else stays the same.

So:

• tu = informal, singular (friends, family, kids)
• vous = formal singular or plural “you.”

Why is the word order combien de buts Marie peut marquer and not something like combien de buts peut Marie marquer?

Your sentence contains an indirect (embedded) question, not a direct question.

• Tu verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer.
  You will see how many goals Marie can score.

In French, for embedded questions, the word order is like a normal statement, with no inversion:

• Direct question: Combien de buts Marie peut-elle marquer ?
• Embedded: Tu verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer.

So:

• Direct question → inversion (peut-elle)
• Embedded clause introduced by combien de → normal order (Marie peut marquer)

That’s why combien de buts Marie peut marquer is correct here.

Can I drop the second tu and say: Si tu viens au match de football de samedi, verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer?

No. In French, you must keep the subject pronoun; you can’t just start the second clause with a verb like in some languages.

Correct:

• Si tu viens au match de football de samedi, tu verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer. ✅

Incorrect:

• … si tu viens…, verras combien de buts… ❌

Each clause needs its subject (tu, il, elle, nous, etc.) unless it’s an imperative:

• Viens au match de samedi, tu verras combien de buts…
  (Come to Saturday’s match, you’ll see how many goals…) – here viens is an imperative, so no subject, but tu verras still has one.

Is match de football the most natural way to say this, or would French speakers say something else?

In everyday spoken French, people usually say:

• un match de foot

Foot is the common short form of football (meaning soccer).

So very natural versions would be:

• Si tu viens au match de foot de samedi, tu verras…
• Si tu viens au match de foot samedi, tu verras…

Match de football is correct, but sounds a bit more formal or written, or like you’re being very explicit (for example, in an exercise or textbook).

Can I say Marie peut marquer combien de buts instead of combien de buts Marie peut marquer?

Yes, but it changes the style and nuance.

• combien de buts Marie peut marquer
  → neutral word order for an embedded question in standard written and spoken French.

• Marie peut marquer combien de buts ?
  → sounds more spoken / informal, often with a surprised or emphatic tone:

  • Marie peut marquer combien de buts ?! – Marie can score how many goals?!

In a sentence like Tu verras…, the embedded version with combien de buts at the beginning is the most natural:

• Tu verras combien de buts Marie peut marquer. ✅
• Tu verras Marie peut marquer combien de buts. – possible, but much more colloquial and marked.

How would I say “If you came to the match on Saturday, you would see how many goals Marie can score” (more hypothetical) in French?

You’d use the imparfait in the si-clause and the conditionnel présent in the result clause:

• Si tu venais au match de football de samedi, tu verrais combien de buts Marie peut (or pourrait) marquer.

Breakdown:

• Si tu venais → If you came (hypothetical)
• tu verrais → you would see

You can keep peut marquer (generic ability) or use pourrait marquer (would be able to score at that match):

• … tu verrais combien de buts Marie peut marquer.
• … tu verrais combien de buts Marie pourrait marquer. (a bit more explicitly conditional)