Breakdown of Quand elle aura terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra à son professeur.
Questions & Answers about Quand elle aura terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra à son professeur.
In French, when you talk about the future after time conjunctions like quand (when), lorsque (when), dès que (as soon as), après que (after), you normally use a future tense, not the present or present perfect as in English.
So:
- Quand elle aura terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra à son professeur.
= When she has finished her summary, she will send it to her teacher.
Literally: When she will have finished…, she will send… — but in good English we don’t say “will have” in the when-clause, we say “has finished”.
Pattern to remember:
- French: Quand + future (or future perfect), future
- English: When + present (or present perfect), future
Aura terminé is the futur antérieur (future perfect):
- auxiliary avoir in the future (aura)
- past participle (terminé)
Meaning: “will have finished”.
- elle terminera = she will finish (simple future)
- elle aura terminé = she will have finished (future perfect)
So aura terminé insists that the action of finishing is completed before another future action (here: sending it). It marks “anteriority in the future”.
In the sentence:
- Quand elle aura terminé… = When she has already finished…
- …elle l’enverra… = …she will (then) send it…
It’s not wrong; many native speakers say it.
Nuance:
Quand elle terminera son résumé, elle l’enverra…
= Both events are future; the order is understood from context.Quand elle aura terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra…
= More clearly marks that the finishing is completed before the sending.
Traditional grammar prefers the futur antérieur (aura terminé) in a quand‑clause when you want to show one future event is finished before another. In everyday speech, the simple future (terminera) is also very common and usually fully acceptable.
The l’ is a direct object pronoun that replaces son résumé:
- elle enverra son résumé → she will send her summary
- elle l’enverra → she will send it
Here:
- l’ = le (masculine singular direct object pronoun)
- It refers to le résumé (which is masculine in French: un résumé).
In French, object pronouns normally go before the conjugated verb:
- elle l’enverra (correct)
- elle enverra le (incorrect)
So elle l’enverra literally is she it-will-send.
Because of elision.
The full form is:
- le enverra (“will send it”)
But French avoids having le followed directly by a vowel (e in enverra), so le becomes l’:
- le enverra → l’enverra
This happens with le, la, je, me, te, se, ne, de, que before a vowel or silent h:
- je aime → j’aime
- la école → l’école
- que il vienne → qu’il vienne
Because son / sa / ses agree with the gender and number of the noun possessed, not with the possessor.
- résumé in French is masculine: un résumé
- therefore: son résumé (his/her summary)
Compare:
- son livre (livre = masculine, singular)
- sa lettre (lettre = feminine, singular)
- ses livres (livres = plural, any gender)
So even though the subject is elle (she), we still say son résumé because résumé is grammatically masculine.
No, it’s a false friend.
In French:
- un résumé = a summary (of a text, film, story, etc.)
- verb: résumer = to summarize
For a job “résumé” / CV in French, you normally say:
- un CV (un curriculum vitæ)
- sometimes un curriculum vitæ, but CV is by far the most common.
So in this sentence, son résumé means her summary, not her job CV.
Because envoyer (to send) here takes an indirect object introduced by “à”:
- envoyer quelque chose à quelqu’un
= to send something to someone
So:
- elle enverra son résumé à son professeur
= she will send her summary to her teacher
If you removed à, elle enverra son professeur would mean she will send her teacher (somewhere), which is a completely different meaning.
There are two things going on:
Grammatical gender of the noun
Traditionally, professeur is grammatically masculine in French, even when referring to a woman. So you say:- son professeur for a male or female teacher.
Feminine form professeure
- In some regions (especially in Canada) and increasingly in France, people use the feminine form une professeure.
- If you choose this feminine form, then you would say sa professeure (because professeure is feminine).
In your sentence, son professeur is the standard, fully correct form, regardless of the teacher’s actual sex.
No.
Terminé here is a past participle used with “avoir” in the futur antérieur:
- elle aura terminé son résumé
With avoir as the auxiliary, the past participle:
- does not agree with the subject
- it agrees only with a preceding direct object, if there is one.
In your sentence:
- direct object = son résumé
- it comes after the verb → no agreement
So it stays terminé, regardless of elle being feminine.
Example with agreement (different sentence):
- La lettre = feminine direct object
- La lettre, elle l’aura terminée demain.
Here l’ (la lettre) is a preceding feminine direct object → terminée with -e.
Both are correct, with slightly different structures:
Après qu’elle aura terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra…
- après que
- indicative (normally future perfect here: aura terminé)
- same time relation: finishing is complete before the sending.
- après que
Après avoir terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra…
- preposition après
- infinitif passé (avoir terminé)
- very common and slightly more compact.
- preposition après
They mean essentially the same thing as:
- Quand elle aura terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra…
Differences are mainly stylistic; quand is more neutral, après que / après avoir emphasize the idea of after more explicitly.
No.
French always requires an explicit subject pronoun for conjugated verbs (except in imperatives). It is not a “pro‑drop” language like Spanish or Italian.
So you must repeat elle:
- Quand elle aura terminé son résumé, elle l’enverra à son professeur. ✔
- Quand elle aura terminé son résumé, l’enverra à son professeur. ✘
Each finite verb (aura terminé, enverra) needs its subject (elle).