Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je soulignerai les mots importants dans le texte.

When I have found my pencil case, I will underline the important words in the text.

Breakdown of Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je soulignerai les mots importants dans le texte.

• je: I
• ma: my
• dans: in
• important: important
• quand: when
• le texte: the text
• trouver: to find
• le mot: the word
• la trousse: the pencil case
• souligner: to underline

Questions & Answers about Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je soulignerai les mots importants dans le texte.

Why is it “Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse” and not “Quand je trouverai ma trousse” or “Quand je trouve ma trousse”?

French uses the future tenses after time words like quand, lorsque, dès que, après que when you’re talking about the future.

• Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse
  → When I have found my pencil case / Once I’ve found my pencil case
  This is the futur antérieur (future perfect). It expresses an action that will be completed before another future action (underlining the words).

• Quand je trouverai ma trousse
  → When I find my pencil case (future)
  This is the futur simple. It talks about a future event, but it doesn’t highlight the idea of prior completion as clearly. It’s still grammatically correct here; the nuance is just weaker.

• Quand je trouve ma trousse
  This sounds wrong for a specific future event.
  With quand + present, French normally talks about general truths or repeated actions:

  • Quand je trouve ma trousse, je la range.
    → Whenever I find my pencil case, I put it away. (habitual)

So the sentence uses futur antérieur + futur simple to say:
First I will have found the pencil case, then I will underline the important words.

What tense is “j’aurai trouvé”, and how is it formed?

“J’aurai trouvé” is the futur antérieur (future perfect).

It’s formed like this:

1. Future of the auxiliary (avoir or être)
   
   • here: avoir → j’aurai
2. • the past participle of the main verb
   • trouver → trouvé

So:

• j’aurai trouvé = I will have found

Other examples:

• Quand il sera arrivé, nous mangerons.
  When he has arrived, we’ll eat.
• Lorsqu’elles auront fini, elles partiront.
  When they have finished, they’ll leave.

What tense is “je soulignerai”, and how is it formed?

“Je soulignerai” is the futur simple (simple future).

To form the futur simple of regular -er verbs like souligner:

1. Take the infinitive: souligner
2. Add the future endings: -ai, -as, -a, -ons, -ez, -ont

So:

• je soulignerai
• tu souligneras
• il/elle/on soulignera
• nous soulignerons
• vous soulignerez
• ils/elles souligneront

Meaning: je soulignerai = I will underline.

Could I say “je vais souligner les mots importants” instead of “je soulignerai les mots importants”?

Yes, you can.

• Je soulignerai les mots importants
  → futur simple: neutral future, often used in writing, slightly more formal or distant in feel.

• Je vais souligner les mots importants
  → futur proche (near future): often feels more immediate or spoken, like I’m going to underline…

With quand + future, both are possible:

• Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je soulignerai les mots importants.
• Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je vais souligner les mots importants.

The meaning is essentially the same; the difference is mostly in style and nuance.

What exactly does “trousse” mean here? Is it always “pencil case”?

In this context, ma trousse almost certainly means “my pencil case” (the thing with pens, pencils, highlighters, etc.).

But trousse is more general: it means a small case / kit that holds tools or instruments:

• une trousse de maquillage – a make‑up bag
• une trousse de toilette – a toiletry bag / wash bag
• une trousse de secours – a first‑aid kit
• une trousse à outils – a small tool kit

So trousse by itself isn’t “pencil case” by definition, but in a school / text‑work context, ma trousse is naturally understood as my pencil case.

Why is it “ma trousse” and not “mon trousse”?

Because trousse is a feminine noun in French:

• une trousse
• la trousse
• ma trousse

Possessive adjectives must agree with the gender and number of the noun, not the owner:

• ma trousse – my pencil case (feminine singular noun)
• mon stylo – my pen (masculine singular noun)
• mes stylos – my pens (plural)

You would only use mon with a feminine noun when the noun begins with a vowel sound (mon amie, mon école) to avoid an awkward break in pronunciation. Trousse starts with a consonant, so it stays ma trousse.

Why is the adjective in “les mots importants” after the noun, and not before?

In French, most adjectives come after the noun:

• les mots importants – the important words
• un texte intéressant – an interesting text
• une décision difficile – a difficult decision

A relatively small group of common adjectives tends to come before the noun (often called BANGS: Beauty, Age, Number, Goodness, Size), for example:

• un petit livre – a small book
• un bon texte – a good text
• un vieux cahier – an old notebook

But important is not one of those “usually before” adjectives, so the normal order is:

• les mots importants, not les importants mots.

Why is it “dans le texte” and not “dans un texte” or “sur le texte”?

• dans le texte = in the text (a specific text already known to both speaker and listener)
  → le points to a particular text: the one you’re working on.

• dans un texte = in a text / in some text (non‑specific)
  That would sound strange here, because you’re clearly talking about this text in front of you, not just any text.

• sur le texte is possible in other contexts, but it changes the meaning:

  • écrire sur le texte – to write about the text
  • travailler sur le texte – to work on the text (study, analyze)

  If you said souligner sur le texte, it would be unusual; we normally say souligner dans le texte because the words you underline are inside the text.

So dans le texte is the natural choice here.

Could I replace “les mots importants” with a pronoun? Where would it go?

Yes. Since “les mots importants” is a direct object (what you underline), you can replace it with the direct object pronoun “les”.

Word order with a conjugated verb:

subject + object pronoun + verb

So:

• Je soulignerai les mots importants.
  → Je les soulignerai. – I will underline them.

In your sentence:

• Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je soulignerai les mots importants dans le texte.
  → Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je les soulignerai dans le texte.

What’s the difference between “quand” and “lorsque” here? Could I say “Lorsque j’aurai trouvé ma trousse”?

You can absolutely say:

• Lorsque j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je soulignerai les mots importants dans le texte.

Quand and lorsque are very close in meaning:

• Both can mean “when”.
• Both can introduce time clauses with future tenses.

Differences:

• quand is more common and neutral, used in spoken and written French.
• lorsque is often a bit more formal or literary, more frequent in writing, news, instructions, etc.

So in everyday speech, quand is more natural, but lorsque is also perfectly correct.

How do you pronounce “Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse, je soulignerai les mots importants dans le texte”?

Approximate phonetic transcription (in IPA):

• Quand j’aurai trouvé ma trousse
  /kɑ̃ ʒo.ʁe tʁu.ve ma tʁus/

• je soulignerai les mots importants dans le texte
  /ʒə su.li.ɲə.ʁe le mo z‿ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃ dɑ̃ lə tɛkst/

Notes:

• Quand → /kɑ̃/ (nasal vowel, like “kahn” but nasalized)
• j’aurai → /ʒo.ʁe/ (roughly “zho‑ray”)
• trouvé → /tʁu.ve/
• trousse → /tʁus/
• soulignerai → /su.li.ɲə.ʁe/ (the gn is like the ny in canyon)
• Liaison: in les mots importants, you often get les mots importants /le mo z‿ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃/ with a z sound linking mots and importants.
• dans and quand both have a nasal vowel /ɑ̃/.