Learn Hardcore French: Marie devient impatiente quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas. - Marie becomes impatient when the Wi‑Fi doesn’t work.

Marie devient impatiente = “Marie becomes impatient / Marie gets impatient.”
Marie est impatiente = “Marie is impatient” (a more permanent trait).

Using devient emphasizes the change of state that happens when the Wi‑Fi doesn’t work. It’s not saying Marie is always impatient, just that she ends up impatient in that situation.

Why is it impatiente with an e at the end?

In French, most adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

Marie is a feminine singular noun (a woman’s name).
The base adjective is impatient (masculine form).
To make it feminine, you usually add -e: impatiente.

So:

un garçon impatient (a boy, masculine)
une fille impatiente (a girl, feminine)
Marie est impatiente (Marie is impatient)

Why is it quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas and not something with the future tense, like in English: “when the Wi‑Fi won’t work”?

French often uses the present tense in time clauses introduced by quand (when talking about general or repeated situations), even when English uses a future form.

Quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas, Marie devient impatiente.
Literally: “When the Wi‑Fi does not work, Marie becomes impatient.”
Natural English: “When the Wi‑Fi doesn’t work, Marie gets impatient.”

If you were talking about a single future event, you’d still use present in the quand clause and future elsewhere:

Quand le Wi‑Fi fonctionnera, je téléchargerai le fichier.
= “When the Wi‑Fi works, I’ll download the file.”
(French: present in English corresponds to future tense in French here; the key is: after quand, French avoids the future-progressive feel English allows.)

Why do we say le Wi‑Fi? Why the article le?

In French, you almost always need an article (like le, la, les, un, une) in front of nouns.

Wi‑Fi is treated as a masculine noun, so we use le:

le Wi‑Fi = “the Wi‑Fi”

You see similar things with other technologies:

le Bluetooth
le réseau (the network)
la connexion (the connection, feminine)

So le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas = “the Wi‑Fi doesn’t work.”

Is Wi‑Fi masculine or feminine in French? How do I know?

In standard usage, Wi‑Fi is masculine:

un Wi‑Fi rapide
le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas

There’s no perfect rule to “guess” the gender of foreign words; they’re usually assigned a gender by usage and analogy. For Wi‑Fi, people generally treat it like other masculine tech words: le réseau, le câble, le routeur, l’internet (often masculine).

What’s the difference between ne fonctionne pas and ne marche pas?

Both can often mean “doesn’t work,” but there are nuances:

ne fonctionne pas
- Slightly more neutral or technical.
- Literally “does not function.”
- Works well for machines, systems, devices, software:
  - Le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas.
  - Le moteur ne fonctionne pas.
ne marche pas
- More informal, conversational.
- Literally “doesn’t walk,” but used very often as “doesn’t work / isn’t working.”
- Often for anything that’s not operating properly:
  - Ça ne marche pas. (“It’s not working.”)

In this sentence, le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas sounds perfectly natural and slightly more neutral. Le Wi‑Fi ne marche pas would also be common in spoken French.

Why do we need ne … pas? Can I just say le Wi‑Fi fonctionne pas?

Standard written French uses the full ne … pas structure for negation.

Le Wi‑Fi fonctionne. = “The Wi‑Fi works.”
Le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas. = “The Wi‑Fi does not work.”

In spoken French, many people drop the ne:

Le Wi‑Fi fonctionne pas. (very common in casual speech) But in correct written French (and in more careful speech), you should keep:
ne … pas for “not”
ne … jamais for “never,” etc.

So the sentence as written is grammatically standard and correct.

Could I say Marie est impatiente quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas instead? Does it change the meaning?

You can say that, but the nuance changes a bit:

Marie devient impatiente quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas.
Focus on the process or change:
“Marie gets / becomes impatient when the Wi‑Fi doesn’t work.”
Marie est impatiente quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas.
Focus on the state:
“Marie is impatient when the Wi‑Fi doesn’t work.”

Both are understandable. The first one highlights that her mood shifts to impatience in that situation.

Is quand the only option, or could I also use lorsque here?

You can use either:

Marie devient impatiente quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas.
Marie devient impatiente lorsque le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas.

Both mean the same thing: “when the Wi‑Fi doesn’t work.”

Lorsque is often a bit more formal or literary than quand, but in everyday language quand is more frequent. In this sentence, quand is the most natural choice for spoken French.

How do you pronounce devient impatiente and Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas? Any tricky sounds?

Key points:

devient → /də-vjɑ̃/
- The -ent at the end is silent.
- The ien sounds like nasal -yahn (but through the nose).
impatiente → /ɛ̃-pa-sjɑ̃t/
- The im is nasal: like “ehn”.
- The -t at the end is pronounced here because of the -te spelling.
Wi‑Fi in French is usually pronounced close to English: /wi fi/.
ne fonctionne pas
- ne often becomes very weak or almost disappears in fast speech.
- fonctionne → /fɔ̃kˈsjɔn/
  - The on is nasal,
  - The -ne is pronounced here: “fong-syonn”.
- pas → /pa/ (no final “s” sound).

Put together naturally:

Marie devient impatiente quand le Wi‑Fi ne fonctionne pas.
Spoken quickly, you’ll hear something like:
Ma-rie de-vyɑ̃ im-pa-sjɑ̃t kɑ̃ lə wi fi nə fɔ̃k-sjɔn pa.