Learn Hardcore French: Les musiciennes montent sur la scène pendant que les spectateurs applaudissent. - The female musicians go up on the stage while the spectators applaud.

Because the sentence uses les musiciennes, it tells you explicitly that the musicians are all women. If there were any men in the group (even just one), standard French grammar would switch to the masculine plural les musiciens.

How would the sentence change if the musicians were men or a mixed group?

You would only change the noun for “musicians”:

Les musiciens montent sur la scène pendant que les spectateurs applaudissent.
→ The (male or mixed) musicians go up onto the stage while the audience clap.

Everything else (montent, sur la scène, pendant que, les spectateurs applaudissent) stays the same, because verbs in the present tense don’t show gender, only number (singular/plural).

Why does French use the simple present montent / applaudissent when English uses “are going / are applauding”?

French uses the simple present much more often than English does.

Les musiciennes montent sur la scène
literally: “The musicians go up onto the stage”
but very often translated as: “The musicians are going onto the stage”

French has a progressive form (être en train de + infinitive), but it’s used only when you really want to insist on “in the middle of doing”:

Les musiciennes sont en train de monter sur la scène.
→ They are in the middle of going onto the stage (stronger focus on the ongoing action).

In normal narration or description, French prefers the simple present, even where English expects are + -ing.

Why is it monter sur la scène and not monter à la scène or dans la scène?

The choice of preposition is about the spatial idea:

monter sur = to go onto / up onto a surface (on top of something)
- monter sur la scène → to go onto the stage (up onto the platform)
- monter sur la table → to get onto the table

à la scène is not used for this physical meaning. You might see à la scène in other, more figurative expressions (for example, contrasting stage and screen), but not for the idea of climbing or stepping onto the platform.

dans la scène would mean “in the scene” in the sense of a scene of a play or movie (inside the episode of the story), not physically on the stage.

So for the physical movement to the platform, you normally say:

monter sur la scène = go up onto the stage.

Why is it sur la scène here, but sometimes you see sur scène without the article?

Both exist, with a slight difference in feeling:

sur la scène
- Emphasises the concrete, physical stage.
- Often used when you think of the specific stage in a theatre:
  - Les musiciennes montent sur la scène.
    → They go onto the (actual) stage.
sur scène (no article)
- More general: “on stage” as a performance situation.
- Often used with verbs like être, se produire, monter sur scène:
  - Les musiciennes sont sur scène. → The musicians are on stage.
  - Elle adore être sur scène. → She loves being on stage.

In your sentence you could also say:

Les musiciennes montent sur scène pendant que…

That would shift the focus slightly from “that specific platform” to the idea of “going onstage (to perform)”.

What’s the difference between pendant, pendant que, and tandis que?

They’re related but used differently:

pendant (preposition)
- Followed by a noun or a time expression, not a whole clause.
- Means “for / during”:
  - pendant le film → during the film
  - pendant deux heures → for two hours
pendant que (subordinating conjunction)
- Followed by a full clause with a subject and verb.
- Means “while” (at the same time as):
  - Les musiciennes montent sur la scène pendant que les spectateurs applaudissent.
    → while the audience clap.
tandis que
- Also “while”, often with a nuance of contrast, but can also be simply temporal in spoken French.
- In many neutral cases it can replace pendant que:
  - Les musiciennes montent sur la scène tandis que les spectateurs applaudissent.

In your sentence, pendant que is the straightforward way to say “while (at the same time as)” without necessarily expressing contrast.

Does les spectateurs mean “the audience” or just “the spectators”? How is it used?

Literally, un spectateur / une spectatrice means “a spectator,” someone watching a show, event, match, etc.

In practice, les spectateurs is often the normal way to refer to “the audience” (especially when we imagine them as a group of people watching):

Les spectateurs applaudissent.
→ The audience clap / are clapping.

English tends to prefer the collective noun the audience; French more often uses the plural “the spectators” (les spectateurs), though le public is also common for “the audience” in a broader sense:

Le public applaudit. → The audience applauds.
Les spectateurs quittent la salle. → The audience members leave the hall.

Why is it just applaudissent and not applaudissent à or applaudissent pour?

In French, the verb applaudir usually takes a direct object, with no preposition:

applaudir quelqu’un / quelque chose
- Les spectateurs applaudissent les musiciennes.
  → The audience applaud the musicians.
- Le public a applaudi le spectacle.
  → The audience applauded the show.

When the object is obvious from context, you can just say applaudir on its own, like in your sentence:

Les spectateurs applaudissent.
→ The spectators clap / applaud.

Adding à here would be wrong: *applaudir à quelqu’un in this meaning is not standard modern French. You might sometimes see applaudir à in older or very formal language, but for everyday modern French, think:

applaudir quelqu’un / quelque chose (direct object)
or just applaudir / applaudir fort when no object is mentioned.

The ending -ent in montent and applaudissent isn’t pronounced. How do I know these verbs are plural?

In spoken French, the -ent ending of ils/elles present-tense verbs is normally silent:

ils montent → pronounced like il monte
ils applaudissent → pronounced like il applaudit (same in most accents)

So in speech, singular and plural can sound identical. You know whether it’s singular or plural from:

The subject pronoun (if present):
- il monte (he goes up)
- ils montent (they go up)
The noun subject and any context:
- Les musiciennes montent → plural subject
- La musicienne monte → singular subject
Agreement elsewhere (adjectives, past participles, etc., in other sentences).

In writing, the -ent is essential to show plural, even though you don’t hear it.

Can I reverse the order of the two clauses in this sentence?

Yes. You can put the pendant que clause first:

Pendant que les spectateurs applaudissent, les musiciennes montent sur la scène.

This is perfectly correct. You just add a comma when the subordinate clause comes at the beginning.

Meaning and nuance are essentially the same; sometimes putting the pendant que clause first emphasizes the background action:

“While the spectators are clapping, the musicians go on stage.”

Both orders are natural in French:

Les musiciennes montent sur la scène pendant que…
Pendant que… , les musiciennes montent sur la scène.

Are there any important pronunciation points (liaisons, silent letters, etc.) in this sentence?

Yes, several:

Silent final consonants / endings
- les → the s is silent: /le/
- musiciennes → final -nes pronounced /n/, but the -es plural mark doesn’t add a sound here.
- montent → final -nt silent: sounds like monte /mɔ̃t/
- spectateurs → final -s silent: /spɛk.ta.tœʁ/
- applaudissent → final -ent silent: /a.plo.dis/
Liaison
- Between les and spectateurs you normally make a liaison:
  - les spectateurs → /le z spɛk.ta.tœʁ/
- Between pendant and que there is normally no liaison: /pɑ̃.dɑ̃ kə/
Nasal vowels
- montent → /mɔ̃t/ (the “on” is nasal)
- pendant → /pɑ̃.dɑ̃/ (two nasal vowels)
The group appl-
- applaudissent starts with /aplo-/ (the ppl is smoother than in English “apple”).

Putting some of it together (approximate IPA):

Les musiciennes montent sur la scène pendant que les spectateurs applaudissent.
→ /le my.zi.sjɛn mɔ̃t syʁ la sɛn pɑ̃.dɑ̃ kə le z spɛk.ta.tœʁ a.plo.dis/