Breakdown of Je relis mon résumé avant que le professeur le corrige.
Questions & Answers about Je relis mon résumé avant que le professeur le corrige.
Relis is the first person singular (je) of the verb relire.
- lire = to read
- relire = to read again, to reread
So:
- Je lis mon résumé. = I am reading my summary.
- Je relis mon résumé. = I am rereading my summary / I read my summary again.
Using relire is more precise than just lire encore (“read again”), and it’s the natural verb in French for this idea.
French often uses the present tense where English would use a future or a more explicit future-like structure.
In this sentence, je relis indicates an action that is happening now or as a general habit, in relation to a future event (the professor correcting the work). English might say:
- “I reread my summary before the professor corrects it.” (present–present)
- “I reread my summary before the professor corrects / will correct it.”
French keeps both verbs in forms that look like the present, but the time relationship (rereading first, correcting afterward) is expressed through avant que, not through a future tense.
Both exist, but they are used differently:
avant que + subject + conjugated verb
- Je relis mon résumé avant que le professeur le corrige.
- I reread my summary before the professor corrects it.
- There are two different subjects: je and le professeur.
- Je relis mon résumé avant que le professeur le corrige.
avant de + infinitive
- Je relis mon résumé avant de le rendre.
- I reread my summary before handing it in.
- There is only one subject (je) for both actions.
- Je relis mon résumé avant de le rendre.
So you must use avant que here because the person who rereads (je) is not the same as the person who corrects (le professeur).
In French, certain conjunctions always require the subjunctive, and avant que is one of them.
- Rule: avant que + subjonctif
So strictly speaking, the form is qu’il corrige in the subjunctive present, not the indicative. For il/elle, the forms happen to be identical for this verb:
- Indicative: il corrige
- Subjunctive: qu’il corrige
You can’t see the subjunctive in the form here, but it is required by grammar because of avant que. The idea is: the action in the avant que clause is future and not yet realized (the correction has not happened yet), which is one of the typical uses of the subjunctive.
No.
In French, after avant que, you must use the subjunctive, not the future:
- ✔ avant que le professeur le corrige (subjunctive)
- ✘ avant que le professeur le corrigera (future)
Using the future there is a common learner mistake; it sounds wrong to native speakers. The notion of “future” is already encoded by the avant que structure.
Le is a direct object pronoun that replaces mon résumé:
- le = it (referring to a masculine singular noun)
Because résumé (a text, a summary) is masculine in French (un résumé), the pronoun must be le.
- le professeur corrige mon résumé → le professeur le corrige
Also note the position: object pronouns go before the conjugated verb in standard statements:
- le corrige, not corrige le (except in imperatives like Corrige-le !).
In French, résumé is a masculine noun:
- un résumé
- mon résumé (not ma résumé)
There’s no reliable rule from the spelling alone (-é endings can be masculine or feminine), so you must learn the gender with the noun:
- un résumé = a summary
- le résumé = the summary
That’s why both the possessive (mon) and the pronoun (le) are masculine.
You may indeed see:
- Je relis mon résumé avant que le professeur ne le corrige.
This ne is called le ne explétif (expletive ne). It does not mean negation here; it’s just a stylistic/old-fashioned element that often appears after certain conjunctions expressing fear, time limits, or prevention, such as avant que, de peur que, de crainte que, etc.
- With ne explétif: more formal / literary
- Without ne explétif: perfectly correct and very common in everyday French
So your sentence without the ne is grammatically fine.
No, that would be incomplete.
In avant que le professeur le corrige, the verb corriger needs a direct object (“corrects what?”).
- mon résumé in the main clause
- le in the subordinate clause
If you remove le, you end up with avant que le professeur corrige, which sounds like something is missing. You must either:
- repeat the noun: avant que le professeur corrige mon résumé, or
- replace it with the pronoun: avant que le professeur le corrige.
The version with the pronoun is more natural and less repetitive.
In French, un résumé most commonly means:
- a summary (of a text, a lecture, a movie, etc.).
Example:
- Fais un résumé du chapitre. = Make a summary of the chapter.
For a job-hunting CV / resumé in French, you normally say:
- un CV (curriculum vitæ)
So in this sentence, mon résumé is understood as my summary, not a job CV.
In most cases, including this one, French does not require a comma before avant que.
- Je relis mon résumé avant que le professeur le corrige.
A comma might sometimes be added in longer or more complex sentences to clarify structure or rhythm, but in normal, neutral writing, no comma is standard here.