Breakdown of Paul pensait qu'il aurait le temps de finir son dessin avant le départ du bateau.
Questions & Answers about Paul pensait qu'il aurait le temps de finir son dessin avant le départ du bateau.
Pensait (imparfait) presents Paul’s thought as something ongoing, background, or habitual in the past:
- Paul pensait… = Paul was thinking / used to think / thought (over a period of time).
If you said:
- Paul a pensé qu’il aurait le temps…,
it would sound more like a single, completed moment of realization: “At one point, Paul thought (once) that he would have time…”
In context, French often uses the imperfect for mental states, opinions, and ongoing thoughts in the past, so pensait is natural here.
This is a classic “future in the past” situation.
- In English: Paul thought he *would have time…*
- In French: Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps…
Because the main verb (pensait) is in a past tense, French normally shifts the future to the conditional:
- Present main verb → future:
- Paul pense qu’il aura le temps. = Paul thinks he will have time.
- Past main verb → conditional:
- Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps. = Paul thought he would have time.
So aurait matches the past perspective introduced by pensait.
Qu’ here is just que (= “that”) shortened before a vowel sound.
- Full form: …pensait que il aurait le temps… (not used in correct French)
- Correct elided form: …pensait qu’il aurait le temps…
French usually drops the e of que before a word starting with a vowel or mute h and replaces it with an apostrophe:
- que il → qu’il
- que elle → qu’elle
- que on → qu’on
Grammatically, que/qu’ is a subordinating conjunction linking the main clause to the subordinate clause:
- Main clause: Paul pensait
- Subordinate clause: qu’il aurait le temps de finir son dessin…
In this sentence, il is understood to refer back to Paul, the subject of the main clause:
- Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps…
→ Paul thought that *he would have time…*
French often repeats a pronoun in the subordinate clause instead of repeating the name:
- Paul pensait que Paul aurait le temps… (grammatically possible but sounds clumsy and heavy)
- Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps… (natural and normal)
Context tells us that il = Paul; if there were another masculine person mentioned just before, there could be ambiguity, and context would decide.
Avoir le temps de + infinitive means “to have time to do something.”
Structure:
- avoir (conjugated) + le temps de
- infinitive
Examples:
- J’ai le temps de lire. = I have time to read.
- Nous n’aurons pas le temps de manger. = We won’t have time to eat.
- Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps de finir son dessin.
= Paul thought he would have time to finish his drawing.
Note that French normally uses de after le temps when it’s followed by a verb in the infinitive.
After avoir le temps, French standardly uses de + infinitive, not pour + infinitive:
- ✅ avoir le temps de finir
- ❌ avoir le temps pour finir (sounds non-native / awkward in this context)
Pour + infinitif generally expresses purpose or intention (“in order to”):
- Je suis venu pour t’aider. = I came (in order) to help you.
But with temps, the natural pattern is:
- avoir le temps de faire quelque chose
- prendre le temps de faire quelque chose
So: le temps de finir son dessin is the normal, idiomatic form.
Son dessin means “his drawing”, indicating whose drawing it is.
- son = his / her / its (for a masculine singular noun)
- dessin = drawing (masculine noun)
If you said:
- finir le dessin = “to finish the drawing” (some specific drawing already known from context, but not clearly tied to Paul), or “the drawing” in a more neutral way.
- finir son dessin clearly tells us it’s his drawing.
French uses possessive adjectives a lot where English might use “the”:
- Il a oublié son livre. = He forgot his book.
(not “He forgot the book” unless context requires it)
Both are possible, but they have different structures:
avant le départ du bateau
- avant = preposition
- followed by a noun phrase: le départ du bateau (“the departure of the boat”)
- No verb after avant here.
avant que le bateau parte
- avant que = conjunction
- followed by a clause with a verb in the subjunctive: que le bateau parte.
The original sentence uses a prepositional phrase with a noun:
- avant le départ du bateau = before the boat’s departure.
If you switched to a verb, you’d need the subjunctive:
- Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps de finir son dessin avant que le bateau ne parte.
Both are correct; the noun version (avant le départ du bateau) is stylistically a bit more neutral and straightforward.
Du is the contraction of de + le:
- de = of / from
- le = the (masculine singular)
So:
- le départ du bateau = the departure of the boat / the boat’s departure.
Without contraction, it would be:
- le départ de le bateau (incorrect)
- → le départ du bateau (correct, with contraction)
Yes, you can say:
- Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps de finir son dessin avant que le bateau ne parte.
Points to note:
- avant que + subjunctive
- After avant que, French grammar requires the subjunctive: parte (from partir).
- ne here can be an “expletive ne” (ne explétif)
- It does not negate the verb.
- It’s optional in contemporary spoken French, more common in formal or literary style.
- avant que le bateau parte is also acceptable, especially in speech.
Nuance:
- avant le départ du bateau: slightly more factual, nominal (before the boat’s departure).
- avant que le bateau (ne) parte: more explicitly event-focused and often a bit more formal or stylistically marked.
Yes, you can move avant le départ du bateau:
- Paul pensait, avant le départ du bateau, qu’il aurait le temps de finir son dessin.
This is grammatically correct. The original order:
- Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps de finir son dessin avant le départ du bateau.
sounds more natural in everyday speech because:
- The time expression (avant le départ du bateau) is placed right after the activity it modifies (finir son dessin), making the sentence flow more logically: to finish his drawing before the boat’s departure.
So changing the order is possible but may sound a bit more formal or heavy.
Compare:
Paul pensait qu’il aurait le temps de finir son dessin…
= Paul thought he would have time to finish his drawing…
(neutral about whether he actually did or not; context decides.)Paul pensait qu’il aurait eu le temps de finir son dessin…
= Paul thought he would have had time to finish his drawing…
Usually implies that, in reality, he did not have that time (or the situation didn’t happen).
Grammatically:
- aurait = conditional (“would have” – future in the past)
- aurait eu = conditional perfect (“would have had” – refers to a hypothetical past situation relative to another past point)
The original sentence just reports what he thought about the future, viewed from a past moment, so aurait le temps is the natural choice.