Learn Hardcore French: Même malade, Marie veut pratiquer son français en ligne, tout en étant patiente avec elle‑même. - Even when ill, Marie wants to practice her French online, while being patient with herself.

Même malade literally comes from Même si elle est malade = Even if/though she is sick.
The elle est is understood from context and omitted to make the sentence lighter and more natural.
This pattern is common with adjectives:
- Fatigué, il continue à travailler. → Even though he is tired, he keeps working.
- En retard, elle se dépêche. → Being late, she hurries.

So Même malade = Even (when she is) sick / Even though she’s sick.

Why is it just malade and not une malade or la malade?

Because malade here is an adjective, not a noun.

malade as an adjective: sick, ill
- Marie est malade. → Marie is sick.
un/une malade as a noun: a sick person / a patient
- Les malades doivent rester au lit. → The patients must stay in bed.

In Même malade, we’re describing Marie’s state (sick), not calling her a sick person. Adjectives describing a temporary state normally don’t take an article.

Why is it son français and not sa française?

Because:

français here is a noun meaning “the French language”, which is masculine in French.
- le français = the French language
- son français = her French (i.e., her ability/level in French)
sa française would mean “her French (female) person/woman” or “her French (female) thing,” which makes no sense here.

So:

son français = her French (language)
sa française ≠ correct in this context

Could we say pratiquer le français instead of pratiquer son français? Is there a difference?

Both are possible, but the nuance is slightly different:

pratiquer le français
→ to practice French (the language in general)
More neutral and common.
pratiquer son français
→ to practice her French (her own level/skills)
This can sound a bit more personal: she wants to practice her own French.

In everyday speech, you’re more likely to hear:

Marie veut pratiquer son français.
Marie veut pratiquer le français. Both are acceptable and natural.

What exactly does tout en étant mean? Why both tout and en?

tout en étant is built from:

en + present participle → en étant
This expresses an action/state happening at the same time as the main verb:
- Elle travaille en écoutant de la musique.
  She works while listening to music.
tout en adds the idea of “while (at the same time, and even though)”. It can suggest:
- simultaneity: doing two things at once
- sometimes a slight contrast: she still does X while also doing Y

In this sentence:

tout en étant patiente avec elle‑même ≈ while (still) being patient with herself at the same time.

You can often translate tout en + -ant form as:

while still …ing
all the while …ing

Why is it étant patiente and not something like être patiente?

Because French uses en + present participle (en étant) to express “while being”.

être patiente is the infinitive (to be patient), which doesn’t fit the grammar of this structure.
étant is the present participle of être, used after en:
- en mangeant = while eating
- en lisant = while reading
- en étant patiente = while being patient

So the pattern is:

tout en + étant + adjective
→ while being + adjective

And patiente agrees with Marie (feminine singular), not with étant:

Marie est patiente. → feminine patiente
tout en étant patiente → same feminine form, agreeing with Marie.

Why is it patiente (with an -e) and not patient?

Because Marie is grammatically feminine, and patiente is the feminine form of the adjective:

masculine: patient
feminine: patiente

Adjectives in French have to agree in gender and number with the noun they describe:

Un homme patient → a patient man
Une femme patiente → a patient woman
Ils sont patients. → They (all men or mixed) are patient.
Elles sont patientes. → They (all women) are patient.

Here, patiente agrees with Marie.

Why is it patiente avec elle‑même and not patiente avec soi‑même?

Both structures exist, but they aren’t interchangeable here:

elle-même is the reflexive emphatic pronoun for elle:
- Elle pense à elle‑même. → She thinks about herself.
- Elle est patiente avec elle‑même. → She is patient with herself.
soi-même is used mainly:
- in impersonal constructions:
  - On doit être patient avec soi‑même. → One must be patient with oneself.
- or when the subject is on, chacun, personne, etc.

Because the subject is explicitly Marie / elle, the natural choice is:

patiente avec elle‑même, not soi‑même.

Could we use envers instead of avec in patiente avec elle‑même?

You could say patiente envers elle‑même, but:

avec is more common and more natural when talking about being patient/kind/fair with oneself.
envers tends to sound a bit more formal or abstract, often used with attitudes toward others:
- Il est injuste envers ses collègues.
- Elle est très gentille envers ses voisins.

So:

patiente avec elle‑même → most idiomatic in everyday French.
patiente envers elle‑même → grammatically correct but a bit more formal or literary.

Why is it en ligne and not something like sur internet or à ligne?

en ligne is a fixed expression meaning “online”.

en ligne literally: in line → idiomatic: online
- parler en ligne = to talk online
- travailler en ligne = to work online

You could also say:

sur Internet → on the internet
- pratiquer son français sur Internet = practice her French on the internet

But à ligne is wrong; French doesn’t use à in this expression.

So in this sentence:

pratiquer son français en ligne = practice her French online, perfectly natural and common.

Could we rewrite the sentence with même si instead of Même malade? Would it change the meaning?

Yes, you can, and the meaning stays almost the same:

Même malade, Marie veut pratiquer son français en ligne…
Même si elle est malade, Marie veut pratiquer son français en ligne…

Both convey:

Even though she is sick, Marie wants to practice her French online…

Differences:

Même malade is more compact and a bit more written-style (though still natural in speech).
Même si elle est malade is more explicit and maybe a bit easier for learners.

In everyday French, Même si elle est malade… is probably what you’d hear more often, but Même malade… is perfectly correct and idiomatic.