Breakdown of Après la manifestation, nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins.
Questions & Answers about Après la manifestation, nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins.
In French, the present tense can be used in several ways:
Real present:
- « En ce moment, nous parlons du prochain vote. »
- Right now, we are talking about the next vote.
Habitual action (what usually happens):
- « Après la manifestation, nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins. »
- This can mean: After the demonstration, we (normally) talk about the upcoming vote with our neighbours.
Near or scheduled future (especially with a time marker):
- « Demain, après la manifestation, nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins. »
- With demain, this can be understood as: Tomorrow, after the demonstration, we’ll talk about the next vote with our neighbours.
You can use a future tense:
- « Après la manifestation, nous allons parler du prochain vote… » (near future, “we’re going to talk”)
- « Après la manifestation, nous parlerons du prochain vote… » (simple future, “we will talk”)
All are grammatically correct. The choice depends on whether you’re describing:
- a plan for the future (nous allons parler / nous parlerons), or
- a habit or a general rule (nous parlons).
In French:
« après » + noun
→ « après la manifestation » = after the demonstration
Here, manifestation is just a noun phrase.« après que » + full clause (subject + verb)
→ « après que la manifestation est terminée » = after the demonstration is over.
So you use:
« après » when it’s followed by a noun:
- « après le dîner » (after dinner)
- « après le travail » (after work)
« après que » when it’s followed by a subject + verb:
- « après que nous avons mangé » (after we have eaten)
- « après que la manifestation a commencé » (after the demonstration has started)
In your sentence, there is no verb after après, only a noun (la manifestation), so « après » alone is correct.
Not usually. « une manifestation » in French most commonly means:
- a demonstration / protest / march (a public gathering, often political or social)
Examples:
- « Il y a une manifestation contre la réforme. »
→ There is a protest against the reform.
In English, “manifestation” often means:
- something that shows or embodies an idea or feeling (a sign, an expression)
So « une manifestation » is a false friend.
In your sentence, « la manifestation » should be understood as “the protest / the demonstration”, not an abstract “manifestation”.
The verb parler uses different prepositions in French than to speak/talk in English:
- To talk about something:
→ parler de quelque chose
So:
- « Nous parlons du prochain vote. »
= We talk about the next vote.
« du » here is de + le (see next question).
Using « parler sur » to mean “talk about” is incorrect in standard French.
« sur » normally means on / onto / about (topic of a book, film, etc.) in other structures:
- « un livre sur la politique » = a book about politics
- « un documentaire sur le climat » = a documentary about the climate
But with parler, you say parler de, not parler sur, when you mean “talk about”.
« du » is the contraction of:
- de + le → du
In your sentence:
- structure: parler de + [thing]
- [thing] = le prochain vote
So in full:
- « parler de le prochain vote »
becomes (by contraction): - « parler du prochain vote »
French always contracts:
- de + le → du
- de + les → des
Examples:
- « Je reviens du travail. » (de + le travail)
- « On parle des élections. » (de + les élections)
Because the noun « vote » is masculine in French:
- un vote (a vote)
- le vote (the vote)
Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun.
So:
- masculine singular: le prochain vote
- feminine singular: la prochaine réunion
- masculine plural: les prochains votes
- feminine plural: les prochaines réunions
Since vote is masculine singular, you must use prochain (masculine), not prochaine.
Both exist, but they have slightly different focuses:
parler à quelqu’un = to speak to someone
(focus: one person is addressing another)- « Je parle au professeur. » (I’m speaking to the teacher.)
parler avec quelqu’un = to speak with someone
(focus: an exchange, a conversation between people)- « Je parle avec mes amis. » (I’m talking with my friends.)
In your sentence:
- « nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins »
emphasizes that you and your neighbours are discussing together.
You could also say:
- « Nous parlons du prochain vote à nos voisins. »
→ More like we talk (tell, explain) to our neighbours about the next vote
(You are the ones informing/talking to them.)
So:
- avec → mutual conversation
- à → direction of speech (to someone)
- « nos voisins » = our neighbours (possessive adjective nos)
- « les voisins » = the neighbours (general or specific neighbors, not explicitly “ours”)
In everyday speech, when you mean “our neighbours” in English, you almost always use a possessive in French too:
- « Nous dînons souvent avec nos voisins. »
= We often have dinner with our neighbours.
« les voisins » would sound like you’re talking about some neighbours in general, or neighbours already identified from context, but not clearly as “our” neighbours.
Yes, that is perfectly correct.
Difference in nuance:
« nous parlons » (present)
→ can describe a habit (what we generally do after a protest) or a scheduled future (especially with another future time marker).« nous allons parler » (near future, aller + infinitive)
→ emphasises a planned near-future action, like we are going to talk about…
This is very close to English “going to + verb”.
So:
- If you want to stress a plan for the upcoming event, « nous allons parler » is a bit clearer.
- If you want to describe what typically happens after a protest, « nous parlons » works very well.
In French, most singular countable nouns need an article (definite, indefinite, or partitive).
So you usually say:
- « après la manifestation »
- « après une manifestation »
not - ✗ « après manifestation »
Some fixed expressions in French do drop the article, but manifestation does not belong to that small group.
Compare:
- « après le dîner » (after dinner)
- « après la réunion » (after the meeting)
- « après la pluie » (after the rain)
Leaving out the article the way we sometimes do in English (after dinner, after school) is not generally possible in French.
Yes. You can use « après avoir + past participle » when you want to say “after doing something”:
- « Après avoir manifesté, nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins. »
Literal: After having protested, we talk about the next vote with our neighbours.
This focuses on the action (protesting) rather than the event (the demonstration as a noun).
Compare:
- « Après la manifestation »
= after the event (the demonstration) - « Après avoir manifesté »
= after we have protested (the activity)
Both are correct; the choice depends on what you want to highlight.
Yes, it’s still correct, but the emphasis changes slightly.
Original:
- « Après la manifestation, nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins. »
Neutral, natural order:
time (après la manifestation) → subject + verb → what we talk about → with whom.
Alternative:
- « Après la manifestation, avec nos voisins, nous parlons du prochain vote. »
or - « Avec nos voisins, après la manifestation, nous parlons du prochain vote. »
These are grammatically fine, but the fronted phrase (avec nos voisins) is more emphatic or stylistic, sometimes used to highlight that it’s with our neighbours rather than with someone else.
For everyday, neutral speech, the original order is the most common.
You still use the same present tense in French:
- « En ce moment, nous parlons du prochain vote avec nos voisins. »
French does not have a separate “-ing” tense like English (“are talking”).
The present indicative « nous parlons » can correspond to both:
- we talk (habitual)
- we are talking (now)
You clarify the meaning with context markers like:
- en ce moment (right now)
- d’habitude (usually)
- demain (tomorrow), etc.