Breakdown of Paul est discret quand il parle de son passé.
Questions & Answers about Paul est discret quand il parle de son passé.
Discret can overlap with “quiet,” but its main idea is:
- discreet, reserved, not very revealing, not drawing attention to oneself
In this sentence, Paul est discret quand il parle de son passé suggests:
- He doesn’t say much about his past,
- Or he talks about it carefully, without giving many details,
- He doesn’t expose himself too much.
It’s less about being shy or unable to speak, and more about choosing not to say too much.
- discret: discreet, reserved; he carefully controls what he reveals.
- timide: shy; he might find it difficult to talk at all, especially to people he doesn’t know.
- silencieux: silent/very quiet; he simply doesn’t talk much, regardless of topic.
So Paul can be:
- discret when talking about his past (he hides details),
even if he’s not timide (he’s not necessarily shy)
and not particularly silencieux (he may talk a lot about other topics).
Adjectives in French agree with the gender and number of the noun:
- Paul is grammatically masculine singular,
so the adjective is discret (masculine singular).
Other forms:
- Masculine singular: discret
- Feminine singular: discrète (with -ète)
- Masculine plural: discrets
- Feminine plural: discrètes
For a woman, you would say: Marie est discrète quand elle parle de son passé.
In standard French:
- discret → /dis.kʁɛ/
- dis- like “dis” in “distant” (but shorter),
- -cret like “cray” in English “crayon”.
Key points:
- The final -t in discret is silent.
- In discrète (feminine), the final -te is pronounced: /dis.kʁɛt/.
- est (from être) → present tense
- parle (from parler) → present tense
This present tense describes a general, habitual truth:
- Paul est discret quand il parle de son passé
= Paul is (in general) discreet when he talks about his past (whenever that situation happens).
It’s not a single event; it’s how he usually is in that context.
quand literally means when, but in this kind of general statement it often corresponds to “when(ever)”:
- Paul est discret quand il parle de son passé.
→ Paul is discreet when(ever) he talks about his past.
It doesn’t refer to one particular moment; it describes every time that situation occurs.
Yes, you can:
- Paul est discret lorsqu’il parle de son passé.
lorsque is a bit more formal or literary than quand, but the meaning is essentially the same in this sentence. In everyday speech, quand is more common.
In French:
- parler de quelque chose = to talk about something
- parler à quelqu’un = to talk to someone
So you must use de when it means “about”:
- correct: il parle de son passé = he talks about his past
- incorrect: il parle son passé (ungrammatical in this meaning)
Other examples:
- Nous parlons de notre travail. = We talk about our work.
- Je parle de toi. = I’m talking about you.
- son passé = his past, his personal story, what happened in his life.
- le passé = the past in general (a historical period or the abstract idea of “the past”).
Compare:
Paul est discret quand il parle de son passé.
→ He’s discreet when talking about his own life history.Paul est discret quand il parle du passé.
→ He’s discreet when talking about the past in general (history, past times, etc.).
In your sentence, it’s clearly his personal past.
The choice of son / sa / ses depends on the grammatical gender and number of the noun, not on meaning.
- passé (as a noun) is masculine singular: le passé.
- For masculine singular nouns, you use son.
So:
- son passé (his/her past)
- sa vie (his/her life; vie is feminine)
- ses souvenirs (his/her memories; souvenirs is plural)
“Abstract” vs “concrete” doesn’t matter for the possessive.
Here, passé is a noun:
- le passé = the past
- son passé = his/her past
But passé can also be:
- the past participle of passer (to pass/go by):
- Il est passé hier. = He passed by yesterday.
- Le temps est passé vite. = Time passed quickly.
Context tells you which it is. In parler de son passé, it’s clearly a noun.
You could, but it changes the nuance slightly:
- discret: doesn’t reveal much, keeps things to himself, doesn’t draw attention.
- réservé: reserved, not very outgoing in general, maybe a bit distant in social situations.
Paul est réservé quand il parle de son passé would suggest he seems a bit distant or not very open when talking about his past.
Paul est discret emphasizes more that he controls what he says and avoids details.
Both are possible, but they’re used differently:
quand il parle de son passé
→ Explicit: when he talks about his past (past is mentioned directly).quand il en parle
→ en replaces de son passé or de ça that’s already known from context:
→ when he talks about it (i.e. his past, which we already mentioned).
You’d typically introduce son passé first, then use en to avoid repetition:
- Paul est discret quand il parle de son passé. Il n’en parle presque jamais.
→ He is discreet when he talks about his past. He almost never talks about it.
No, there is no liaison here:
- Paul est discret is pronounced roughly: /pɔl ɛ dis.kʁɛ/
The final -t in est is silent, and you don’t link it to discret.
So you do not say /pɔl ɛt dis.kʁɛ/ — that would be incorrect in standard French.