Breakdown of Paul passe l’aspirateur le samedi matin pendant que Marie prépare le café.
Questions & Answers about Paul passe l’aspirateur le samedi matin pendant que Marie prépare le café.
French normally expresses to vacuum with the fixed expression passer l’aspirateur (literally to pass the vacuum cleaner).
- passer l’aspirateur = to vacuum / to hoover
- There is a verb aspirer, but in everyday speech people very rarely say aspirer le sol for this meaning; it sounds technical or unusual.
- This structure (verb + definite article + noun) is common for household chores:
- faire la vaisselle – to do the washing‑up
- faire le ménage – to do the housework
- sortir la poubelle – to take the bin out
So passer l’aspirateur is simply the idiomatic way to say to vacuum in French.
The definite article le / l’ is used here because the object is seen as a specific, known tool, not just a vacuum cleaner in general.
- Paul passe l’aspirateur
→ We understand the vacuum cleaner that is in the house, the usual one. - un aspirateur would emphasize a vacuum cleaner, as if introducing it for the first time or contrasting it with another:
- Paul a acheté un aspirateur – Paul bought a vacuum cleaner.
With routine actions involving tools, body parts, clothes, etc., French typically uses the definite article:
- se brosser les dents – to brush (one’s) teeth
- se laver les mains – to wash (one’s) hands
- allumer la télé – to turn on the TV
So l’aspirateur is the normal choice in this household‑chore expression.
The presence or absence of le changes the meaning slightly:
- le samedi matin = on Saturday mornings (in general), a habitual action, a routine.
- samedi matin (without le) usually refers to this/that Saturday morning or on Saturday morning in a more specific or one‑off sense, often understood from context.
In your sentence, this is talking about a regular routine, so le samedi matin is the natural choice.
In this context, le samedi matin normally means every Saturday morning, a repeated habit.
- Le samedi matin, Paul passe l’aspirateur.
→ As a rule, on Saturday mornings, that is what he does.
If the speaker wanted to insist very clearly on every single Saturday, they could also say:
- Tous les samedis matins, Paul passe l’aspirateur.
But in everyday French, le samedi matin is enough to express a habitual action.
All days of the week in French are masculine:
- le lundi, le mardi, le mercredi, le jeudi, le vendredi, le samedi, le dimanche
So it must be le samedi matin, never la samedi matin.
pendant que focuses on two actions happening at the same time (while):
- Paul passe l’aspirateur pendant que Marie prépare le café.
→ He is vacuuming while she is making coffee.
quand means when, which can be:
- a simple time reference (when she prepares coffee)
- or sometimes overlapping actions, but it is more neutral.
Here, pendant que is better because it highlights simultaneity: both actions are in progress at the same time.
You could say quand in some contexts, but pendant que sounds more precise and natural with two ongoing actions.
French uses the simple present for:
- habits and routines
- general truths
- current actions (with context)
So:
- Paul passe l’aspirateur le samedi matin
→ Paul vacuums on Saturday mornings (habit). - Marie prépare le café
→ Marie prepares / is preparing the coffee, depending on context.
French does not have a separate tense like English does / is doing to distinguish habit vs. right now. The simple present covers both; you rely on context (here le samedi matin) to understand it as a habit.
Both are possible, but they are slightly different:
- préparer le café
- neutral and common
- emphasizes the preparation process (measuring coffee, putting on the machine, etc.)
- faire du café
- very common in speech too
- literally to make some coffee
- uses du (de + le), which highlights an unspecified quantity.
In your sentence, Marie prépare le café sounds like she is preparing the coffee that they are going to drink (the expected coffee).
You could also say Marie fait le café or Marie fait du café; all are understandable, with small nuances of style and focus.
Each verb agrees with its own subject:
First clause: Paul passe l’aspirateur
- subject: Paul (singular)
- verb: passe (3rd person singular)
Second clause: Marie prépare le café
- subject: Marie (singular)
- verb: prépare (3rd person singular)
Even though the sentence is long, there is no shared subject for both verbs. The conjunction pendant que begins a new clause with its own subject (Marie) and its own verb (prépare).
Yes. Time expressions in French are quite flexible. All of these are possible:
- Le samedi matin, Paul passe l’aspirateur pendant que Marie prépare le café.
- Paul, le samedi matin, passe l’aspirateur pendant que Marie prépare le café.
- Paul passe l’aspirateur le samedi matin pendant que Marie prépare le café. (the original)
- Paul passe l’aspirateur pendant que Marie prépare le café le samedi matin.
The most natural choices are usually:
- at the beginning: Le samedi matin, Paul…
- or after the main verb/group: Paul passe l’aspirateur le samedi matin…
Putting it at the very end is possible but can sound a bit heavier, especially in speech.
- le matin refers to the part of the day as a time block (morning as a point in the schedule).
- la matinée refers more to the duration or the course of the morning, often with a sense of it stretching in time.
In routine expressions with days:
- samedi matin / le samedi matin is the normal way to say on Saturday morning as a time slot in the week.
You would use matinée for things like:
- J’ai travaillé toute la matinée. – I worked the whole morning.
- La matinée a été longue. – The morning felt long.
So samedi matin is the standard choice in your sentence.
The apostrophe shows elision: le becomes l’ in front of a word that begins with a vowel sound.
- underlying form: le aspirateur
- becomes: l’aspirateur
This avoids a clash of vowel sounds and makes pronunciation smoother.
You pronounce it as one flow: las-pi-ra-teur (roughly la-spee-ra-teur), with no audible e between l’ and aspirateur.
This happens with le and la:
- le arbre → l’arbre
- la école → l’école
Yes, that is perfectly correct and very natural:
- Pendant que Marie prépare le café, Paul passe l’aspirateur.
When the pendant que clause comes first, you normally put a comma after it.
The meaning remains the same: two actions happening at the same time.
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.
- Marie prépare le café.
- She is making the coffee (for everyone, or the expected coffee).
- Marie se prépare un café.
- She is making herself a coffee (for her own consumption).
- The reflexive se shows that the action benefits her, and un café is a (one) coffee.
So se préparer un café focuses on fixing oneself a coffee, usually just for oneself, while préparer le café sounds like preparing the shared coffee.
Yes:
- pendant que
- neutral, emphasizes at the same time.
- alors que / tandis que
- can also mean while, but often add a nuance of contrast or opposition:
- Paul passe l’aspirateur alors que Marie ne fait rien.
→ Paul is vacuuming whereas Marie is doing nothing.
- Paul passe l’aspirateur alors que Marie ne fait rien.
- can also mean while, but often add a nuance of contrast or opposition:
In your neutral description of who is doing which chore, pendant que is the most straightforward and unmarked option.