Breakdown of Pendant le cours suivant, ils analysent un poème où l’auteure parle de la peur et de l’espoir.
Questions & Answers about Pendant le cours suivant, ils analysent un poème où l’auteure parle de la peur et de l’espoir.
Pendant introduces a time period during which something happens. Here it means “during the next class.”
- pendant = during
- Neutral, very common in spoken and written French.
- durant = during
- Slightly more formal or literary, but often interchangeable with pendant.
- lors du cours suivant = during / at the time of the next class
- More formal; lors de is often used in written, official, or formal contexts.
All three are grammatically correct here:
- Pendant le cours suivant, ils analysent… (neutral)
- Durant le cours suivant, ils analysent… (a bit more formal/literary)
- Lors du cours suivant, ils analysent… (formal, written style)
The choice is mainly about style and register, not grammar.
Both can translate as “the next class,” but there is a nuance:
le cours suivant
- Literally “the following class.”
- Often refers to the immediately following class in a sequence that’s already clear from context.
- Common in narratives or descriptions of a series of lessons.
le prochain cours
- Literally “the next class (from now).”
- Often understood as the next one in time from the speaker’s present moment.
- Very common when you’re talking about your own schedule:
- Au prochain cours, on fera un test. = In the next class (that’s coming up), we’ll have a test.
In many contexts they overlap, but:
- In a story that’s already talking about a series of classes, le cours suivant (the following one in that sequence) is very natural.
- When speaking from your current point in time, le prochain cours is more usual.
French simple present (ils analysent) usually covers both:
- English simple present: “they analyze”
- English present continuous: “they are analyzing”
So ils analysent can naturally be understood as “they are analyzing” in context.
Ils sont en train d’analyser is possible but:
- It strongly emphasizes that the action is in progress right now, like “they are in the middle of analyzing”.
- It’s used when you really want to highlight the ongoing nature of the action at this very moment.
In a neutral descriptive sentence like this, ils analysent is the normal, more natural choice.
No, the -ent ending in ils analysent is silent.
Pronunciation:
- analysent (ils analysent) → /a.na.liz/
- It sounds exactly like j’analyse (/ʒa.na.liz/) or nous analysons minus the -ons.
So:
- ils analysent = [a-na-leez] (roughly)
- Do not pronounce the final t or the -ent ending.
Both relate to poetry but they’re not used the same way:
un poème (masculine)
- A single poem, a specific text.
- Countable: un poème, deux poèmes, plusieurs poèmes.
- Example: J’ai écrit un poème. = I wrote a poem.
la poésie (feminine)
- Poetry as a genre, art form, or style.
- Usually uncountable: j’aime la poésie (I like poetry).
- Can also mean poetic quality:
- Il y a beaucoup de poésie dans ce film. = There’s a lot of poetry/poetic feeling in this film.
In your sentence they are working on one specific text, so un poème is the correct word.
Normally, où introduces a clause of place or time:
- la ville où il habite = the city where he lives
- le jour où je suis parti = the day when I left
But où can also be used more loosely with nouns like situation, cas, moment, époque, étape, and sometimes with more abstract things.
In strict, formal grammar, for a non-place noun like un poème, the more “correct” form would be:
- un poème dans lequel l’auteure parle de… = a poem in which the author speaks of…
In everyday language, though, many speakers say:
- un poème où l’auteure parle de la peur et de l’espoir
This is widely used in spoken and even written French, though dans lequel is more grammatically precise.
So you could say:
- un poème où l’auteure parle… (very natural in everyday usage)
- un poème dans lequel l’auteure parle… (more formal/precise)
Yes. l’auteure is a feminine form of l’auteur.
- un auteur = a (male or generic) author
- une auteure or une autrice = a female author
Modern French is moving toward clearer feminine forms for professions and roles. You’ll see three main options in use:
- une auteure
- une autrice
- une auteur (still masculine form, but with une)
All three appear in real usage; preference depends on country, institution, and speaker:
- In Canada and some feminist or progressive contexts, auteure is common.
- In France, autrice has become more and more accepted.
- Some people still use une auteur, but this is gradually declining in favor of explicit feminine forms.
In your sentence, l’auteure makes it clear that the poet is female.
The apostrophe is the usual elision of the article before a vowel sound:
- le auteur → l’auteur
- la auteure → l’auteure
- le espoir → l’espoir
Rules:
- le and la become l’ before a vowel or mute h:
- le enfant → l’enfant
- la amie → l’amie
- This avoids having two vowel sounds clash.
In your sentence:
- l’auteure stands for la auteure, but written as l’auteure.
- l’espoir stands for le espoir, written as l’espoir.
The pronunciation becomes smoother: [lo-tœʁ], [lɛ-spwar], rather than a clumsy syllable break after le/la.
In French, when you mean “to talk about something” conceptually, the usual structure is:
- parler de + noun
Examples:
- Elle parle de son enfance. = She talks about her childhood.
- Nous parlons de politique. = We talk about politics.
So:
- parler de la peur et de l’espoir = to talk about fear and hope.
Parler sur is not used the same way:
- parler sur quelqu’un often means to speak badly about someone, gossip about them.
- You might see un livre sur la peur (a book about fear), but with parler, the natural preposition is de.
So parler de la peur et de l’espoir is the standard, correct pattern.
French uses articles much more than English, even with abstract nouns.
Here the definite articles la and l’ are used in a general, abstract sense:
- la peur = fear (as a general concept)
- l’espoir = hope (as a general concept)
So de la peur et de l’espoir = “about fear and hope” in general.
If you dropped the articles and said just de peur et d’espoir, it would sound odd here, and could imply something closer to:
- “of fear and hope” as indeterminate quantities, or as some sort of list of qualities, which doesn’t fit as well with parler de.
Using the definite article with abstract nouns is very common:
- La liberté est importante. = Freedom is important.
- L’amour est compliqué. = Love is complicated.
Yes, you can say:
- Ils analysent un poème pendant le cours suivant.
Both orders are grammatically correct:
Pendant le cours suivant, ils analysent un poème…
- Fronting the time phrase puts a bit more emphasis on the time frame: as for the next class, they analyze a poem…
- Very common in written French, especially in narratives.
Ils analysent un poème pendant le cours suivant.
- More neutral word order: subject–verb–object–time expression.
- Common in both speech and writing.
The basic meaning is the same; the difference is mostly about rhythm and emphasis.
- ils = “they” (masculine or mixed group)
- elles = “they” (all-female group)
- on = “one / people / we” (very common in spoken French as “we”)
In your sentence:
- ils analysent un poème… = “they analyze a poem…”
- It implies a specific group of people already known in the context (students, for example).
Possible variations:
- If you know it’s a group of women only:
- Pendant le cours suivant, elles analysent un poème…
- If you’re speaking more generally about what “we” (e.g., the class) do:
- Pendant le cours suivant, on analyse un poème…
- In spoken French, this often means “we analyze a poem…”
- In very formal written French, nous analysons would be preferred instead of on analyse.
- Pendant le cours suivant, on analyse un poème…
The choice depends on who you are talking about and the level of formality, not on grammar alone.