Learn Hardcore French: Pendant la visioconférence, Marie ferme la fenêtre pour que le bruit de la rue ne dérange personne. - During the videoconference, Marie closes the window so that the noise from the street doesn't bother anyone.

It can describe:
- an action happening right now:
  - Marie ferme la fenêtre. ≈ “Marie is closing the window.”
- a habitual action:
  - Pendant les visioconférences, Marie ferme la fenêtre. ≈ “During video calls, Marie closes the window.”

In your sentence, ferme can mean either:

a regular habit during videoconferences, or
what she’s doing now, depending on the wider context.

French does not need a separate “-ing” form; the plain present covers that meaning.

Why is it pendant la visioconférence and not something like durant or lors de?

All three are possible, but they differ in style and nuance:

pendant la visioconférence
- Most neutral, everyday choice.
- Focuses on the time span: “during the videoconference.”
durant la visioconférence
- Very close in meaning to pendant.
- Slightly more formal or written, but still common.
lors de la visioconférence
- More formal and “written” style.
- Feels a bit like “at the time of / on the occasion of the videoconference.”

So pendant is simply the most natural, neutral preposition here.

What exactly does visioconférence mean, and is it masculine or feminine?

visioconférence is feminine: une visioconférence, la visioconférence.
It refers to a meeting held via video (Zoom, Teams, etc.), roughly like “video conference” or sometimes “video call,” depending on context.

Close alternatives:

une réunion en visioconférence – a meeting held by videoconference.
un appel vidéo – more like “a video call” (often one-to-one).

In your sentence, visioconférence suggests a somewhat organized online meeting, not just a casual video chat.

Why is it la fenêtre and not sa fenêtre (“her window”)?

French often uses the definite article (le / la / les) instead of a possessive (son / sa / ses) when it’s obvious whose thing it is from the context.

Typical cases:

Body parts:
- Marie ferme les yeux. = “Marie closes her eyes.”
Items that clearly belong to the subject or are uniquely identified in the situation:
- Elle ouvre la porte. = “She opens the door.” (the relevant door)
- Marie ferme la fenêtre. = “Marie closes the window.” (the one in the room / where she is)

Since Marie is the one closing it and there is an obvious window in the room, la fenêtre is natural. Sa fenêtre is not wrong, but would often feel unnecessarily specific.

Why is it pour que and not just pour?

In French:

Use pour + infinitive when the subject is the same in both parts:
- Marie ferme la fenêtre pour ne déranger personne.
  (“Marie closes the window in order not to disturb anyone.” – Marie is both the one closing and the one possibly disturbing.)
Use pour que + subjunctive when the subject of the second verb is different:
- Marie ferme la fenêtre pour que le bruit de la rue ne dérange personne.
  Subject 1: Marie (ferme)
  Subject 2: le bruit de la rue (ne dérange)

Here the thing that might disturb people is the street noise, not Marie herself, so French prefers pour que + subjunctive.

Is ne dérange here subjunctive or indicative? How can you tell?

Grammatically, it is subjunctive, because pour que almost always requires the subjunctive.

Formally:

Indicative: (il) dérange
Subjunctive: (qu’il) dérange

They happen to look identical for this person (third-person singular), so you can’t see the difference in the form. You identify it by the trigger:

pour que → always followed by subjunctive when it expresses purpose.

So ne dérange here is subjunctive, even though it looks like the normal present.

Why isn’t there a pas in ne dérange personne?

In French, negation is not always ne … pas. There are several patterns:

ne … pas – not
ne … jamais – never
ne … plus – no longer
ne … personne – nobody / no one
ne … rien – nothing

In your sentence:

ne … personne is the complete negation:
… pour que le bruit de la rue ne dérange personne.
= “so that the street noise does not disturb anyone / disturbs no one.”

If you added pas, it would be incorrect:
✗ ne dérange pas personne – wrong in standard French.

What’s the difference between personne and quelqu’un in this context?

personne (with ne) = “nobody, no one”
- ne dérange personne = “does not disturb anyone / disturbs no one”
quelqu’un (with ne … pas) = “someone, anyone” in a negative sentence:
- ne dérange pas quelqu’un is grammatically possible but strange here; it would mean “doesn’t disturb someone (in particular),” which isn’t what we want.

To express “so that the noise doesn’t bother anyone at all,” French idiomatically uses:

pour que le bruit de la rue ne dérange personne.

Why is it le bruit de la rue and not le bruit dans la rue or something else?

Both are possible, but they don’t focus on exactly the same thing:

le bruit de la rue
- Literally “the noise of the street” = the noise coming from the street.
- Emphasizes the source of the noise, which is what matters here (outside noise entering the room).
le bruit dans la rue
- Literally “the noise in the street.”
- Describes noise located in the street, not necessarily reaching the conference room.

Since Marie is closing the window to block outside noise coming in, le bruit de la rue is more natural.

Could we say pendant que nous sommes en visioconférence instead of pendant la visioconférence?

Yes, but the structure changes:

pendant la visioconférence
- pendant
  - noun phrase.
- Short and direct: “during the videoconference.”
pendant que nous sommes en visioconférence
- pendant que
  - full clause.
- “while we are in a videoconference / while we are having a videoconference.”

Both are correct. The original is simply more concise. You’d choose pendant que if you need to mention an explicit subject and verb (e.g. pendant que Marie parle).

Could we rephrase ne dérange personne as pour que personne ne soit dérangé par le bruit de la rue? Is that equivalent?

Yes, that’s a good and natural alternative:

Original:
… pour que le bruit de la rue ne dérange personne.
= so that the street noise does not disturb anyone.
Alternative:
… pour que personne ne soit dérangé par le bruit de la rue.
= so that no one is disturbed by the street noise.

The meaning is almost the same. Differences:

Original focuses on the noise doing the action (the noise disturbs).
Alternative focuses on the people as affected (no one is disturbed).

Both are idiomatic; the original is a bit more direct.

Anything important about pronunciation here, especially with ne and personne?

A few useful points:

In careful or formal speech, you pronounce the ne:
- ne dérange personne → [nə deʁɑ̃ʒ pɛʁsɔn].
In everyday spoken French, the ne is often dropped:
- (pour que) le bruit de la rue dérange personne
  You’ll hear this in conversation, even though it’s not standard in writing.
personne here means “nobody,” not “person.”
- Pronounced [pɛʁsɔn].

So you should write the full ne … personne, but be aware that in casual speech many speakers will omit the ne.