Il aime les outils numériques, mais il sait qu'ils peuvent aussi créer du stress.

He likes digital tools, but he knows they can also create stress.

Breakdown of Il aime les outils numériques, mais il sait qu'ils peuvent aussi créer du stress.

• il: he
• aussi: also
• aimer: to like
• du: some
• mais: but
• pouvoir: to be able to
• savoir: to know
• le stress: the stress
• qu'ils: that they
• créer: to create
• l'outil: the tool
• numérique: digital

Questions & Answers about Il aime les outils numériques, mais il sait qu'ils peuvent aussi créer du stress.

What exactly does outils numériques mean? Is it just “digital tools”?

Literally, outils numériques means “digital tools” or “digital devices/tools”.

• outil = tool
• numérique = digital (anything related to numbers / computer technology)

In context, les outils numériques usually refers broadly to things like:

• smartphones
• computers
• tablets
• apps, online platforms, software

So it’s more like “digital technologies / digital tools” in general, not just physical tools like hammers.

Why do we say les outils numériques and not des outils numériques?

Les is the definite plural article (“the”), and here it’s used in a general, generic sense:

• Il aime les outils numériques.
  → He likes digital tools (in general).

In French, when you talk about a category in general, you often use le / la / les:

• Les chats sont intelligents. = Cats are intelligent (cats in general).
• J’aime le café. = I like coffee (as a thing, in general).

If you said:

• Il aime des outils numériques.

…it would sound like:

• “He likes some digital tools” (certain ones, not in general), which is not what’s meant here.

Why is numériques plural? Shouldn’t numérique stay the same?

In French, adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

• Noun: outils → masculine plural
• Adjective: numérique → must match: numériques

So:

• un outil numérique = a digital tool (singular)
• des outils numériques = digital tools (plural)
• les outils numériques = the digital tools / digital tools in general

The final -s in numériques is written but not pronounced; you still say [ny.me.ʁik].

Why do we have il at the start and ils later? What do they refer to?

There are two different pronouns here:

• First il:
  Il aime les outils numériques…
  → il = he (some man we’re talking about)

• Second ils inside qu’ils:
  …mais il sait qu’ils peuvent aussi créer du stress.
  → ils = they, referring to les outils numériques.

So:

• il (singular) = the person
• ils (plural) = the tools

French repeats the noun’s gender and number in the pronoun:

• les outils numériques (masc. plural) → ils

What’s going on with qu’ils? Why do we use qu’ instead of que?

Que becomes qu’ in front of a word beginning with a vowel sound. This is called elision, and it’s done to make pronunciation smoother.

• Full form: que ils
• Spoken, this is awkward; so French elides: qu’ils

General rule:

• que + vowel sound → qu’ + word
  • que elle → qu’elle
  • que on → qu’on
  • que ils → qu’ils

Meaning-wise, qu’ils here is just “that they”:

• il sait qu’ils peuvent… = he knows that they can…

Why is it il sait que and not il connaît que?

In French, savoir and connaître are different:

• savoir is used with:

  • facts
  • that-clauses (savoir que…)
  • infinitives (savoir faire quelque chose)

• connaître is used with:

  • people
  • places
  • works of art
  • things you are familiar with

So:

• Il sait qu’ils peuvent créer du stress.
  = He knows (the fact that) they can create stress. ✅

• Il connaît qu’ils peuvent créer du stress. ❌
  This is ungrammatical.

Correct uses of connaître:

• Il connaît bien ces outils. = He knows/is familiar with those tools.
• Je connais Paris. = I know Paris (I’m familiar with it).

Why is the verb peuvent here, and what is its infinitive form?

Peuvent is the 3rd person plural present tense of the verb pouvoir (“can”, “to be able to”).

• Infinitive: pouvoir
• 3rd person plural: ils peuvent

It matches the subject:

• Subject: ils (they – the tools)
• Verb: peuvent (they can)

So:

• Ils peuvent aussi créer du stress.
  = They can also create stress.

Other forms for comparison:

• il peut = he can / it can
• nous pouvons = we can
• vous pouvez = you can

Why is aussi placed before créer (in peuvent aussi créer)? Can it go somewhere else?

In Ils peuvent aussi créer du stress, aussi is placed after the conjugated verb peuvent and before the infinitive créer.

This is a very common position:

• auxiliary/conjugated verb + aussi
  • infinitive
    • Ils peuvent aussi venir.
    • Elle veut aussi apprendre.

You can move aussi a bit, but the nuance changes:

• Ils peuvent aussi créer du stress.
  → They can also create stress (this is one more effect they have).

• Ils peuvent créer du stress aussi.
  → Similar meaning, but aussi at the end often sounds more spoken/emphatic.

• Il sait aussi qu’ils peuvent créer du stress.
  → Now aussi modifies sait:
  “He also knows that they can create stress” (in addition to knowing something else).

So position of aussi can slightly change what exactly is “also”.

Why use créer here? Could we say causer du stress or something else?

Créer du stress is very natural French:

• créer = to create / generate
• créer du stress = to create stress, to generate stress

You could also say:

• causer du stress = to cause stress (a bit more neutral/technical)
• provoquer du stress = to provoke stress / bring about stress

All of these are grammatically correct. Créer du stress is slightly more idiomatic in everyday speech, especially when talking about side effects of technology, work, etc.

Why is it du stress and not de stress or le stress?

Du here is the partitive article, formed from de + le:

• du stress ≈ some stress / (an amount of) stress

We use the partitive article when talking about an undefined quantity of a non-count noun:

• boire du café = to drink (some) coffee
• avoir du temps = to have (some) time
• créer du stress = to create (some) stress

Other possibilities:

• le stress → “the stress” (when you’re speaking about it in a general/abstract way)
  • Le stress est un problème moderne. = Stress is a modern problem.
• de stress → usually appears after a negation:
  • Ils ne créent pas de stress. = They don’t create any stress.

So in the original sentence, du stress is exactly what we want: they can create some amount of stress.

Is stress in French masculine or feminine, and is it common?

In French, stress is masculine:

• le stress
• du stress
• ce stress

It’s a very common, widely used loanword from English, especially in modern contexts (work, studies, technology).

Common related expressions:

• être stressé / stressée = to be stressed (masc./fem.)
• ça me stresse = that stresses me out
• gérer son stress = to manage one’s stress

So créer du stress is perfectly natural modern French.

Is this sentence formal or informal? Could you say it in everyday conversation?

The sentence:

Il aime les outils numériques, mais il sait qu’ils peuvent aussi créer du stress.

is in neutral, standard French. It works:

• in written language (articles, essays, reports)
• and in spoken language (normal, everyday conversation)

In very casual speech, you might hear something like:

• Il adore tout ce qui est numérique, mais il sait que ça peut aussi le stresser.
  (He loves everything digital, but he knows it can also stress him out.)

But the original sentence is perfectly natural and not overly formal.