Breakdown of Si tu veux arriver à l'heure, tu dois marcher plus vite.
tu
you
vouloir
to want
si
if
devoir
must
Questions & Answers about Si tu veux arriver à l'heure, tu dois marcher plus vite.
Why does the sentence start with si?
Si means if.
So Si tu veux arriver à l'heure... means If you want to arrive on time...
In French, si introduces a condition, just like if in English.
- Si tu étudies, tu réussiras. = If you study, you will succeed.
- Si tu veux arriver à l'heure, tu dois marcher plus vite. = If you want to arrive on time, you have to walk faster.
Be careful not to confuse this si with si = yes, which is used to contradict a negative question or statement.
Why is it tu veux arriver and not something like tu veux d'arriver?
After vouloir (to want), French normally uses a direct infinitive with no extra word in between.
So:
- vouloir + infinitive
- tu veux arriver = you want to arrive
This is similar to English want to arrive, except French does not use a separate word like to in front of the infinitive in this structure.
More examples:
- Je veux partir. = I want to leave.
- Nous voulons manger. = We want to eat.
So arriver stays in the infinitive because it depends on veux.