Quand l’eau bout, j’enlève le couvercle et je verse les pâtes dans la passoire.

When the water boils, I remove the lid and pour the pasta into the colander.

Breakdown of Quand l’eau bout, j’enlève le couvercle et je verse les pâtes dans la passoire.

• je: I
• l'eau: the water
• et: and
• quand: when

Questions & Answers about Quand l’eau bout, j’enlève le couvercle et je verse les pâtes dans la passoire.

Why is it l’eau and not la eau?

Because French normally shortens le or la to l’ before a vowel sound. This is called elision.

So:

• la eau → l’eau

You see the same thing in:

• l’homme
• l’école
• l’huile

Why is it bout? What verb is that?

Bout is the il/elle/on form of the verb bouillir, which means to boil.

Here, the subject is l’eau, which is singular, so French uses the singular verb form:

• l’eau bout = the water boils / is boiling

A quick present-tense pattern for bouillir:

• je bous
• tu bous
• il/elle bout
• nous bouillons
• vous bouillez
• ils/elles bouillent

So bout may look unusual, but it is the correct form.

Why is the sentence in the present tense instead of something like will boil or is boiling?