Nous irons à la boucherie à condition qu’elle soit encore ouverte et qu’il y ait du jambon frais.

Nous irons is the future simple of aller, so it means we will go.

That tense fits well here because the trip to the butcher’s is something that will happen later, and only if certain conditions are met.

You could sometimes hear present tense in spoken French for a near future idea, but nous irons is the clear, standard way to say we will go.

• nous allons = we are going / we go
• nous irons = we will go

So in this sentence, nous irons is the natural choice.

La boucherie literally means the butcher shop or the butcher’s shop.

So:

• à = to
• la boucherie = the butcher shop

Together, à la boucherie means to the butcher’s / to the butcher shop.

English often says to the butcher’s, where shop is understood. French usually says à la boucherie.

À condition que means provided that, on condition that, or as long as in a fairly explicit way.

It is stronger and more formal than just si.

• si = if
• à condition que = provided that / on condition that

So this sentence is not just saying a general if. It is saying:

We will go, but only provided that the shop is still open and that there is fresh ham.

Also, à condition que is important grammatically because it normally requires the subjunctive after it.

Because à condition que is followed by the subjunctive.

So after à condition que, French uses:

• qu’elle soit = that it be / that it is not
• qu’elle est

Here, soit is the present subjunctive form of être.

This happens because the speaker is talking about something uncertain or dependent on a condition. The butcher shop may or may not still be open, so French uses the subjunctive.

Soit is the third-person singular present subjunctive of être.

The subjunctive forms of être are:

• que je sois
• que tu sois
• qu’il / elle / on soit
• que nous soyons
• que vous soyez
• qu’ils / elles soient

In this sentence, elle refers to la boucherie, which is singular, so the correct form is soit.

Because la boucherie is a feminine singular noun.

In French, pronouns must agree with the noun they replace:

• la boucherie → feminine singular
• so the pronoun is elle

So qu’elle soit encore ouverte means that it is still open, where English uses it, but French uses elle because the noun is feminine.

Because ouverte is an adjective agreeing with la boucherie, which is feminine singular.

Agreement works like this:

• masculine singular: ouvert
• feminine singular: ouverte
• masculine plural: ouverts
• feminine plural: ouvertes

Since boucherie is feminine singular, French uses ouverte.

So:

• la boucherie est ouverte
• qu’elle soit ouverte

Both use the feminine form.

Encore here means still.

So:

• ouverte = open
• encore ouverte = still open

French commonly places encore before the adjective in this kind of structure:

• elle est encore ouverte = it is still open
• qu’elle soit encore ouverte = that it still be open

So the meaning is that the shop has not closed yet.

Because French repeats the conjunction before the second coordinated clause.

The structure is:

• à condition qu’elle soit encore ouverte
• et qu’il y ait du jambon frais

In English, we might say provided that it is still open and that there is fresh ham, and French does the same kind of thing by repeating que.

Without the second qu’, the sentence would sound wrong.

It is the subjunctive version of il y a.

• il y a = there is / there are
• qu’il y ait = that there be / that there is, in a subjunctive context

This happens because the same trigger, à condition que, is still affecting this second clause.

So:

• normal statement: Il y a du jambon frais. = There is some fresh ham.
• after à condition que: qu’il y ait du jambon frais = provided that there is some fresh ham

The word y is just part of the fixed expression il y a and its related forms. You usually learn it as one whole unit meaning there is / there are.

Because du is the partitive article, used for an unspecified quantity of something.

Here it means some ham.

• du jambon = some ham
• le jambon = the ham, ham in general, or a specific ham
• jambon by itself would usually not work here

The sentence is not talking about all ham in general, and not about one specific identified ham. It simply means the shop should have some fresh ham available.

Also, du is a contraction of de + le, but in this case it functions as the partitive article.

Because many French descriptive adjectives normally come after the noun.

So:

• du jambon frais = some fresh ham

That is the normal order here.

French adjective placement is not the same as English. English puts most adjectives before the noun, but French often puts them after. A few common adjectives often come before the noun, but frais in this meaning normally comes after.

No. Here elle does not mean she in the sense of a female person. It refers back to la boucherie.

So although elle can mean she, it can also mean it when the noun being replaced is feminine.

In this sentence:

• la boucherie → elle

So qu’elle soit encore ouverte means that it is still open, not that she is still open.