Quand le film commence, on s’assoit sur le canapé.

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Breakdown of Quand le film commence, on s’assoit sur le canapé.

• quand: when
• on: we
• le canapé: the couch

Questions & Answers about Quand le film commence, on s’assoit sur le canapé.

What does quand mean here, and does it change the word order?

Quand means when.

In this sentence, it introduces a time clause:

• Quand le film commence = When the movie starts
• on s’assoit sur le canapé = we sit down on the couch

Unlike English, French usually keeps a normal subject-verb order after quand:

• Quand le film commence...
• literally: When the movie starts...

So you do not need to invert anything here.

Why is commence in the present tense instead of the future?

This is a very common question.

In Quand le film commence, on s’assoit sur le canapé, the present tense suggests a habitual or general action:

• Whenever the movie starts, we sit down on the couch.
• When the movie starts, we sit down on the couch (as a routine)

So this sentence sounds like something that regularly happens.

If you were talking about one specific future movie, French would usually use the future in both parts:

• Quand le film commencera, on s’assiéra sur le canapé.

That is an important difference from English, which often uses the present after when for future meaning.

What does mean here?