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Ce que je veux est une belle fille .
What I need is a beautiful girl.
Ce que je veux un nouveau téléphone mobile.
What I need is a new mobile phone.
I am pretty sure my French sentences are accurate.
What I need or rather my requirements are fluctuates. Maybe I need to buy a new car within next 3 months.
So there is no certainty.
In French, when there is no certainty, we tend to write subjunctive form.
My French sentences do not border subjunctive, in my book. What do you think?
Your thoughts are welcome.
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I am not quite sure what you are asking .
Are you asking whether you should use the subjunctive in your 2 sentences ? ( I think not)
I think you might be able to say "Ce que je veux , ce serait/c'est une belle fille"
Also you might say"Ce que je voudrais....."
Thanks George
My French sentences do not border subjunctive.
As some uncertainty fraught with my requirements/needs, people will write a subjunctive sentence.
This is my point.
For example, I am free to say George is the cleverest person who contributes to this forum.
In French, I must write a subjunctive sentence. Because of the subjective nature. My statement do not based on facts. It is my feeling.
George est le plus intelligent personne dans notre forum. (WRONG)
Unfortunately, I am not good at writing a subjunctive sentence to replace the above off the top of my head.
My original sentences have to do with my needs which varies from day to day. I think a native French speaker will write a subjunctive sentence.
If I had money, I would buy a new car/mobile phone. (SUBJUNCTIVE, I BELIEVE.)
"If I had money, I would buy a new car/mobile phone." This would use the conditional tense and not the subjunctive. (j'achèterais une nouvelle voiture"
The subjunctive is not my strong suit. Neil ,whose advice I nearly always follow on this forum has said ,if I remember correctly that is is not the best approach to look for these subjective beliefs but simply to observe and to follow the way the subjunctive is used in sentences (in a mechanical way).
There is nothing uncertain about a statement like "what I need is a beautiful girl". Therefore, no subjunctive. Uncertainty resides in a sentence like "what I might need is a beautiful girl."
Also, I have notice that téléphone mobile might be in use ("mobile telephone" or "mobile" is what is used in Britain and Ireland), the French, in my experience, use téléphone portable.
I would also just add: there's really no rule in the first place that says "uncertainty therefore subjunctive".
The subjunctive is a grammatical feature that encodes various things (essentially, a range of things that are broadly "non-assertions"), and on occasions, part of what they encode can be interested as "uncertainty". But that observation doesn't work in reverse: just because the subjunctive sometimes encodes what can be interpreted as uncertainty doesn't conversely mean that every time you have uncertainty, it MUST be encoded with a subjunctive!
Dear Crack1,
In French (my mother tongue), I would say: "Ce qu'il me faudrait, ça serait une belle fille/un portable".
And ''Ce que je voudrais, ça serait une belle nana//un portable (ou un smartphone)".
Regards, Karim
Thanks everybody
Yes, it should be ' téléphone portable'.
I know the French says 'mon portable'
In English, we say my mobile phone.
It seems the French considers your mobile phone as a masculine object.
I might go to France.
Je pourrais aller en France .
There is a clear uncertainty when you say I might go to France.
We don't write a subjunctive sentence in this case.
This is interesting.
Again, your thoughts are welcome.
( In my case, I am going to France in a couple of weeks. There is no uncertainty. I have already bought the air ticket. I hope
to speak French as much as I can when in France. It is a tall order. Last summer too I spent almost 2 weeks in France.)
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