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Subjunctif et il n'existe aucun
Hi I am reading my french grammar text. The subjunctive is needed with this phrase! Helas!
The example:
Or, il n'existe aucun jeu qui puisse se passer de valet de coeur. Nous n'avons donc pas pu jouer aux cartes!
Well, there isn't any game which can be played without the jack of heats. We didn't then play cards!
Any thoughts about this? Just another tricky rule?? And they say English is hard to learn!
Why is donc placed in the middle of the negated verb?
Pam
The example:
Or, il n'existe aucun jeu qui puisse se passer de valet de coeur. Nous n'avons donc pas pu jouer aux cartes!
Well, there isn't any game which can be played without the jack of heats. We didn't then play cards!
Any thoughts about this? Just another tricky rule?? And they say English is hard to learn!
Why is donc placed in the middle of the negated verb?
Pam
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Frank on
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Hi Pam,
Yes, this is yet another case that always requires that infamous subjunctive.
Il n'y a aucun ... qui ... + subj
Il n'existe aucun ... qui ... + subj
Il n'y a aucun amour qui soit éternel.
Il n'existe aucun soda qui ne fasse pas grossir
"donc" can almost always be put just after the verb. It's just a variant. It's 100% equivalent to donc nous n'avons pas pu jouer au cartes. "donc" after the verb just sounds more as if you were telling a story than if you were having a conversation.
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Permalink Reply by Pamela Kingfisher on
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Merci Frank!! I am submersed in grammar today, no chasse aux champignons, tant pis!
Pam
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Another way to use "donc" is after an imperative verb:
Prends donc un verre !
Allons donc jouer au basket !
Range donc ta chambre !
It doesn't change the meaning of the sentence at all. It just acts as a filler, in order to make the sentence longer. Saying "Prends un verre" is a very short sentence, and as it is an imperative one, it could sound a bit aggressive. Adding the "donc" makes the sentence a bit longer and less aggressive.
With reflexive verbs, the "donc" is placed after the reflexive pronoun:
Tais-toi donc !
Lave-toi donc les mains !
Promenons-nous donc au parc !
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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on
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It's actually a very common pattern. To quote from the page on when to use the subjunctive, "negative markers such as rien, pas, peu in a main clause usually trigger a subjunctive in the subordinate clause"; see the section for more examples of the subjunctive with negative markers. Technically, these elements that trigger the subjunctive are sometimes said to have "negative polarity".
As far as the second question is concerned, there are a few adverbs that tend to go in the position that donc is in in this case, especially when they are seen as applying "to the sentence as a whole": la crise n'est probablement pas terminée, ce n'est généralement pas très critique. One way of looking at these is to consider that probablement pas, généralement pas form a unit.
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Thank you Frank!
Thank you Neil!
I am about to embark upon my first term paper in French in over 25 years. This site and its members have been an enormous help to me. I cannot thank you guys enough; firstly to you Neil for developing the site and last but not least to Frank; who answers so many questions so patiently! Bises!! Pam
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