Question about using Pleuvoir

I'm little more than a beginner and am refreshing some stuff from old French lessons.

I listed in my notes that it's correct to say: "Je crois qu'il pleuve aujourd'hui."

I assumed the verb Pleuvoir was in le subjonctif because of following "que."

But then I see another phrase as: "Je crois qu'il va nager."

I'm obviously missing something. Thanks in advance.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on April 13, 2013 at 12:40am

I could be wrong but I think that your notes may actually be wrong and it would have been correct to simply say "Je crois qu'il pleut aujourd'hui" (instead of "Je crois qu'il pleuve aujourd'hui.")

However I also think that it could be corrrect to say "Je ne crois pas qu'il pleuve aujourd'hui" ("Je crois qu'il va pleuvoir aujourd'hui" would also be correct)

All the same I am not all that familiar with the ways that the subjunctive is used in French even if I do have a feeling that the particular sentence you have given does sound wrong to me.

There is a section on this website that deals with the subjunctive that you might find useful.

http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/subjunctive_what_is.shtml

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on April 13, 2013 at 2:24am

As George says, the pattern is basically that the ordinary indicative would be used with croire when positive, and the subjunctive when croire is negative. So:

Je crois qu'il va pleuvoir/qu'il pleuvra.

Je ne crois pas qu'il pleuve.

You could also say: Je crois qu'il ne va pas pleuvoir. English has a feature whereby it's common for the negative to "climb" to the main verb of the sentence ("I don't think...."), but in French it's idiomatic to say it this way round ("I think that not...").

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Permalink Reply by Vedas on April 13, 2013 at 3:37pm

Neil is right verbs like "croire, penser, trouver, être certain..." which denote a certain degree of certitude (modals) are used in the indicative form when positive and can be either in the subjunctive or the indicative form when negative or interrogative.